Billionaire Elon Musk’s cost-cutting task force is reportedly disrupting federal agencies, leading to widespread confusion and disorder, in the opening weeks of Donald Trump’s second term.
Over the past few days, Musk’s aides have seized control of the US Treasury Department’s payment systems, threatened to shut down US Agency for International Development (USAID), proposed a “buyout” plan for federal employees, and sidelined career civil servants—at times even locking them out of their offices or computers.
The unelected SpaceX and Tesla chief has faced little accountability while advancing Trump’s agenda to downsize the US government.
Musk's powers have seemed almost unbounded, leading to accusations by Democrats of an unconstitutional power grab by both him and his fellow business mogul Trump. So far Musk has been registered as neither a federal employee nor a government official -- although US media reported Monday that he had now been registered as a "special government employee."
A special government employee is defined as someone working for the government for no more than 130 days in a 365-day span. Musk is not being paid, though he does have office space at the White House, a person familiar with his employment told CNN.
"Elon can't do and won't do anything without our approval. We'll give him the approval where appropriate, where not appropriate we won't. But he reports in," Trump said recently.
Aides to Elon Musk, responsible for running the US government’s human resources agency, reportedly locked career civil servants out of computer systems containing the personal information of millions of federal employees, two agency officials told Reuters.
The two officials, who spoke to Reuters on condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation, said some senior career employees at OPM have had their access revoked to some of the department's data systems.
The systems include a vast database called Enterprise Human Resources Integration, which contains dates of birth, Social Security numbers, appraisals, home addresses, pay grades and length of service of government workers, the officials said.
According to the Associated Press, two senior security officials at USAID were put on administrative leave after they declined to provide Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) access to classified materials.
John Voorhees, USAID’s director of security, and his deputy Brian McGill, blocked Musk’s team from accessing classified materials, citing inadequate security clearance. Nevertheless, DOGE members ultimately obtained access to restricted intelligence reports, according to AP.
(With inputs from agencies)
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