5 ways Elon Musk is working to dismantle the federal government
At a glance
5 ways Elon Musk is working to dismantle the federal government
WASHINGTON − Elon Musk has mounted a blitzkrieg though the federal government three weeks into President Donald Trump's second term, taking over federal infrastructure and feverishly gutting departments in a battle to produce the small government Republicans have long demanded.
It's an arrangement like no other in U.S. history: Trump has empowered Musk, the richest man in the world, to take down the federal bureaucracy from within the White House alongside a group of 20-something lieutenants that make up his so-called Department of Government Efficiency, DOGE.
The billionaire tech entrepreneur has installed loyalists into agencies and reveled in the chaos he's created, using the social media company he owns, X, to update the nation on his latest targets as the DOGE team moves systematically from one department to another.
His efforts have created showdowns in court that could ultimately decide whether Trump has the executive authority to dismantle the federal government in the way Musk envisions.
Meanwhile, Musk has turned into Democrats' top villain, with lawmakers from the minority party attacking him as much as Trump as they frantically try to stop the president's agenda.
Here are 5 ways Musk has started to dismantle the federal government.
The transformation of Elon Musk from tech pioneer to Trump insider
Elon Musk, Tesla, SpaceX and X CEO, contributed over $250 million dollars to supporting President Donald Trump's 2024 election campaign.
Buyout plan for federal employees
Trump, guided by Musk and DOGE, has offered buyouts to all 2.3 million federal employees in a push to drastically cut the federal workforce.
The Trump administration offered all federal workers eight months of pay through September in exchange for their immediate terminations. Those who stay in their jobs have been told they must return to in-person work, embrace new "performance standards" and be "reliable, loyal and trustworthy" in their work, among other new "reforms" across the government.
The initial offer came in an email titled "Fork in the Road," the same subject line Musk used in 2022 when he gave employees of Twitter a similar ultimatum after purchasing the social media company and later changing its name to X.
But federal employees' unions have challenged the legality of the program in court. A federal judge in Massachusetts Monday extended a pause on the buyouts until a ruling is made on the legality of the program. It was unclear when the judge will rule.
Democrats have warned federal workers that Trump can't be trusted to deliver on the eight months of pay, noting that the federal government isn't funded beyond March 14.
The Trump administration has signaled layoffs or furloughs could be in store for federal workers who don't accept the deal. The Office of Personnel Management, which Trump's team has taken over, has asked department heads to provide lists of their lowest performing employees.
About 60,000 federal workers had accepted the offer as of late last week, according to NBC News. That represents about 2.6% of the workforce, below a goal of 5% to 10% the White House has targeted.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk (R) joins former US President and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump during a campaign rally at site of his first assassination attempt in Butler, Pennsylvania on October 5, 2024.
Accessing U.S. Treasury data
Under a day one executive order, Trump turned an obscure federal agency, the United States Digital Service, into DOGE and instructed department heads to give the new agency "full and prompt access to all unclassified agency records, software systems, and IT systems."
The Treasury Department gave Musk’s team access the federal system that pays the nation’s bills, a move that has prompted widespread concern about his access to personal information and the potential to deny payment to people and entities who expect them.
A lawsuit from three labor groups says DOGE was unable to get access to the system until Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent was sworn in, placed a civil servant who had opposed the access on leave, and provided access to Musk and his team.
Bessent wrote in a public letter Feb. 4 that the review of payment systems is being overseen by Tom Krause, a tech executive and Musk ally who was affiliated with the Department of Government Efficiency. Bessent wrote that Kruase is now a Treasury employee.
Bessent wrote that Krause has “read-only” access to the payment system and compared the level of access to what outside auditors receive. Bessent said only career Treasury officials were involved in his review, and it is being done “in accordance with all standard security, safety, and privacy standards.”
A federal judge temporarily blocked Musk and his team from accessing the payment system, as part of a separate lawsuit brought by 19 Democratic states that said one purpose of the access was “to block federal funds from reaching beneficiaries who do not align with the president’s political agenda.”
President-elect Donald Trump greets Tesla CEO and X owner Elon Musk during a rally the day before Trump is scheduled to be inaugurated for a second term, in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 19, 2025.
USAID shuttered
As his first department to target, Musk shuttered the U.S. Agency for International Development, the federal agency that oversees foreign aid. However, a federal judge last Friday halted elements of the shutdown, putting the effort in jeopardy.
Nearly all of the approximately 10,000 USAID employees worldwide last week were placed on administrative leave after the Trump administration announced the closure of USAID's Washington headquarters. Trump has named Secretary of State Marco Rubio the agency's new acting director as USAID merges with the State Department.
Musk and Trump have called USAID "corrupt," singling out foreign aid expenditures they've characterized as wasteful and advancing a leftist agenda. Democrats have argued Trump lacks the authority to eliminate a department that Congress made an independent federal agency in 1998.
The takedown of USAID ‒ which has ceased U.S. humanitarian aid in other nations ‒ could become a template for the Trump administration to try to take down other agencies and departments.
But in a decision last Friday, U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols in Washington issued a "very limited" temporary order pausing the imminent administrative leave of 2,200 agency employees and the relocation of certain humanitarian workers stationed outside the United States.
FILE PHOTO: People hold placards as the USAID building sits closed to employees after a memo was issued advising agency personnel to work remotely, in Washington, D.C., U.S., February 3, 2025. REUTERS/Kent Nishimura/File Photo
'RIP' to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau
Mirroring efforts to shut down USAID, Musk and the Trump administration are now taking aim at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau ‒ an agency long criticized by Republicans.
Over the weekend, Trump's Office of Management and Budget Director Russ Vought ordered staff at the agency to stop all work "effective immediately."
Vought, the CFPB's acting director, also ordered employees not to start or continue investigations, to stop existing investigations, to not approve or issue proposed rules or guidance and not issue any public communications.
The CFPB was created during the Obama administration following the Great Recession to make sure consumers are treated fairly by banks, lenders and other financial institutions.
Rohit Chophra, former CFPB director in the Biden administration, was fired by Trump this month after a tenure in which many in the financial industry accused him of regulatory overreach. Under his watch, the CFPB capped overdraft fees charged by banks, worked to stop businesses from hiding "junk fees" from consumers and led the removal of medical debt from credit reports.
"CFPR RIP," Musk wrote in an X post last Friday around the same time the agency's web site went dark.
"CFPB has $711M?" Musk wrote in another post Monday, referring to the agency's balance. "That money should be returned to taxpayers."
A view of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) headquarters building in Washington, DC, on February 10, 2025.
DEI wipeout and signs of more takeovers
Musk is leading changes at breakneck speed while showing no appetite for slowing down. He regularly defends his projects actions on X and fires back at critics who question him.
After a federal judge blocked Musk’s team from accessing the Treasury’s payment systems, he called the judge “corrupt” and said he should be impeached. When five former leaders of the Treasury Department penned an op-ed saying Musk’s team’s access to the payment system was a threat to democracy, Musk tweeted, “Too bad. Deal with it.”
Musk and his team have taken the lead carrying out Trump's executive order eliminating diversity, equity and inclusion efforts throughout the government.
The social media account for DOGE wrote that by Jan. 29, about $1 billion in contracts related to diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility had been terminated, including at the Department of Education, the Pentagon, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, or NOAA.
DOGE's movements in some departments have raised concerns from Democrats about Musk's intentions.
That includes DOGE aides recently visiting the headquarters of NOAA, an agency best known for weather forecasting that also has regulatory and scientific research functions, according to Sen. Chris Van Hollen, a Democrat from Maryland.
This rankled Democratic members of Congress from Maryland, home of the headquarters of the agency that runs the National Weather Service, the National Hurricane Center, and performs scientific research on climate change.
They sent a letter to leaders at the Department of Commerce, which houses NOAA, criticizing “unvetted and unknown DOGE bureaucrats” and calling on the leaders to reaffirm their “unwavering support” for the agency.
During his first term, Trump proposed reducing the agency’s budget, and last month, he revoked 78 different climate and environment-related actions put in place under former President Joe Biden.
Trump has previewed other departments DOGE plans to blitz through next. In an interview Sunday on Fox News, Trump said he would turn the spotlight “very soon” on the Education Department and the Pentagon.
"We're going to find hundreds of billions of dollars of fraud and abuse," Trump said.
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