In Elon Musk’s first two weeks in authorities, his lieutenants gained entry to intently held monetary and knowledge techniques, casting apart profession officers who warned that they have been defying protocols. They moved swiftly to shutter particular applications — and even a whole company that had come into Mr. Musk’s cross hairs. They bombarded federal workers with messages suggesting they have been lazy and inspiring them to depart their jobs.
Empowered by President Trump, Mr. Musk is waging a largely unchecked battle towards the federal forms — one which has already had far-reaching penalties.
Mr. Musk’s aggressive incursions into not less than half a dozen authorities businesses have challenged congressional authority and probably breached civil service protections.
High officers on the Treasury Division and the U.S. Company for Worldwide Growth who objected to the actions of his representatives have been swiftly pushed apart. And Mr. Musk’s efforts to close down U.S.A.I.D., a key supply of overseas help, have reverberated across the globe.
Mr. Musk, the world’s richest man, is sweeping via the federal authorities as a singular drive, creating main upheaval as he appears to be like to place an ideological stamp on the forms and rid the system of those that he and the president deride as “the deep state.”
The speedy strikes by Mr. Musk, who has a large number of economic pursuits earlier than the federal government, have represented a rare flexing of energy by a personal particular person.
The pace and scale have shocked civil servants, who’ve been frantically exchanging info on encrypted chats, making an attempt to discern what’s unfolding.
Senior White Home workers members have at occasions additionally discovered themselves at midnight, in response to two officers, who spoke on the situation of anonymity to explain delicate discussions. One Trump official, who was not approved to talk publicly, stated Mr. Musk was extensively seen as working with a degree of autonomy that just about nobody can management.
Mr. Musk, the chief of SpaceX, Tesla and X, is working with a frantic, around-the-clock power acquainted to the workers at his varied corporations, flanked by a cadre of younger engineers, drawn partly from Silicon Valley. He has moved beds into the headquarters of the federal personnel workplace just a few blocks from the White Home, in response to an individual accustomed to the scenario, so he and his workers, working late into the night time, might sleep there, reprising a tactic he has deployed at Twitter and Tesla.
This time, nonetheless, he carries the authority of the president, who has bristled at a few of Mr. Musk’s ready-fire-aim impulses however has praised him publicly.
“He’s a giant cost-cutter,” Mr. Trump advised reporters on Sunday. “Typically we received’t agree with it and we’ll not go the place he needs to go. However I believe he’s doing an amazing job. He’s a sensible man.”
Mr. Musk, who leads a cost-cutting initiative the administration calls the Division of Authorities Effectivity, boasted on Saturday that his willingness to work weekends was a “superpower” that gave him a bonus over his adversary. The adversary he was referring to was the federal work drive.
“Only a few within the forms really work the weekend, so it’s just like the opposing workforce simply leaves the sphere for two days!” Mr. Musk posted on X.
There is no such thing as a precedent for a authorities official to have Mr. Musk’s scale of conflicts of curiosity, which embody home holdings and overseas connections corresponding to enterprise relationships in China. And there’s no precedent for somebody who shouldn’t be a full-time worker to have such capacity to reshape the federal work drive.
The historian Douglas Brinkley described Mr. Musk as a “lone ranger” with limitless working room. He famous that the billionaire was working “past scrutiny,” saying: “There’s not one single entity holding Musk accountable. It’s a harbinger of the destruction of our primary establishments.”
A number of former and present senior authorities officers — even those that like what he’s doing — expressed a way of helplessness about how you can deal with Mr. Musk’s degree of unaccountability. At one level after one other, Trump officers have usually relented moderately than attempt to gradual him down. Some hoped Congress would select to reassert itself.
Mr. Trump himself sounded a notably cautionary word on Monday, telling reporters: “Elon can’t do and received’t do something with out our approval. And we’ll give him the approval the place applicable, the place not applicable, we received’t.”
“If there’s a battle,” he added, “then we received’t let him get close to it.”
Nevertheless, the president has given Mr. Musk huge energy over the forms that regulates his corporations and awards them contracts. He’s shaping not simply coverage however personnel selections, together with efficiently pushing for Mr. Trump to choose Troy Meink because the Air Pressure secretary, in response to three folks with direct data of his position.
Mr. Meink beforehand ran the Pentagon’s Nationwide Reconnaissance Workplace, which helped Mr. Musk safe a multibillion-dollar contract for SpaceX to assist construct and deploy a spy satellite tv for pc community for the federal authorities.
Mr. Musk has additionally taken a eager curiosity within the federal authorities’s actual property portfolio, managed by the Common Providers Administration, moving to terminate leases. Internally, G.S.A. leaders have began to debate eliminating as a lot as 50 p.c of the company’s price range, in response to folks accustomed to the conversations.
Maybe most vital, Mr. Musk has sought to dismantle U.S.A.I.D., the federal government’s lead company for humanitarian help and growth help. Mr. Trump has already frozen foreign aid spending, however Mr. Musk has gone additional.
“We spent the weekend feeding USAID into the wooden chipper,” Mr. Musk gloated on X at 1:54 a.m. Monday. “May gone to some nice events. Did that as an alternative.”
Mr. Musk’s allies now goal to inject synthetic intelligence instruments into authorities techniques, utilizing them to evaluate contracts and suggest cuts. On Monday, Thomas Shedd, a former Tesla engineer who has been tapped to guide a expertise workforce at G.S.A., advised some workers members that he hoped to place all federal contracts right into a centralized system in order that they could possibly be analyzed by synthetic intelligence, three folks accustomed to the assembly stated.
Mr. Musk’s actions have astounded and alarmed Democrats and authorities watchdog teams. They query if Mr. Musk is breaching federal legal guidelines that give Congress the ultimate energy to create or get rid of federal businesses and set their budgets, require public disclosure of presidency actions and prohibit people from taking actions which may profit themselves personally.
At least four lawsuits have been filed in federal court docket to problem his authority and the strikes by the brand new administration, nevertheless it stays to be seen if judicial overview can sustain with Mr. Musk.
The New York Instances spoke to greater than three dozen present and former administration officers, federal workers and other people near Mr. Musk who described his increasing affect over the federal authorities. Few have been keen to talk on the file, for worry of retribution.
“Earlier than Congress and the courts can reply, Elon Musk may have rolled up the entire authorities,” stated one official who works inside an company the place representatives from Mr. Musk’s cost-cutting initiative have asserted management.
Mr. Musk says he’s making lengthy overdue reforms. To this point, his workforce has claimed to assist save the federal authorities greater than $1 billion a day via efforts just like the cancellation of federal building leases and contracts associated to variety, fairness and inclusion, though they’ve supplied few specifics.
Controlling the Pipes
Employees within the Eisenhower Government Workplace Constructing, which housed some operations for america Digital Service, arrived the day after Mr. Trump’s inauguration to discover a sticky word with “DOGE” on a door to a set as soon as used as a piece area for senior technologists on the company.
It was one of many first indicators that Mr. Musk’s workforce had arrived. Inside, black backpacks have been strewed about, and unfamiliar younger males roamed the halls with out the safety badges that federal workers sometimes carried to enter their workplaces.
The fast takeover was just like the playbook Mr. Musk has used within the non-public sector, the place he has been a ruthless price cutter, subscribing to the philosophy that it’s higher to cut too deeply and fix any problems that come up later. He routinely pushes his workers to disregard rules they take into account “dumb.” And he’s identified for taking excessive dangers, pushing each Tesla and SpaceX to the brink of chapter earlier than rescuing them.
In his present position, Mr. Musk has a direct line to Mr. Trump and operates with little if any accountability or oversight, in response to folks accustomed to the dynamic. He usually enters the White Home via a aspect entrance, and drops into conferences. He has an in depth working relationship with Mr. Trump’s top policy adviser, Stephen Miller, who shares Mr. Musk’s contempt for a lot of the federal work drive.
At one level, Mr. Musk sought to sleep over within the White Home residence. He sought and was granted an workplace within the West Wing however advised folks that it was too small. Since then, he has advised associates he’s reveling within the trappings of the opulent Secretary of Battle Suite within the Eisenhower Government Workplace Constructing, the place he has labored some days. His workforce is staffed closely by engineers — not less than one as younger as 19 — who’ve labored at his corporations like X or SpaceX, however have little if any expertise in authorities coverage and are looking for safety clearances.
Formally, Mr. Musk is serving as a particular authorities worker, in response to the White Home press secretary, Karoline Leavitt. This can be a standing sometimes given to part-time, outdoors advisers to the federal authorities who provide recommendation based mostly on non-public sector experience.
The White Home declined to say if Mr. Musk had been granted a waiver that allowed him to get entangled in businesses whose actions might have an effect on his personal private pursuits. And even when he had been given such a waiver, 4 former White Home ethics legal professionals stated they may not envision the way it could possibly be structured to appropriately cowl the vary of the work Mr. Musk is overseeing.
In a press release, Ms. Leavitt stated that “Elon Musk is selflessly serving President Trump’s administration as a particular authorities worker, and he has abided by all relevant federal legal guidelines.”
Mr. Musk has advised Trump administration officers that to satisfy their mission of radically lowering the scale of the federal authorities, they should achieve entry to the computer systems — the techniques that home the information and the small print of presidency personnel, and the pipes that distribute cash on behalf of the federal authorities.
Mr. Musk has been pondering radically about methods to sharply cut back federal spending for the whole presidential transition. After canvassing price range consultants, he ultimately turned fixated on a crucial a part of the nation’s infrastructure: the Treasury Division fee system that disburses trillions of {dollars} a 12 months on behalf of the federal authorities.
Mr. Musk has advised administration officers that he thinks they may steadiness the price range in the event that they get rid of the fraudulent funds leaving the system, in response to an official who mentioned the matter with him. It’s unclear what he’s basing that assertion on. The federal deficit for 2024 was $1.8 trillion. The Authorities Accountability Workplace estimated in a report that the federal government made $236 billion in improper funds — three-quarters of which have been overpayments — throughout 71 federal applications throughout the 2023 fiscal 12 months.
The push by Mr. Musk into the Treasury Division led to a months-in-the-making standoff final week when a high profession official, David Lebryk, resisted giving representatives from the cost-cutting effort entry to the federal fee system. Mr. Lebryk was threatened with administrative go away after which retired. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent subsequently authorised entry for the Musk workforce, as The Instances previously reported.
The Treasury Division’s proprietary system for paying the nation’s monetary obligations is an operation historically run by a small group of profession civil servants with deep technical experience. The prospect of an intrusion into that system by outsiders corresponding to Mr. Musk and his workforce has raised alarm amongst present and former Treasury officers {that a} mishap might result in crucial authorities obligations going unpaid, with penalties starting from missed advantages funds to a federal default.
Ms. Leavitt stated the entry they have been granted to this point was “learn solely,” that means the workers members couldn’t alter funds.
Democrats on Monday stated they’d introduce laws to attempt to bar Mr. Musk’s deputies from getting into the Treasury system. “The Treasury secretary should revoke DOGE’s entry to the Treasury fee system directly,” stated Senator Chuck Schumer, Democrat of New York and the minority chief. “If he doesn’t, Congress should act instantly.”
One other key pipeline is the federal government’s personnel database, run out of the Workplace of Personnel Administration, the place Mr. Musk has shortly asserted his affect. At the very least 5 individuals who have labored for Mr. Musk in some capability now have key roles within the workplace, in response to folks accustomed to their roles.
Final week, the personnel company despatched an e mail to roughly two million federal staff providing them the choice to resign however be paid via the tip of September. The e-mail’s topic line, “Fork within the Street,” was the identical one which Mr. Musk utilized in an e mail he despatched to Twitter workers providing them severance packages in late 2022. Since then, Mr. Musk has promoted the provide on social media and known as it “very beneficiant.”
Mr. Musk can also be finding out the workings of the G.S.A., which manages federal properties. Throughout a go to to the company final week, accompanied by his younger son, whom Mr. Musk named “X Æ A-12,” and a nanny, he spoke with the company’s new appearing administrator, Stephen Ehikian.
After the assembly, officers mentioned a plan to get rid of 50 p.c of expenditures, in response to folks accustomed to the discussions. And Mr. Ehikian advised workers members in a separate assembly that he needed them to use a way known as “zero based mostly budgeting,” an method that Mr. Musk deployed throughout his Twitter takeover and at his different corporations. The concept is to cut back spending of a program or contract to zero, after which argue to revive any vital {dollars}.
Inflicting Trauma
Russell T. Vought, who served in Mr. Trump’s first administration and is his alternative once more to guide the Workplace of Administration and Price range, has spoken overtly in regards to the Trump workforce’s plans for dismantling civil service.
“We would like the bureaucrats to be traumatically affected,” Mr. Vought said in a 2023 speech. “Once they get up within the morning, we would like them to not wish to go to work as a result of they’re more and more considered because the villains.”
Mr. Musk, who pushed Mr. Vought for the price range workplace position, for which he’s awaiting Senate affirmation, has echoed that rhetoric, portraying profession civil servants and the businesses they work for as enemies.
U.S.A.I.D., which oversees civilian overseas help, is “evil,” Mr. Musk wrote in numerous posts on Sunday, whereas “profession Treasury officers are breaking the legislation each hour of on daily basis,” he stated in another post.
Mr. Musk used the identical tactic throughout his 2022 takeover of Twitter, during which he depicted the corporate’s earlier administration as malicious and plenty of of its staff as inept and oppositional to his targets. In firing Twitter executives “for trigger” and withholding their exit packages, Mr. Musk accused a few of them of corruption and attacked them personally in public posts.
The ways by Mr. Musk and his workforce have saved civil servants unbalanced, frightened of talking out and unsure of their futures and their livelihoods.
On Jan. 27, members of the workforce entered the headquarters and close by annex of the help company within the Ronald Reagan Constructing in downtown Washington, U.S. officers stated.
The workforce demanded and was granted entry to the company’s monetary and personnel techniques, in response to two U.S. officers with direct data of the exercise and the company’s internal workings. Throughout this era, an appearing administrator on the company put about 60 senior officers on paid go away and issued stop-work orders that led to the firing of tons of of contractors with full-time employment and well being advantages.
By Saturday, the company’s web site vanished. And when the 2 high safety administrators tried to stop members of the team from getting into a safe space that day to get labeled information, they have been positioned on administrative go away.
Katie Miller, a member of the Musk initiative, stated on X that “no labeled materials was accessed with out correct safety clearances.”
By Monday, U.S.A.I.D. was successfully paralyzed. In a dwell broadcast on his social media platform early Monday, Mr. Musk stated the president agreed “that we must always shut it down.”
A Tradition of Secrecy
Mr. Musk’s workforce has prioritized secrecy, sharing little outdoors the roughly 40 individuals who, as of Inauguration Day, had been working as a part of the trouble. The billionaire has reposted messages accusing folks of making an attempt to “dox,” or publish non-public details about, his aides when their names have been made public, claiming it’s a “crime” to take action.
The opacity has added to the nervousness throughout the civil service. A lot of the workers throughout the federal government stated they’d been interviewed by representatives of Mr. Musk who had declined to share their surnames. Mr. Musk’s aides have declined to reply questions themselves, persistently describing the periods as “one-way interviews.”
Some staff who sat for interviews have been requested what initiatives they have been engaged on and who must be fired from the company, folks accustomed to the conversations stated.
“My impression was not one in all assist or real understanding however of suspicion, and questioning,” one Common Providers Administration worker wrote in an inside Slack message to colleagues, describing the interview course of.
A number of the younger staff on Mr. Musk’s workforce share the same uniform: blazers worn over T-shirts. On the G.S.A., some workers members started calling the workforce “the Bobs,” a reference to administration marketing consultant characters from the darkish comedy film “Workplace House” who’re liable for layoffs.
Lots of Mr. Musk’s lieutenants are engaged on a number of initiatives at totally different businesses concurrently, utilizing totally different e mail addresses and exhibiting up at totally different workplaces.
One instance is Luke Farritor, a 23-year-old former SpaceX intern, who was among the many staff given entry to U.S.A.I.D. techniques, in response to folks accustomed to his position. He’s additionally listed as an “govt engineer” within the workplace of the secretary of well being and human companies, and had an e mail account on the G.S.A., information present. Mr. Farritor didn’t reply to requests for remark.
Mr. Musk’s aides, together with Mr. Farritor, have requested entry to Facilities for Medicare and Medicaid Providers techniques that management contracts and the greater than $1 trillion in funds that exit yearly, in response to a doc seen by The Instances.
The workforce stories to a longtime Musk adviser, Steve Davis, who helped lead cost-cutting efforts at X and SpaceX, and has himself amassed extraordinary energy throughout federal businesses.
In non-public conversations, Mr. Musk has advised associates that he considers the final word metric for his success to be the variety of {dollars} saved per day, and he’s sorting concepts based mostly on that rating.
“The extra I’ve gotten to know President Trump, the extra I like him. Frankly, I really like the man,” Mr. Musk stated in a dwell audio dialog on X early Monday morning. “That is our shot. That is one of the best hand of playing cards we’re ever going to have.”
Reporting was contributed by Erica L. Inexperienced, Alan Rappeport, Andrew Duehren, Eric Lipton, Charlie Savage, Edward Wong, Sarah Kliff and Karoun Demirjian.
