In Elon Musk’s first two weeks in authorities, his lieutenants gained entry to intently held monetary and information 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 staff 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 warfare towards the federal paperwork — one which has already had far-reaching penalties.
Mr. Musk’s aggressive incursions into not less than half a dozen authorities companies have challenged congressional authority and probably breached civil service protections.
Prime officers on the Treasury Division and the U.S. Company for Worldwide Improvement 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 international help, have reverberated across the globe.
Mr. Musk, the world’s richest man, is sweeping by means of the federal authorities as a singular power, creating main upheaval as he seems to place an ideological stamp on the paperwork and rid the system of those that he and the president deride as “the deep state.”
The fast strikes by Mr. Musk, who has a mess of monetary pursuits earlier than the federal government, have represented a rare flexing of energy by a personal particular person.
The velocity and scale have shocked civil servants, who’ve been frantically exchanging data on encrypted chats, attempting to discern what’s unfolding.
Senior White Home employees members have at instances additionally discovered themselves at nighttime, in response to two officers, who spoke on the situation of anonymity to explain delicate discussions. One Trump official, who was not licensed to talk publicly, stated Mr. Musk was extensively seen as working with a stage of autonomy that nearly nobody can management.
Mr. Musk, the chief of SpaceX, Tesla and X, is working with a frantic, around-the-clock power acquainted to the staff at his varied firms, flanked by a cadre of younger engineers, drawn partly from Silicon Valley. He has moved beds into the headquarters of the federal personnel workplace a number of blocks from the White Home, in response to an individual aware of the scenario, so he and his employees, working late into the evening, may 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 an enormous cost-cutter,” Mr. Trump instructed reporters on Sunday. “Typically we gained’t agree with it and we’ll not go the place he desires to go. However I believe he’s doing an ideal 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 power.
“Only a few within the paperwork really work the weekend, so it’s just like the opposing workforce simply leaves the sector for two days!” Mr. Musk posted on X.
There isn’t any precedent for a authorities official to have Mr. Musk’s scale of conflicts of curiosity, which embody home holdings and international connections resembling enterprise relationships in China. And there’s no precedent for somebody who is just not a full-time worker to have such capability to reshape the federal work power.
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 fundamental establishments.”
A number of former and present senior authorities officers — even those that like what he’s doing — expressed a way of helplessness about the way to deal with Mr. Musk’s stage of unaccountability. At one level after one other, Trump officers have usually relented somewhat than attempt to sluggish him down. Some hoped Congress would select to reassert itself.
Mr. Trump himself sounded a notably cautionary be aware on Monday, telling reporters: “Elon can’t do and gained’t do something with out our approval. And we’ll give him the approval the place applicable, the place not applicable, we gained’t.”
“If there’s a battle,” he added, “then we gained’t let him get close to it.”
Nevertheless, the president has given Mr. Musk huge energy over the paperwork that regulates his firms and awards them contracts. He’s shaping not simply coverage however personnel choices, together with efficiently pushing for Mr. Trump to select Troy Meink because the Air Pressure secretary, in response to three folks with direct data of his function.
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 Normal Providers Administration, transferring to terminate leases. Internally, G.S.A. leaders have began to debate eliminating as a lot as 50 p.c of the company’s funds, in response to folks aware of the conversations.
Maybe most important, Mr. Musk has sought to dismantle U.S.A.I.D., the federal government’s lead company for humanitarian assist and growth help. Mr. Trump has already frozen international assist 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. “Might gone to some nice events. Did that as an alternative.”
Mr. Musk’s allies now purpose to inject synthetic intelligence instruments into authorities techniques, utilizing them to evaluate contracts and advocate cuts. On Monday, Thomas Shedd, a former Tesla engineer who has been tapped to steer a expertise workforce at G.S.A., instructed some employees members that he hoped to place all federal contracts right into a centralized system so that they may very well be analyzed by synthetic intelligence, three folks aware of 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 remove federal companies and set their budgets, require public disclosure of presidency actions and prohibit people from taking actions which may profit themselves personally.
A minimum of 4 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 evaluate can sustain with Mr. Musk.
The New York Occasions spoke to greater than three dozen present and former administration officers, federal staff and folks near Mr. Musk who described his increasing affect over the federal authorities. Few have been keen to talk on the document, for worry of retribution.
“Earlier than Congress and the courts can reply, Elon Musk could 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. Thus far, his workforce has claimed to assist save the federal authorities greater than $1 billion a day by means of efforts just like the cancellation of federal constructing leases and contracts associated to variety, fairness and inclusion, though they’ve offered few specifics.
Controlling the Pipes
Staff within the Eisenhower Govt Workplace Constructing, which housed some operations for the US Digital Service, arrived the day after Mr. Trump’s inauguration to discover a sticky be aware with “DOGE” on a door to a set as soon as used as a piece house 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 staff sometimes carried to enter their workplaces.
The fast takeover was just like the playbook Mr. Musk has used within the personal sector, the place he has been a ruthless price cutter, subscribing to the philosophy that it’s higher to minimize too deeply and repair any issues that come up later. He routinely pushes his staff to disregard rules they think about “dumb.” And he’s recognized for taking excessive dangers, pushing each Tesla and SpaceX to the brink of chapter earlier than rescuing them.
In his present function, Mr. Musk has a direct line to Mr. Trump and operates with little if any accountability or oversight, in response to folks aware of the dynamic. He typically enters the White Home by means of a facet entrance, and drops into conferences. He has an in depth working relationship with Mr. Trump’s high coverage adviser, Stephen Miller, who shares Mr. Musk’s contempt for a lot of the federal work power.
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 instructed those that it was too small. Since then, he has instructed buddies he’s reveling within the trappings of the opulent Secretary of Warfare Suite within the Eisenhower Govt 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 firms 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 personal sector experience.
The White Home declined to say if Mr. Musk had been granted a waiver that allowed him to get entangled in companies whose actions may 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 may very well be structured to appropriately cowl the vary of the work Mr. Musk is overseeing.
In an announcement, 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 instructed Trump administration officers that to meet their mission of radically decreasing the dimensions of the federal authorities, they should achieve entry to the computer systems — the techniques that home the information and the main points of presidency personnel, and the pipes that distribute cash on behalf of the federal authorities.
Mr. Musk has been considering radically about methods to sharply cut back federal spending for the complete presidential transition. After canvassing funds consultants, he ultimately turned fixated on a crucial a part of the nation’s infrastructure: the Treasury Division cost system that disburses trillions of {dollars} a yr on behalf of the federal authorities.
Mr. Musk has instructed administration officers that he thinks they may stability the funds in the event that they remove 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 through the 2023 fiscal yr.
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 cost system. Mr. Lebryk was threatened with administrative depart after which retired. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent subsequently authorised entry for the Musk workforce, as The Occasions beforehand 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 resembling Mr. Musk and his workforce has raised alarm amongst present and former Treasury officers {that a} mishap may 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 date was “learn solely,” which means the employees members couldn’t alter funds.
Democrats on Monday stated they might introduce laws to attempt to bar Mr. Musk’s deputies from coming into the Treasury system. “The Treasury secretary should revoke DOGE’s entry to the Treasury cost 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 rapidly asserted his affect. A minimum of 5 individuals who have labored for Mr. Musk in some capability now have key roles within the workplace, in response to folks aware of 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 by means of 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 staff 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 learning 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 remove 50 p.c of expenditures, in response to folks aware of the discussions. And Mr. Ehikian instructed employees members in a separate assembly that he needed them to use a method known as “zero based mostly budgeting,” an method that Mr. Musk deployed throughout his Twitter takeover and at his different firms. The thought is to scale 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 steer the Workplace of Administration and Finances, has spoken brazenly concerning the Trump workforce’s plans for dismantling civil service.
“We wish the bureaucrats to be traumatically affected,” Mr. Vought stated in a 2023 speech. “Once they get up within the morning, we would like them to not need to go to work as a result of they’re more and more seen because the villains.”
Mr. Musk, who pushed Mr. Vought for the funds workplace function, for which he’s awaiting Senate affirmation, has echoed that rhetoric, portraying profession civil servants and the companies they work for as enemies.
U.S.A.I.D., which oversees civilian international assist, is “evil,” Mr. Musk wrote in quite a few posts on Sunday, whereas “profession Treasury officers are breaking the regulation each hour of day by day,” he stated in one other put up.
Mr. Musk used the identical tactic throughout his 2022 takeover of Twitter, through which he depicted the corporate’s earlier administration as malicious and lots of of its staff as inept and oppositional to his objectives. 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, terrified 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 interior workings. Throughout this era, an appearing administrator on the company put about 60 senior officers on paid depart and issued stop-work orders that led to the firing of a whole bunch 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 cease members of the workforce from coming into a safe space that day to get labeled information, they have been positioned on administrative depart.
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 reside broadcast on his social media platform early Monday, Mr. Musk stated the president agreed “that we should 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 hassle. The billionaire has reposted messages accusing folks of attempting to “dox,” or publish personal 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 anxiousness throughout the civil service. Plenty of the staff 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, constantly describing the periods as “one-way interviews.”
Some staff who sat for interviews have been requested what tasks they have been engaged on and who ought to be fired from the company, folks aware of the conversations stated.
“My impression was not one in every of help or real understanding however of suspicion, and questioning,” one Normal Providers Administration worker wrote in an inner Slack message to colleagues, describing the interview course of.
Among the younger staff on Mr. Musk’s workforce share an identical uniform: blazers worn over T-shirts. On the G.S.A., some employees members started calling the workforce “the Bobs,” a reference to administration guide characters from the darkish comedy film “Workplace House” who’re answerable for layoffs.
A lot of Mr. Musk’s lieutenants are engaged on a number of tasks at totally different companies 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 aware of his function. He’s additionally listed as an “government engineer” within the workplace of the secretary of well being and human companies, and had an e mail account on the G.S.A., data 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 Occasions.
The workforce reviews 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 companies.
In personal conversations, Mr. Musk has instructed buddies 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 reside 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.
