The federal budget is being taken over by Musk

Investigating the X-ray attack on Musk, Tesla, SpaceX, Pinterest, Nestlé, and the White House: A defense of DOGE, Schumer, Rubin, and Rubin

Musk is pursuing unprecedented access to government systems while running several companies — including Tesla, SpaceX, and X — with vested interests in different government policies and grudges against other private companies. Over the weekend, X expanded its antitrust lawsuit over an advertiser boycott to include Lego, Nestlé, and Pinterest.

Musk framed his vision of DOGE’s work in ideological terms, disparaging the “tyranny of the bureaucracy” as unaccountable to American voters. He called for the full removal of regulations in the course of the conversation. Federal regulators have been sparring with Musk for a long time.

Some Democrats have condemned the wide latitude and access given to DOGE. Chuck Schumer, the Senate’s minority leader, said on Monday that an unelected shadow government is trying to take over the federal government.

Musk, the biggest donor in the 2024 election, has been using X to pounce on his critics, both Democrats and Republicans, who have questioned the reach of Musk’s authority and just how much oversight he is receiving from Trump and senior White House officials.

“In terms of rule of law, we are losing it rapidly,” said Eric Rubin, a retired ambassador who spent nearly 40 years in the foreign service. He said that Musk and the DOGE were creating hundreds of court cases that would take months or years to resolve. “But who knows what kind of damage they can inflict before that happens.”

Federal ethics experts say since Musk operates six companies that cross multiple industries, including the rocket company SpaceX and the electric carmaker Tesla, it may be difficult for him to avoid running afoul of strict conflict-of-interest laws.

“He may not participate in any United States government matter that has a direct and predictable effect on his financial holdings,” said Richard Painter, who served as the White House’s top ethics lawyer under George W. Bush. “If he does, he commits a crime,” said Painter, pointing to federal laws governing special government employees.

Investigating Musk’s DOGE.gov Access to the Federal Government Computer System: A lawsuit against Lebryk, Eisen and the Alliance for Retired Americans

Multiple reports indicated DOGE representatives sought access to a “secure compartmented information facility,” or SCIF, at USAID, which is a room containing sensitive documents that only someone with a high-level security clearance is permitted to enter.

“No classified material was accessed without proper security clearances,” Katie Miller, a DOGE official, wrote on X on Sunday. Leavitt said she didn’t have anything to give reporters about Musk’s security clearance.

Some young engineers from Silicon Valley have joined Musk’s effort. That includes Gavin Kliger, whose LinkedIn page describes him as “special advisor to the director” at the federal Office of Personnel Management. Kliger attended the University of California, Berkeley until 2020. He worked at Databricks as a senior software engineer, and also worked as a software engineer at Twitter.

A USAID.gov email address belonging to Kliger appeared on an email sent early on Monday morning to USAID staff informing them the agency’s Washington headquarters would be closed for the day. Kliger didn’t respond to NPR’s questions about his role at USAID or OPM.

The unions representing federal employees as well as The Alliance for Retired Americans have filed a lawsuit to block Musk’s DOGE team from getting people’s tax refunds, veterans’ benefits and disability checks.

Norm Eisen is a former White House ethics lawyer under former President Barack Obama. “You can’t have my data. You can’t have my spouse’s data. You can’t have my kid’s data. That information is too precious,” said Eisen, who is representing the alliance and the unions. This is not right. It’s not legal.

Career civil servants at the Office of Personnel Management soon found themselves locked out of the agency’s computer system that maintains federal employees’ personal data, Reuters reported on Sunday. Unnamed agency officials linked the action to Musk’s aides.

The news started on Friday with the departure of a Treasury Department top career official. David Lebryk announced his retirement after clashing with Musk surrogates about accessing a payment system that disburses trillions of dollars for federal worker salaries, Social Security, and Medicare, according to The Washington Post. The New York Times reported on Saturday that Musk has readonly access to that system, giving him more control over government spending, and possibly a Social Security number.

She is a senior policy reporter for The Verge, and she covers Capitol Hill and Silicon Valley. She spent 5 years covering tech policy at CNBC, writing about antitrust, privacy, and content moderation reform.

OPM spokesperson McLaurine Pinover told The Verge that the Reuters report was not accurate but did not elaborate. Representatives for Treasury Department, US Digital Service, and the US Agency for International Development did not immediately respond to questions about the recent reporting.

Musk has railed in particular against USAID, calling it a “criminal organization.” He said that he and Trump tried to shut down the agency completely without addressing what their legal authority was. The Democratic lawmakers spoke out against Musk’s attempt to shut down the agency and said only Congress could make such a declaration. “Elon, if you want to run AID, get nominated by Trump and go to the Senate, and good luck in getting confirmed,” says Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-VA).

Sens. Ron Wyden (D-OR) and Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) demanded answers from Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on Musk’s reported access to the Treasury payments system. And protests outside federal buildings have begun popping up, including one on Sunday where DC Media Group reports protesters sought to block access to OPM.

Some anonymous Reddit users who identified themselves as government employees said they were going to keep plugging away. One user writes that he is going to keep doing his job in the thread about how to handle the situation. “Use your headphones and remain unbothered,” says another. Another offer is, “head down eyes and ears open.”

The Department of State is Recalling Overseas Employees from the US Agency for International Development and Implications for Foreign Mission Planning

Trump didn’t create a new Cabinet-level department with DOGE, but rather renamed the previously existing United States Digital Service, which was created under former President Barack Obama.

Trump’s order also moves the entity from the Office of Management and Budget to the Executive Office of the President, and directs it to modernize technology and software across the federal government.

The decision to scrutinize the six-decade-old organization — which Musk said he made with Trump’s approval — was welcomed by some Republicans but received pushback from Democrats.

Critics have questioned the legality of some of the actions of President Trump’s office to make major changes to the federal government.

Three sources with knowledge of internal planning say that the State Department has begun the process of removing personnel from overseas by this weekend.

The deputy assistant secretary of State for global operations told the State Department’s staff on Tuesday afternoon that they had been tasked to help with the recall of employees from the US Agency for International Development.

It continued: “I understand the feasibility concerns as well as the emotional toll this will take on those impacted as well as the team assisting. We’ve been asked to staff a 24/7 Coordination Support Team in the Ops Center’s Taskforce space beginning immediately.”

Current and former federal government officials who were not authorized to speak publicly described the plan to recall overseas staff to NPR.

On Monday night a memo was sent to State Department employees requesting that overseas missions show the number of employees and dependent family members at their locations.

A report by the Congressional Research Service shows that most of the 10,000 employees at the US Agency for International Development serve overseas.

The abrupt recall means employees would have just days to figure out where to go, how to arrange pet care, take children out of school, allow their spouses to make arrangements, and plan for their belongings to be sent behind them, for example. Meanwhile, withdrawing over a thousand foreign service officers and their families will likely be extremely costly, multiple diplomatic sources tell NPR.

One employee of the US Agency for International Development that was not authorized to speak publicly said it will be extremely challenging and expensive. “Many folks have kids in school, for example.”

In countries where USAID pays for the operational cost of the U.S. mission, such as Egypt and South Africa, the Trump administration’s funding freeze is already preventing use of USAID funds. That has led employees both within and outside USAID to fear that soon they’ll lose access to electricity, communications, security backups, trash pickups, medical evacuations, and other services.