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 packages — and even a complete 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 struggle 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 companies 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 by way of the federal authorities as a singular pressure, creating main upheaval as he appears 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 fast strikes by Mr. Musk, who has a mess of economic pursuits earlier than the federal government, have represented a unprecedented flexing of energy by a personal particular person.
The pace and scale have shocked civil servants, who’ve been frantically exchanging data on encrypted chats, attempting to discern what’s unfolding.
Senior White Home workers members have at instances additionally discovered themselves at the hours of darkness, in accordance with two officers, who spoke on the situation of anonymity to explain delicate discussions. One Trump official, who was not licensed to talk publicly, mentioned Mr. Musk was broadly seen as working with a stage 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 vitality 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 just a few blocks from the White Home, in accordance with an individual acquainted with the state of affairs, so he and his workers, 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 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 feel he’s doing an amazing job. He’s a wise 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 pressure.
“Only a few within the forms truly work the weekend, so it’s just like the opposing group 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 overseas connections akin to enterprise relationships in China. And there’s no precedent for somebody who is just not a full-time worker to have such skill to reshape the federal work pressure.
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 may be 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 find out how to deal with Mr. Musk’s stage of unaccountability. At one level after one other, Trump officers have typically relented somewhat 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 acceptable, the place not acceptable, we received’t.”
“If there’s a battle,” he added, “then we received’t let him get close to it.”
Nonetheless, the president has given Mr. Musk huge energy over the forms 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 Power secretary, in accordance with 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 accordance with folks acquainted with the conversations.
Maybe most important, Mr. Musk has sought to dismantle U.S.A.I.D., the federal government’s lead company for humanitarian support 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 intention 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 know-how group 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 acquainted with the assembly mentioned.
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 that may profit themselves personally.
At least four lawsuits have been filed in federal courtroom 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 Occasions spoke to greater than three dozen present and former administration officers, federal staff and other people near Mr. Musk who described his increasing affect over the federal authorities. Few have been prepared to talk on the report, for worry of retribution.
“Earlier than Congress and the courts can reply, Elon Musk could have rolled up the entire authorities,” mentioned 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. Up to now, his group has claimed to assist save the federal authorities greater than $1 billion a day by way of 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
Staff within the Eisenhower Govt 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 collection 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 group 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 places of work.
The fast takeover was much like the playbook Mr. Musk has used within the non-public sector, the place he has been a ruthless value 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 staff to disregard rules they contemplate “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 accordance with folks acquainted with the dynamic. He usually enters the White Home by way of a aspect entrance, and drops into conferences. He has a detailed working relationship with Mr. Trump’s top policy adviser, Stephen Miller, who shares Mr. Musk’s contempt for a lot of the federal work pressure.
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 those that it was too small. Since then, he has advised buddies he’s reveling within the trappings of the opulent Secretary of Struggle Suite within the Eisenhower Govt Workplace Constructing, the place he has labored some days. His group 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 in search of safety clearances.
Formally, Mr. Musk is serving as a particular authorities worker, in accordance with the White Home press secretary, Karoline Leavitt. It is a standing sometimes given to part-time, exterior advisers to the federal authorities who supply 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 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 mentioned they may not envision the way it could possibly be structured to appropriately cowl the vary of the work Mr. Musk is overseeing.
In an announcement, Ms. Leavitt mentioned 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 decreasing the dimensions of the federal authorities, they should achieve entry to the computer systems — the techniques that home the info and the main points 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 all the presidential transition. After canvassing price range specialists, he ultimately grew to become fixated on a essential a part of the nation’s infrastructure: the Treasury Division fee system that disburses trillions of {dollars} a yr 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 remove the fraudulent funds leaving the system, in accordance with 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 packages throughout 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 fee system. Mr. Lebryk was threatened with administrative go away after which retired. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent subsequently permitted entry for the Musk group, as The Occasions 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 akin to Mr. Musk and his group has raised alarm amongst present and former Treasury officers {that a} mishap may result in essential authorities obligations going unpaid, with penalties starting from missed advantages funds to a federal default.
Ms. Leavitt mentioned the entry they have been granted to date was “learn solely,” which means the workers members couldn’t alter funds.
Democrats on Monday mentioned they’d 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 fee system directly,” mentioned 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. At the least 5 individuals who have labored for Mr. Musk in some capability now have key roles within the workplace, in accordance with folks acquainted with their roles.
Final week, the personnel company despatched an electronic mail to roughly two million federal employees providing them the choice to resign however be paid by way of the tip of September. The e-mail’s topic line, “Fork within the Highway,” was the identical one which Mr. Musk utilized in an electronic mail he despatched to Twitter staff providing them severance packages in late 2022. Since then, Mr. Musk has promoted the supply on social media and known as it “very beneficiant.”
Mr. Musk can 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 accordance with folks acquainted with the discussions. And Mr. Ehikian advised workers members in a separate assembly that he wished them to use a method known as “zero based mostly budgeting,” an strategy that Mr. Musk deployed throughout his Twitter takeover and at his different firms. The concept is to cut back spending of a program or contract to zero, after which argue to revive any needed {dollars}.
Inflicting Trauma
Russell T. Vought, who served in Mr. Trump’s first administration and is his selection once more to guide the Workplace of Administration and Funds, has spoken overtly concerning the Trump group’s plans for dismantling civil service.
“We wish the bureaucrats to be traumatically affected,” Mr. Vought said in a 2023 speech. “After 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 price range workplace position, 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 overseas support, is “evil,” Mr. Musk wrote in numerous posts on Sunday, whereas “profession Treasury officers are breaking the legislation each hour of daily,” he mentioned in another post.
Mr. Musk used the identical tactic throughout his 2022 takeover of Twitter, through which he depicted the corporate’s earlier administration as malicious and plenty of of its employees 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 techniques by Mr. Musk and his group have saved civil servants unbalanced, scared of talking out and unsure of their futures and their livelihoods.
On Jan. 27, members of the group entered the headquarters and close by annex of the help company within the Ronald Reagan Constructing in downtown Washington, U.S. officers mentioned.
The group demanded and was granted entry to the company’s monetary and personnel techniques, in accordance with 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 go away 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 stop members of the team from coming into a safe space that day to get categorised information, they have been positioned on administrative go away.
Katie Miller, a member of the Musk initiative, mentioned on X that “no categorised 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 mentioned the president agreed “that we must always shut it down.”
A Tradition of Secrecy
Mr. Musk’s group has prioritized secrecy, sharing little exterior 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 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 anxiousness inside the civil service. A lot of the staff throughout the federal government mentioned 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 classes as “one-way interviews.”
Some employees who sat for interviews have been requested what tasks they have been engaged on and who ought to be fired from the company, folks acquainted with the conversations mentioned.
“My impression was not one among assist or real understanding however of suspicion, and questioning,” one Common Providers Administration worker wrote in an inner Slack message to colleagues, describing the interview course of.
A number of the younger employees on Mr. Musk’s group share the same uniform: blazers worn over T-shirts. On the G.S.A., some workers members started calling the group “the Bobs,” a reference to administration marketing consultant characters from the darkish comedy film “Workplace Area” who’re chargeable for layoffs.
A lot of Mr. Musk’s lieutenants are engaged on a number of tasks at totally different companies concurrently, utilizing totally different electronic mail addresses and displaying up at totally different places of work.
One instance is Luke Farritor, a 23-year-old former SpaceX intern, who was among the many employees given entry to U.S.A.I.D. techniques, in accordance with folks acquainted with his position. He’s additionally listed as an “government engineer” within the workplace of the secretary of well being and human providers, and had an electronic 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 accordance with a doc seen by The Occasions.
The group studies 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 non-public conversations, Mr. Musk has advised 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 mentioned in a reside audio dialog on X early Monday morning. “That is our shot. That is the very 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.
