# United States Federal government targets of Elon Musk

In 2025, Elon Musk and his surrogates gained access to large parts of the United States Federal government, forcing thousands of United States Federal government employees out of their jobs, removing public records from the Internet, attempting to shutdown or terminate entire departments and agencies of the government, creating large amounts of controversy and resistance across government, civil society, and the public.
Former and current employees of Musk's companies have been appointed to head and seize control of parts of the United States government. Other surrogates act as a part of the Department of Government Efficiency, a temporary organization informally led by Musk.

## Agency for International Development (USAID)

On February 1, members of DOGE gained access to classified information of United States Agency for International Development (USAID) without sufficient security clearances. On February 2, Wired reported that DOGE personnel attempted to improperly access classified information and security systems at the USAID, but were thwarted by USAID security officials; those officials were subsequently put on leave. The group moved to dismantle USAID by taking the USAID website and X account offline, firing staff, and stopping overseas work. Secretary of State Marco Rubio declared himself acting administrator of the agency, although it has been an independent body for sixty years.
On February 3, Musk said of USAID: "We're shutting it down", with Musk saying Trump "agreed"; an email from special adviser Gavin Kliger to USAID staff instructed staff to keep away from USAID headquarters while hundreds of staff lost access to USAID computer systems. As an ex-USAID worked describes: "In a matter of hours DOGE shut down our websites, took over email handles, and summarily removed the system access of hundreds of gainfully employed public servants."
On February 5, Musk falsely alleged USAID had given Politico and the Associated Press millions of dollars. The figures given were actually for common subscriptions across the entire government; the actual amount USAID alone had spent on Politico subscriptions was $44K. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said, "The DOGE team is working on canceling those payments now."
On February 14, Judge Amir Ali ordered the Trump administration to unfreeze foreign assistance payments to USAID and State Department grantees. Peter Marocco told a federal judge in a court filing that the agency he leads will not comply with the court's order.

## Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB)

On November 27, 2024, Musk proposed eliminating the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, an independent agency of the United States federal government. On February 1, 2025, Trump agents fired CFPB Director Rohit Chopra. Chopra was replaced by Trump insider and Project 2025 advocate Russell Vought, who attempted to shutter and close the CFPB. Musk tweeted "CFPB RIP" on February 7. Concurrently, data and websites related to the CFPB were removed from the internet.
On February 14, 2025, U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson commanded Donald Trump, Elon Musk and DOGE stand down on any attempts to reduce staffing, remove funding, delete any data, or otherwise interfere with operations of the CFPB. Berman Jackson's order specified that they "shall not delete, destroy, remove, or impair any data or other CFPB records" and "It is further ordered that Defendants shall not terminate any CFPB employee, except for cause." Multiple unions, groups and individuals filed a variety of lawsuits challenging any attacks on the CFPB, whose existence is governed and established in federal law by the Dodd–Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, and can only be removed by changes in federal law.

## Department of Agriculture (USDA)

Newly confirmed USDA Secretary Brooke Rollins revealed that DOGE has been at the agency for "a few weeks", welcomed their efforts, and expected full compliance from USDA teams, while farmers and policymakers raised concerns about the funding freeze. A few farmers expressed their anger on TikTok, one of them worrying about losing his farm.
DOGE actions at the USDA have impacted the United States national response to the 2020–2025 H5N1 outbreak, after staff working on the crisis were summarily fired.

## Department of Defense (DOD)

Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth confirmed that DOGE had begun the process of staff and spending cuts to impact the Department of Defense and United States Armed Forces.

## Department of Energy (DOE)

United States Department of Energy (DOE) secretary Chris Wright, against guidance of the DOE's General Counsel and chief information officers, allowed Luke Farritor of DOGE to access DOE computer networks. CNN quoted DOE staff in the general counsel and chief information offices as calling Farritor's access a "bad idea", and that "He's not cleared to be in DOE, on our systems."
Luke Farritor of DOGE was given access to computer systems of the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), the department responsible for the security and protection of American nuclear technologies and nuclear weapons, by United States Department of Energy (DOE) Secretary Chris Wright, against guidance of the DOE's general counsel and chief information offices. On February 13, hundreds of NNSA employees were abruptly fired; the agency sought to rehire the workers the next day. An Energy Department spokesperson said fewer than 50 were fired.

## Department of Health and Human Services (HHS)

DOGE gained access to financial systems at the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) as well as extremely restricted medical data related to most Americans in heavily access-controlled systems such as the Healthcare Integrated General Ledger Accounting System (HIGLAS). HIGLAS is described by the Washington Post as "a vast database that touches nearly every corner of American health care", and that restricted staff with access undergo mandatory specialized training for privacy protections under the federal law Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). The Washington Post noted it was unknown if DOGE operatives were HIPAA compliant under federal law.

### Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)

The Washington Post reported on February 5 that DOGE had sought access to data at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and that DOGE had gained access to key payment and contracting systems at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). CMS officials as of February 6 declined to reveal to what medical and financial records of Americans that Musk had gained access.

### Food and Drug Administration (FDA)

DOGE agents fired staff from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) involved in ongoing clinical trials of the safety of Elon Musk's Neuralink company, which creates implantable brain–computer interfaces (BCIs) as commercial products.

## Department of the Treasury (USDT)

On January 31, multiple sources reported that David Lebryk, a top Treasury Department career civil servant, was pushed out after he refused to grant DOGE access to a system that disburses over $5 trillion in payments annually, including Social Security, government paychecks and contractor payments. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent granted DOGE access to the system later that day. The New York Times described it as a possible attempt by Trump to "unilaterally restrict disbursement of money approved for specific purposes by Congress" following his earlier funding freeze.
The Financial Times reported on February 2 that Musk responded to an X post by former Trump national security advisor Michael Flynn, who posted a spreadsheet image purportedly showing federal grant payments to Global Refuge, a faith-based charity that provides services to legal migrants. Without citing evidence, Flynn asserted there was a money laundering operation involved, and that there were many other organizations "cashing in on our hard-earned money". Musk replied that DOGE "is rapidly shutting down these illegal payments". He later asserted that "career Treasury officials are breaking the law every hour of every day by approving payments that are fraudulent or do not match the funding laws passed by Congress".
On February 4, a Treasury Department official wrote to federal lawmakers that a DOGE agent, Tom Krause (who is also CEO of Citrix Systems) was restricted to "read-only" access to the Treasury payments system, preventing "payments for obligations such as Social Security and Medicare to be delayed or re-routed", though Wired reported that another member of Musk's team, Marko Elez, had acquired unrestricted access to some Treasury systems, and had been making "extensive changes" to the codebase of the payments system, with limited supervision. Democratic senator Ron Wyden, ranking member of the finance committee to whom the letter was sent, said it "reeks of a cover-up". Senior Treasury officials stated in February 11 federal court filings that the department had "mistakenly" and "briefly" granted Elez "read-write" access enabling him to alter the system; the Trump administration said in its court filings that an internal investigation had showed Elez did not take unauthorized actions despite being able.
Radio France Internationale wrote about DOGE's group entry into the federal government:
   "One of them now has direct access to the US Treasury computer system responsible for virtually all government payments. That is, taxpayers' tax returns, civil servants' salaries. That's billions of dollars that this young engineer can now manage, under the sole supervision of Elon Musk."
On February 5, NBC News reported that attorneys for the Justice Department had agreed to temporarily restrict staffers associated with DOGE from accessing information with the Treasury Department. This change came after a lawsuit was filed by a group of union members and retirees against the Treasury Department. This left Elez and Krause in place, but with a restriction not to disclose information to anyone outside the Treasury. Elez resigned on February 6 after The Wall Street Journal reported on deleted social media posts where he explicitly identified himself as a racist and advocated for eugenics and against inter-ethnic marriage.
A coalition of nineteen states, mostly Democratic-led, filed suit in a Manhattan federal court on February 7 seeking to stop DOGE from accessing the payments system. Hours later, a federal judge issued a preliminary injunction prohibiting DOGE from accessing data on the payment system and ordered any data downloaded by unauthorized people since January 20 to be destroyed. The judge scheduled a hearing for February 14. The judge in that hearing extended the injunction pending a later decision and a final ruling, which might take months.
DOGE said in February that it had discovered a tracking code was often missing in Treasury payments, rendering about $4.7 trillion in payments nearly impossible to trace. That figure would represent nearly 70% of total 2024 federal spending. Musk said he was told that over $100 billion in entitlements payments a year were being made without a Social Security number or a temporary identification number, and he was told that about $50 billion was "unequivocal and obvious fraud."

### Bullion Depository (Fort Knox)

DOGE began efforts to gain physical access to the United States Bullion Depository at Fort Knox. As of 31 July 2020, Fort Knox holds 147.34 million troy ounces (4,583 metric tons) of gold reserves with a market value of US $290.9 billion, representing 56.35% of the gold reserves of the United States. Musk reportedly insisted on a "live video walkthrough" of the secure United States Army facility. Non-authorized personnel have only been given access to the gold depository three times in history, in 1943 for Franklin D. Roosevelt, in 1974 for members of Congress, and in 2017 for then-Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and another Congressional delegation.

### Internal Revenue Service (IRS)

On February 13, Sen. Ron Wyden announced that DOGE was at the Internal Revenue Service (IRS); an email was sent to the agency beforehand, asking officers to identify all "non-essential" contracts for termination. CNN reports that Gavin Kliger visited the agency and made a series of requests. Sources say that they included enforcement, personnel footprint, and extensive system access. Earlier, Musk claimed to have "deleted" the group behind the Direct File pilot, whereas the page to file tax returns is still online and operational.
By February 16, DOGE was seeking access to a highly sensitive and tightly controlled IRS system containing taxpayer information. Kliger would be named a senior advisor to the acting IRS commissioner.
6,700 probationary employees have been fired from the IRS, per order by Trump and DOGE.

## Department of Veterans Affairs (DVA)

On February 5, 2025, it was disclosed the DOGE operatives had accessed computer databases and medical records at the Department of Veterans Affairs, with internal VA reports that DOGE was "data mining" disability compensation and benefits of United States Armed Forces military veterans.

## Federal Aviation Administration (FAA)

In the wake of the 2025 Potomac River mid-air collision, United States secretary of transportation Sean Duffy announced on February 5 that DOGE would intervene with the Federal Aviation Administration to "upgrade our aviation system". Elon Musk directly expanded on this, claiming support of President Trump to "make rapid safety upgrades to the air traffic control system". Former secretary of state Hillary Clinton was critical of DOGE's FAA safety involvement, noting that many DOGE staff were not old enough to rent a car in the United States. On Februay 17, it was confirmed hundreds of FAA safety officials were fired that day by Elon Musk. David Spero, President of the Professional Aviation Safety Specialists, was critical of the national safety impacts caused by Musk, saying:
   "Staffing decisions should be based on an individual agency's mission-critical needs. To do otherwise is dangerous when it comes to public safety. And it is especially unconscionable in the aftermath of three deadly aircraft accidents in the past month."
Musk's SpaceX staff appeared at the FAA's Air Traffic Control System Command Center on February 17, 2025, and Sean Duffy confirmed that per Donald Trump, Musk's staff would be in control of America's air traffic control systems. The Independent made note of ongoing fines, conflicts and litigation between Musk and the FAA, creating conflicts of interest for Musk.

## Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA)

On February 11, Musk incited Republican outrage by posting on X about Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) funding of migrant shelter hotels in New York City. He said DOGE had discovered the funding, and falsely asserted that the funds were intended for disaster relief but had been illegally redirected to house migrants in "luxury hotels". The funds had been appropriated by Congress in 2024 under FEMA's "Shelter and Services Program" created by Congress in 2023, and they are separate from disaster relief funds.
Musk's false allegation led the Department of Homeland Security to fire four FEMA employees that day, including the CFO, alleging they were "deep state activists". The next day, homeland security secretary Kristi Noem said she had "clawed back the full payment that FEMA deep state activists unilaterally gave to NYC migrant hotels". The city comptroller confirmed that $80 million had been withdrawn from the city's bank account.

## Federal Housing Administration (FHA)

On February 18, 2025, it was revealed DOGE began to eliminate 50% of the staff of the Federal Housing Administration (FHA), beginning with jobs related to FHA insured loans, that overwhelmingly benefit lower-income Americans.

## General Service Administration (GSA)

At the end of January, Musk's group took over the General Services Administration (GSA), which manages federal real estate and technology. Wired magazine reported "an effort to use IT credentials from the Executive Office of the President to access GSA laptops and internal GSA infrastructure". Workers at GSA's Technology Transformation Services (TTS) were summoned to meetings with young, inexperienced engineers who recently worked at Musk's companies. In the meetings, the TTS employees were required to present and defend code they had written. Some of the interviewers did not have government email addresses and refused to give their names. A Musk employee, Thomas Shedd, was appointed to lead TTS. In a TTS all-hands meeting on February 3, Shedd announced that GSA would now operate "like a startup software company", switching to an "AI-first strategy" including writing software with "AI coding agents". Shedd told TTS employees to expect a reduction in staff. In mid-February, GSA laid off dozens of TTS employees, including technical staff in the Presidential Innovation Fellows and U.S. Digital Corps programs.
On February 18, ProPublica reported that Stephen Ehikian, the new acting administrator of GSA, has appointed Frank Schuler as senior adviser. While Schuler has been coordinating with DOGE team member Nate Cavanaugh, his employment status remains unknown. Schuler has for years been promoting and profiting from “syndicated conservation easements”, a tax-shelter scheme that financial authorities tried for years to shut down.
Also on February 18, a long-time GSA employee resigned rather than be forced to give Thomas Shedd administrator access to Notify.gov, a government text message service that contains sensitive personal data for members of the public. It could have been a violation of the Federal Information Security Modernization Act to grant Shedd this access without a written justification and an update to the program's security plan; the GSA employee was "instructed to skip that process" by Shedd.

## National Archives and Records Administration (NARA)

404 Media reported that, at an all-hands meeting of all National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) employees on February 4, Deputy Director Jay Boskano stated that the agency had not received "any requests" from DOGE, that DOGE is not currently "looking to gain access" to National Archives systems, and stated there may be "unique opportunities to work with DOGE" to benefit the National Archives in the future.

## National Endowment for Democracy (NED)

On February 12, DOGE cut funding to the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) by blocking disbursement from the Department of Treasury, causing significant disruptions to the organization. The same day, the NED informed the organizations it funds that it would suspend payments immediately. Additionally, organizations supported by NED started laying off staff and cutting expenditures. The Free Press believes that dismantling the NED would symbolise a momentous change in US foreign policy, undermining the idea that democratic ideals foster US global strength and influence, and that the Trump administration therefore no longer believes that promoting democracy in the world is in the national interest.

## National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)

ABC News reported on February 6 that DOGE operatives had gained access to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) computer systems. Staff from the NOAA Information Technology group and the Department of Commerce attempted to keep the operatives from the systems according to security protocols, but the operatives defied authorized security staff and forcefully entered the facilities. Two Democratic Congress members characterized DOGE's presence in NOAA systems as "hackers". NOAA staff noted that the actions of the operatives could directly cause risk to human life by hindering NOAA and National Weather Service operations. ABC also reported that operatives were also looking for anything connected to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) on bulletin boards and were inspecting bathroom signs to ensure compliance with Trump's executive orders.
On February 12, Grist reported that the Trump administration started to shrink the Environment Protection Agency (EPA), nearly 170 employees at the EPA's Office of Environmental Justice and External Civil Rights were placed on paid administrative leave.

## National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA)

On February 13, 350 National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) employees who secure and guard America's nuclear arsenal, including about 100 employees of Pantex, the primary United States nuclear weapons assembly and disassembly facility, were fired due to DOGE. The next day, all but 28 of those firings were rescinded by NNSA acting director Teresa Robbins.

## Office of Personnel Management (OPM)

Musk's team seized control of the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) on January 20. They moved sofa beds into the fifth-floor director's office of the agency's headquarters. Musk's aides locked OPM workers out of computer systems which contain personally identifying information of millions of federal employees. After the takeover of OPM, federal employees across the country received emails asking them to turn in colleagues working on diversity, equity, inclusion, and access (DEIA) initiatives to OPM via a "DEIAtruth" email address. On February 4, two anonymous federal employees filed suit in federal court alleging the DOGE team had unlawfully installed a private server on the OPM network, seeking a restraining order to have it removed.

## Social Security Administration (SSA)

On the weekend of February 17, acting head of the Social Security Administration (SSA) Michelle King was forced to resign after denying Elon Musk access to private financial records of American citizens and Social Security recipients.
With Trump in the Oval Office days earlier, Musk asserted the SSA database included beneficiaries aged 150 years, later claiming that more than a million were aged 150 to 159, and dead people were collecting payments. Musk said the SSA could be "the biggest fraud in history." DOGE had misunderstood certain aspects of SSA operations, including how birth dates are handled on the antiquated COBOL-based computer system. Former SSA commissioner Martin O’Malley said the Musk allegations were false.