Elon Musk has been uncovered to have a final objective as he persists in streamlining the federal government by making drastic layoffs and cutting entire departments.
The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), overseen by the billionaire SpaceX creator, has dismissed numerous federal employees in its initial weeks of operation.
The mass layoffs have primarily impacted DEI recruits, aligning with Trump’s opposition to woke initiatives, and reportedly, employees labeled as ‘lazy’ who are set to be replaced by artificial intelligence.
Musk’s primary aim appears to be diminishing the government machine to make it easier for President Donald Trump to control, according to the Washington Post.
It comes after Trump, 78, refused to rule out acting as a ‘dictator’ the month before he was sworn in as the 47th President of the United States.
Longtime Musk ally and investor Shervin Pishevar told the Post that Trump and the X tsar have been acting as two complimentary ‘storms’ tearing through government.
‘Chaos is often the birthplace of new orders, new systems and new paradigms,’ Pishevar said of the major overhaul currently being carried out by DOGE.
‘Washington doesn’t know how to deal with people who refuse to play the game by their rules.
Elon Musk ‘s end goal has been revealed as he continues to slim down federal government through ruthless redundancies and the slashing of entire departments
U.S. President Donald Trump, Elon Musk, and Vice President J.D. Vance
‘Donald Trump and Elon Musk are two different storms backed by a majority of Americans — one political, one technological.
‘But both are tearing through the same rotting structure.’
The diminished government will also give less oversight over private business and comprise a smaller share of the US economy.
However, DOGE has already encountered a major obstacle. A New York judge temporarily halted the department from accessing the US Treasury’s payment system.
District Judge Paul A. Engelmayer of the Southern District of New York granted a restraining order against the US Treasury Department and Trump on Saturday after 19 states, including New York, who filed the request, demanded it.
The emergency restraining order commanded the immediate halt of giving access to Treasury information outside of those employed with the department.
This includes ‘all political appointees, special government employees, and government employees detailed from an agency outside the Treasury Department payment record, payment systems, or any other data systems maintained by the Treasury Department.’
It also ordered for any Treasury information obtained by those outside the department since January 20 – Inauguration Day – to be ‘immediately’ destroyed, which would include Musk’s DOGE workers.
The DOGE team also recently announced plans to deploy a new and untested tool to assist his goal of slashing costs and ‘lazy’ federal workers – the deployment of artificial intelligence to upgrade government systems.
Josh Gruenbaum – head of the Federal Acquisition Service at the General Services Administration (GSA) – revealed that they are considering utilizing AI ‘in our portfolios.’
That includes ways to cut down on staff around the country, he said.
We’ll be ‘cutting redundant business functions and associated staffing,’ Gruenbaum said, alluding to the potential of AI taking over already-established jobs.
Trump’s DOGE is also offering cushy ‘buyout’ deals to federal employees in the hopes of cutting back between five and 10 percent of the workforce.
A White House official confirmed to DailyMail.com on Thursday that more than 40,000 federal workers had accepted the offer as of February 6.
Musk’s aim appears to be diminishing the government machine to make it easier for President Donald Trump to control, according to the Washington Post
Elon Musk walks on Capitol Hill on the day of a meeting with Senate Republicans about cutting waste
Democratic Lawmakers address hundreds at the “Nobody Elected Elon” rally outside of the Department of The Treasury building
Thomas Shedd, a former Tesla engineer who’s now also at the GSA, reportedly held a meeting Monday to outline plans to implement AI into the government.
‘I’m not saying that this is an easy task, but it is a task that’s worth trying to pursue and one that only we can do as an internal team, right?,’ he said.
‘We can’t bring a third party in, hire them and have them work on a project like this. It has to be an internal technology team that works on this,’ Shedd said, according to 404 media, who obtained audio of the meeting.
Musk has also attacked the US Agency for International Development (USAID) – the government agency tasked with humanitarian relief overseas – calling it a ‘criminal organization’ after Donald Trump claimed it was ‘run by radical lunatics.’
‘USAID is a criminal organization,’ Musk wrote on his X platform last week – without providing any evidence, before adding: ‘Time for it to die’.
In another X post, Musk doubled down and asked his 215 million X followers: ‘Did you know that USAID, using YOUR tax dollars, funded bioweapon research, including Covid-19, that killed millions of people?’
He did not elaborate on the allegations, which included a discredited report that officials in the previous administration linked to a Russian disinformation campaign.
Trump also attached the agency on Sunday, claiming it has ‘been run by a bunch of radical lunatics, and we’re getting them out… and then we’ll make a decision (on its future).’
The president underscored his support for Musk, telling reporters on Sunday night he felt the billionaire was ‘doing a good job’ even if they did not agree on every point.
‘He’s a big cost-cutter. Sometimes we won’t agree with it or we’ll not go where he wants to go…he’s a smart guy. Very smart. And he’s very much into cutting the budget of our federal government,’ Trump said.
A woman protests outside the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) headquarters after the Elon Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) was charged with oversight of OPM,
The criticism from Musk follows more than a week of mayhem inside USAID, Washington’s primary agency funding life-saving aid globally.
Trump ordered a freeze on almost all U.S. foreign aid for three months, saying his administration will review spending to ensure money is distributed in line with his ‘America First’ foreign policy.
Though he subsequently issued waivers for food and other humanitarian aid to continue, aid workers say uncertainty reigns with the future of the organization as an independent agency far from assured.
A senior official from a US-based organization feared that the prioritization of ’emergency’ assistance was part of a broader plan in which Washington would discontinue funds for anything else.
Former Deputy National Security Advisor Ben Rhodes said the dismantling of USAID ‘will cost untold lives around the world, devastate America’s standing, and massively empower China and other countries.’
He added: ‘There’s no excusing it – it’s a shameful, stupid, self-own without excuse and a harbinger of even worse to come.’
There have been reports Trump wants to roll USAID into the State Department.
Since Trump’s inauguration Musk has addressed far-right groups in Europe, given an infamous raised-arm gesture compared to a Nazi salute, and attacked the Treasury for making authorized payments on the government’s behalf.
DOGE was founded as part of the so-called ‘executive office of the president,’ as a temporary 18-month organization under the repurposed United States Digital Service.
It does not enjoy full status as a government department, which would require the approval of Congress, and Musk is neither federal employee nor a government official. It is unclear to whom DOGE is accountable.
CNN reported that two senior security officials at USAID were put on forced leave after they barred staff from Musk’s DOGE from accessing classified documents as part of their sprawling effort to inspect the government’s books.
The two DOGE representatives also wanted to access staff files and security systems at USAID’s headquarters, the broadcaster reported, citing multiple sources.
Nearly 30 career staff in the agency’s Legislative and Public Affairs bureau lost access overnight to their emails, at least five sources said, bringing the total number of senior USAID career staff who have been put on leave over the past week close to 100.
‘DOGE did access the building yesterday,’ a senior Senate Democratic aide said, requesting anonymity to discuss the incident. USAID security officers tried to turn away DOGE personnel without security clearances.
‘They (security personnel) were threatened with action by the federal Marshals Service,’ the aide said.
Following the incident, the director of USAID security, John Voorhees, and his deputy Brian McGill were removed from their positions and put on leave, sources said.
The pair believed themselves legally obligated to deny access.
Trump underscored his support for Musk, telling reporters on Sunday night he felt the billionaire was ‘doing a good job’ even if they did not agree on every point
‘USAID is a criminal organization,’ Musk, the billionaire owner of Tesla and SpaceX who has become the president’s most powerful backer, wrote on his X platform without providing any evidence adding ‘Time for it to die’.
PBS also reported that DOGE staff attempted to gain access to ‘secure spaces.’
There was no record of what information DOGE officials were able to obtain in those areas, but the offices they accessed included classified files and personal information about Americans who work at USAID, the sources said.
Katie Miller, a DOGE spokesperson, said on social media platform X that no classified material was accessed without proper security clearances.
Matt Hopson, who had just been appointed as USAID chief of staff by the Trump administration, has resigned, five sources familiar with the matter said. A congressional source said his resignation followed the incident with DOGE officials.
Steven Cheung, a senior aide to Trump, posted on X that the PBS report was ‘legitimately FAKE NEWS. Not even remotely true at all. This is how unserious and untrustworthy the media is.’
Meanwhile, USAID’s account on X has been disabled and the USAID website has been down since Saturday afternoon, a sign that the end is near for the agency.
The U.S. is by far the world´s largest donor of humanitarian aid, with USAID administering billions of dollars in humanitarian, development and security assistance in more than 100 countries.
Its funding goes to programs on everything from women’s health in conflict zones to access to clean water, HIV/AIDS treatments, energy security and anti-corruption work.
USAID, an independent agency established by an act of Congress, manages a budget of $42.8 billion meant for humanitarian relief and development assistance around the world
Musk posted a series of tweets on Sunday targeting USAID
Democratic Senator Chris Murphy has criticized the ‘total destruction’ of the agency.
‘The people elected Donald Trump to be President — not Elon Musk,’ Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez wrote on X.
‘Having an unelected billionaire, with his own foreign debts and motives, raiding US classified information is a grave threat to national security,’ she said.
Democratic Senator Cory Booker turned to social media on Sunday to sound off on the ‘dismantling’ of USAID.
‘Trump and Musk are recklessly and illegally dismantling USAID, an essential national security agency that saves lives, advances U.S. interests, and promotes peace,’ Booker wrote.
‘Their malicious actions are putting the health of people, especially children, at grave risk, and will surely lead to future public health and migration crises in the U.S. – let alone suffering around the globe.’
Senior Democratic members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, including its chair Jeanne Shaheen, on Sunday sent a letter to U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio seeking an explanation over the incident.
Shaheen said that she was working to gather Democrats and Republicans to ask for answers.
The global freeze on most of U.S. foreign aid is already sending shockwaves around the world.
Field hospitals in Thai refugee camps, landmine clearance in war zones, and drugs to treat millions suffering from diseases such as HIV are among the programs at risk of elimination.
U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee Chair Brian Mast, a Republican, said on Sunday that he would support moving USAID under the State Department and that there needs to be ‘more command and control.’
Asked on CBS’ ‘Face the Nation’ if congressional approval was needed or whether Trump could act unilaterally, Mast did not answer.
The ‘purging of people throughout the State Department, other agencies’ and freezing aid were ‘all very important and necessary steps to make sure that we secure America,’ he said.
It comes a day after DOGE carried out a similar operation at the Treasury Department gaining access to sensitive information including the Social Security and Medicare customer payment systems.
The system is run by non-political career civil servants and controls trillions of dollars of government funds that go to programs like Social Security and Medicare. Any interruption in its operation would spark widespread economic failure.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent gave Musk’s DOGE the green light to have full access to the payments system late on Friday.
It was not immediately clear why Musk wants access to the system, which handles around $5trillion annually, but it could provide the Trump administration another means to target wasteful spending.
A senior Treasury official resigned over Musk’s team accessing sensitive information.
