DOGE wreaked havoc on the government in just one week

Within the past week, Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE)-affiliated staffers have gained unprecedented access to sensitive US financial systems with data on millions of Americans, claimed to shut down one federal agency without an act of Congress, and invaded numerous government agencies. They’ve been opposed by lawsuits, public protests, and resistance within those agencies — and the situation remains constantly in flux.

As a deadline for workers to accept a so-called “deferred resignation” looms on Monday, here’s where the rest of Musk’s government takeover attempt stands.

Musk’s pseudo-department has reportedly deployed employees to at least 11 agencies: the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the Department of Education, the Department of Energy, the Environmental Protection Agency, the General Services Administration, the Department of Labor, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the Office of Personnel Management, the Small Business Administration, and the Treasury.

Last week, he attempted to trim the federal workforce by offering legally dubious “deferred resignation” agreements, which initially expired on Thursday, and promised to pay participants through September. But there is no “funding secured,” as Musk might say, since the federal government was not funded past March 14th. And in response to a lawsuit from a group of unions, a judge blocked the deadline until a hearing for further arguments takes place on Monday.

Over the weekend and in the past several days, a new crisis emerged. Musk and DOGE began working to shut down entire congressionally funded agencies. They ground the US Agency for International Development (USAID) basically to a halt, eliminating an important source of US soft power that supplies food, medical aid, and other necessities to low-income countries — likely violating the constitutional separation of powers to save taxpayers less than 1 percent of the federal budget.

The Trump administration plans to keep just about 300 staff on board at USAID, Reuters and Politico report, out of the 10,000 who previously worked for the agency. Musk is now going after other agencies frequently targeted by Republicans, including the Department of Education.

Musk and his proxies also gained access to sensitive information and payment systems, including a Treasury Department system responsible for annually disbursing more than $5 trillion to programs like Social Security and Medicare. Initial reports suggested the access was “read-only,” but multiple outlets soon reported that a DOGE staffer named Marko Elez could modify system code. Wired doubled down on that reporting on Thursday, saying that at the time Treasury and White House officials denied Elez’s access to write code in the payments system, he still had those permissions. Either way, the access is highly unusual, and a career Treasury official reportedly retired after clashing with Musk affiliates over providing access. An unnamed former US security official told The Washington Post that the payments system includes expenditures to classified programs and their purposes.

The status of this situation remains muddy. The Treasury admitted DOGE could view payment data and issued carefully worded statements that attempted to suggest this was the limit of its access. After Public Citizen filed for a temporary restraining order, Department of Justice lawyers agreed to temporarily restrict DOGE’s access, while still allowing two “special government employees,” Elez and Tom Krause, to have “read-only” access to the systems.

Reporter Nathan Tankus wrote on Thursday that Elez’s access had, in fact, been reduced to read-only. Then Elez apparently resigned after The Wall Street Journal asked about racist social media posts — it’s not clear who, if anyone, has replaced him, and Musk is now calling for his return.

Musk’s team also has access to records on millions of government employees maintained by the Office of Personnel Management (OPM), the Post reports. At least nine DOGE agents have reportedly been granted access to OPM records that include personal information, including Social Security numbers, on federal employees and online applicants to federal jobs.

After questions about whether private citizen Musk had the authority to do any of this, the White House announced Trump had designated Musk a special government employee. The administration has said little about whether DOGE staffers have obtained or could obtain security clearances, though DOGE official Katie Miller says, “No classified material was accessed without proper security clearances,” and White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt says Musk has “abided by all applicable federal laws.” But reports from Wired about the inexperienced and recently tapped team cast doubt on either prospect.

DOGE’s broad access to information has concerning security implications. Cybersecurity expert Marcus Hutchins told the Post, “It’s highly likely they’re improperly accessing, transferring and storing highly sensitive data outside of the environments it was intended to be contained within.” A 2014 breach of OPM databases exposed sensitive records on over 22 million people, and Musk could be opening the office up to a repeat — or something even worse.

In theory, if Musk’s affiliates gain the ability to directly write and remove code from the Treasury Department’s system, they could unilaterally stop payments that run through it. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) laid out some possible worst-case scenarios during a speech in front of the Treasury on Tuesday: Social Security checks being delayed to critics of X; Medicare benefits denied because a DOGE employee thinks an exam isn’t necessary. Musk’s own companies benefit from government contracts, and critics fear he could also find ways to enrich himself or thwart competitors.

Then there are the attempts to shut down federal agencies. Besides the loss of government jobs for the workers themselves, eliminating programs that have long provided resources will have massive effects. USAID works to prevent infectious disease around the world and supply food and medicine to vulnerable populations — which supporters say helps demonstrate to civilians abroad that the US is a reliable ally, fending off terrorism or US adversaries like China from taking hold. Already, the disruption to USAID has forced a sudden pause on clinical trials and left USAID workers stuck overseas without a clear plan for return, and concerned for their safety.

This is all on top of the chaos the Trump administration caused in mid-January by attempting to freeze all federal payments — one of numerous executive orders with serious effects.

For many reasons, probably not. There are questions about DOGE exceeding the cap on administrative leave and playing fast and loose with privacy laws. It’s also very plausibly breaching the separation of powers among different government branches since only Congress can typically decide to shut down congressionally funded agencies like USAID.

People were filing lawsuits against DOGE within minutes of Trump’s inauguration, and even more piled up this week, submitted by public interest groups, unions, and federal employees. On Thursday, a group of 12 state attorneys general announced plans for their own lawsuit on privacy grounds.

“At every step, DOGE is violating multiple laws, from constitutional limits on executive power, to laws protecting civil servants from arbitrary threats and adverse action, to crucial protections for government data collected and stored on hundreds of millions of Americans,” one complaint from Democracy Forward reads.

The congressional Republican majority, perhaps unsurprisingly, has voiced few objections to Musk’s actions. “It’s not uncommon for presidents to flex a little bit on where they can spend and where they can stop spending,” Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC) said, according to NPR. Tillis acknowledged that the executive branch moving to shut down an agency likely violates the Constitution, but “nobody should bellyache” about a president looking for cost savings.

Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) reportedly found nothing out of the ordinary about DOGE’s actions. “What Trump is doing in terms of his top to bottom review of government is not unusual,” he said, per NPR. A couple of Republican lawmakers, Sens. Susan Collins (R-ME) and John Boozman (R-AR), said they’d like to hear more details about what Musk is up to. “I don’t think we know exactly what he is doing right now,” Boozman told NPR.

Meanwhile, protesters who spoke with The Verge across several demonstrations this week expressed frustration with the Democratic minority in Congress for failing to take action. Beyond letters from Sens. Ron Wyden (D-OR) and Warren demanding information, lawmakers made few concrete moves to oppose DOGE until mid-week, when several began attending rallies and promising firmer resistance.

At the USAID rally on Wednesday, Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) spoke to a high-energy crowd that filled much of a large park within sight of the US Capitol, saying, “we will not cooperate” in the US Senate — joining a pledge from Sen. Brian Schatz (D-HI) not to confirm any State Department appointments or foreign policy nominees. Booker said Democrats would also legally “fight their violation of civil service laws,” civil rights laws, and separation of powers. “We will not shut up.” Democrats have also introduced the Stop the Steal Act and the Elon Musk Act to limit special government employee access to Treasury payment systems and to federal contracts.

Democrats are also trying to conduct oversight by showing up at the Treasury to speak with its top officials, demanding answers from Trump’s agency heads and attempting to subpoena Musk. But so far, most of those efforts have been rebuffed. Lawmakers were not able to speak with Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent when they showed up on Tuesday, and Republicans blocked House Oversight Committee Democrats from legally ordering Musk to appear before the panel and provide answers for his actions to Congress.

Without majorities in either chamber, options are limited unless a handful of Republicans get on board.

Even so, Democrats have begun to be more obstructive. Throughout Wednesday night, Senate Democrats held the floor to oppose Trump’s nominee to lead the Office of Management and Budget, an architect of Project 2025. While they had no real hope of blocking the confirmation without support from a handful of Republicans, it’s exactly the kind of obstruction many protesters have been hoping to see amid the norm-breaking actions from Trump and Musk.

Short of Trump himself getting tired of Musk and kicking him out, lawsuits could lead to court orders that (in theory) could reverse some of DOGE’s actions and limit its tactics. Public pressure may have led to events like Elez’s departure, and revelations from the press could create new grounds for legal or legislative action.

In the meantime, thousands of career federal employees are continuing to do their jobs amid the uncertainty and, in many cases, trying to hold the line of long-standing norms and data access. But workers are feeling demoralized, unsure when they’ll be pushed to a point where they can no longer justify staying. The head of the US DOGE (formerly Digital Service), which was taken over by Musk, resigned on Thursday.

Activists and Democratic lawmakers have sought to remind everyone that no outcome is preordained. Outside the Department of Labor on Wednesday, AFL-CIO president Liz Shuler said that the group had gotten word that DOGE officials were set to show up to the building that afternoon — but switched to a “virtual meeting” instead.
“We have already shown as Americans that we can push back and stop Trump,” said Booker at the USAID rally earlier in the day. “We did it in 2016 with health care. We stopped Trump. We’ve done it before with his efforts to stop federal funding to our veterans and first responders just about a week ago. We are not powerless. We have agency.”