Time magazine Cover for Friday It shows Elona Musk behind the determined table in the oval office of the White House, a place usually reserved for the president, it seems that the richest man in the world has greater power in Washington than even President Donald Trump.
Musk, who spent It is estimated at $ 288 million OUR In order for Trump to be elected, he was given the level of access to the Federal Payment System of the US Government, which was unprecedented for a private citizen, and his actions have already caused protests and lawsuits.
Musk used its access to the system, responsible for the flow of over $ 6 trillion in the payment of US families and companies every year, to largely dismantled the US International Development Agency (USAID), an agency for foreign assistance and interfere with the state of agency and organization throughout the Federal Government.
On Friday, the federal judge said he would temporarily block Trump’s administration to put 2,200 USAID employees on paid leave, however, in accordance with workers who claimed that the president lacked the authority to quickly dismantle the sixfold congress assistance agency.
Musk -O’s Department for the Efficiency of the Government (Doge), which seems to include a team of a dozen young men who are previously unknown to the US government, has caused concern about the private data of Americans who have been compromised, while many government workers are insecure of status employment.
The men’s own companies, which include Spacex and Tesla, received billions of dollars of valuable government contracts, which increased further concerns about potential conflicts of interest.
Here are some questions asked about Doge’s recent actions.
Privacy and security
Democratic legislators are seeking an investigation by the Ministry of Finance on the ACCESS Musk team, it has been given to the Government’s payment system, citing “threats to the economy and national security and potential violation of the law protecting information on the privacy and taxes of Americans.”
The payment system resolves tax refund, social insurance fees and more, asking the questions whether Doge audit is legal. Any breakup in the system could mean missed payments to people or even sharing sensitive personal data.
Nineteen Democratic lawyers sued Trump on Friday to stop Doge to approach the Ministry of Finance minutes containing sensitive personal information. The case, filed at the Federal Court in New York, states that Trump’s administration has enabled a Musk team approach to the central pay system of the department in violating the Federal Law.
The Ministry of Finance claims that its review is only in assessing the integrity of the system and that they do not change.
Secrecy
In a letter to the Education Secretary, a group of Democrats requested details about Doge’s work and vowed to fight any attempt to close the Department of Education, which was in restlessness while Trump intended to abolish it.
Dozens of employees were put on paid leave with little explanation, and workers from Doge began to make the records of the department as they look to miss the consumption.
The Doga team has already gained access to personal data databases on personal data on millions of students and parents with federal student loans, according to two people with knowledge of the matter. The third person said Dogeu will be accessed by the administrator access to the Department’s website on Friday, allowing for men’s workers to change the text on any page or take out the site off the network.
Unrealized but authorized by US President Donald Trump to reduce government waste, the richest man in the world, Elon Musk, is confronted with the growing resistance of his decrease in federal jobs and departments in what a democratic senator called “illegal grafting of power.”
The federal lawsuit filed on Friday wants to block Doge’s approach to student financial assistance systems, calling it a “huge and unprecedented” invasion of privacy that violates the rights of the millionaire of federal student loans. It was filed by the student defense of the advocate groups on behalf of the Association of Students of the University of California.
He says Doge could now have access to social security numbers, driving licenses, birth dates and contact information for borrings for student loans.
Department of Education said Doge helps to return to personal work, restoring responsibility for employees and reforming the employment process to focus on merit. It has been said that “nothing is appropriate or infamously happening.”
Conflict of interest
The union group sued to experience workers from the US Ministry of Labor system, which they say contain sensitive information about workers, including those who submitted security complaints to their employers.
The Ministry of Labor also has information on Spacex investigations and Tesla and the secrets of trade competitors, unions said in their lawsuit. The Department is the Home of the Occupational Safety and Hears, which investigated and punished by Spacex and Tesla regarding the certainty of workers, unions in court documents said.
The federal judge considered on Friday whether to block the men’s team to approach systems in the work department, although he was hearing ended without a judgment.
“At every step,” the union lawyers wrote the advocacy group of Democracy forward, “Doga violates more laws, from constitutional limitations of the executive, to law protecting civil servants from arbitrary threats, to key protection of government data collected and stored on hundreds millions of Americans. “
The Ministry of Justice has said that unions are just speculating and have not shown that Doge employees will get access to the information they care for.
Questions about employees
Gavin Kliger cites his job on Linkedin as a “special advisor to the director” at the Office of Staff Management, who led the men’s efforts to reduce the federal labor force.
In the posts on social media between October 2024 and January, he has expressed controversial views and renovated the contents of the white superior Nick Fuentes and the self -described Mizoginist Andrew Tate.
Kliger is one of a dozen men who identified Reuters and other editions that recruited Musk and his Doge.
Senator Elizabeth Warren and other Democratic legislators spoke at a rally outside the US Ministry of Finance 4 February 2025, after a technological billionaire Elon Musk received access to his pay system and sensitive government databases.
Another Doge Employee, Marko Elez, gave up on Thursday from questions from Wall Street Journal About the ties on the deleted account of the social media that advocated racism and eugenik.
Musk said on Friday that he would revise Elez again.
Reuters could not determine how Elez, Kliger or any of the individuals who work with Musk were selected for his job to reduce the government and staff.
The White House official told Reuters on Wednesday that Musk and his engineers have appropriate safety approval and to act in “complete respect for the Federal Law, appropriate security approval, and as employees of relevant agencies, not as external advisers or subjects.”
