Elon Musk operatives access US payment system, aid

'This feels like a hostile takeover of the machinery of governments by the richest man in the world'

(Image credit: Victor J. Blue / Bloomberg via Getty Images)

published 3 February 2025

What happened

Members of Elon Musk's "Department of Government Efficiency" over the weekend gained access to a Treasury Department system that pays out more than $6 trillion a year in Social Security and Medicare benefits, tax refunds and federal salaries, among other items, according to several news organizations. And the Trump administration put the top security officials at the U.S. Agency for International Development on leave after they tried to block a DOGE team from a secure area of USAID headquarters.

Who said what

Acting Deputy Treasury Secretary David Lebryk, a longtime nonpolitical official, was "ousted" after refusing to "turn over access" to the tightly controlled, sensitive payment system to "Musk's surrogates," The Washington Post said. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent had approved access for Musk's team Friday.

Musk spent the weekend "expressing fury" at USAID and "voicing conspiracy theories about it," The New York Times said, and foreign policy veterans "struggled to understand" his "seeming animus" to an agency that distributes billions in humanitarian, medical and pro-democracy aid worldwide yet makes up less than 1% of the federal budget. "USAID is a criminal organization," Musk posted on X Sunday. "Time for it to die."

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Musk's "lackeys," who had "already taken control" of the federal human resources and property management offices, include a "coterie of engineers" age 19 to 24 with ties to Musk's companies, Wired said. These "aren't really accountable public officials" and we have "very little eyes" on what they are doing with the "most sensitive data in government," Don Moynihan, a public policy professor at the University of Michigan, said to the outlet. "So this feels like a hostile takeover of the machinery of governments by the richest man in the world."

What next?

"Confusion over who will be granted access to Treasury's payments rails — as well as whether their responsibilities could allow them to cut off payments — has opened a new front in the political fight" over Musk's DOGE, Politico said.

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Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.