President Donald Trump and his right-hand man, billionaire Elon Musk, are using a divide-and-conquer technique to reshape the federal government, with the tech CEO being permitted to carry out controversial decisions without supervision, according to reports.
Musk, who was initially tapped to co-chair an external advisory committee, has quickly amassed authority inside the federal government, with his team taking control of the Treasury Department’s payment system, sending out buyout memos to federal workers and more. Officials who raised concerns about his access to sensitive systems were put on leave or retired.
The scope of his power appears to be getting more significant as Trump leans on Musk to carry out drastic measures that will significantly impact the federal workforce, according to The Washington Post.
Trump is not closely monitoring Musk’s decisions as he views the tech billionaire as doing “the dirty work,” and taking the heat for controversial decisions, an unnamed sources close to the president told the Post.
While Trump spent the weekend at his Florida golf club, threatening to issue sweeping tariffs on Canada and Mexico and ordering airstrikes on an ISIS leader in Somalia, Musk and his team at the Department of Government Efficiency chipped away at the federal government as they aim to cut $4 billion a day.
On Saturday, Musk and his team reportedly obtained access to the Treasury Department’s payment system, which sends out money from the federal government. The move could potentially present Musk and his team a way of cutting out agencies and directly taking over the mechanism for paying or not paying bills and grants, according to the Post.
After two officials at the U.S. Agency for International Development, the agency that provides foreign humanitarian aid, refused to give DOGE’s government-inspection teams access to classified documents over the weekend, they were put on administrative leave.
Musk also unsubstantially claimed USAID is a “criminal organization” on X and suggested it was “Time for it to die”.
By Monday, the agency had been turned over to Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who told CNN he was “acting director,” and employees were told not to show up to work.
That decision arrived after more than two million federal workers received an email about offering buyouts to anyone who voluntarily leaves their job last week. The email was allegedly sent without approval from officials in the Office of Personnel Management, an HR-type agency for federal employees.
Musk’s power is of particular note because he has managed to extend authority in multiple federal agencies despite not having a formal government role or congressional approval. Musk, the world’s richest person, was the largest donor in the 2024 election, helping Trump win back the White House.
