Tesla CEO Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, has drawn the ire of many Americans — including tech titan Bill Gates — since its inception. Now, a whistleblower has told The Guardian that Americans' Social Security information may have been exposed.
DOGE's approach to "streamlining" government programs was a fast-moving one from the very start, pulling the plug on vital programs and decimating the civil service, and the aftermath has been an apparent hit to the size of the customer base for Musk's companies. Tesla sales have dropped both in the U.S. and many other parts of the world, and some have stopped using the social media platform X, often citing that being a customer or user felt like supporting Musk.
Some of that sentiment began while Musk was active in political campaigning in 2024, and the work with DOGE seemed to take Musk's impact from words to action. Musk's staffers went so far as to impound congressionally appropriated funds, leaving critical government programs without an operating budget and remaining federal civil servants saying they felt confused and alarmed.
Early in DOGE's reign, Musk bragged about the destruction of the American aid organization USAID. On Feb. 3, he tweeted about having fed USAID "into the wood chipper."
In June, the New York Times profiled what it called DOGE's "chaotic takeover" of the Social Security Administration. Specifically, the Times said, Musk "became fixated on the program in early February after...
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