Time magazines Friday cover He presents Elon Musk behind the decisive desk in an oval office of the White House, a place usually reserved for the president, which apparently suggests that the richest man in the world has more power in Washington than even President Donald Trump.
Musk, which he published $ 288 million is estimated US To become a selected Trump, he received a level of access to the Federal Payment System of the US government, which is unprecedented for a private citizen, and its actions have already caused protests and lawsuits.
Musk used his access to the system, responsible for the flow of over $ 6 trillions of US dollars in payments of American families and businesses each year to largely dismantle the American International Development Agency (USAID), foreign assistance agency and disturbing state agencies and organizations in the whole federal government.
The federal judge on Friday said that he would temporarily block Trump's administration, the presentation of 2,200 USAID employees on a paid vacation, but on the side of workers who argued that the president has no right to quickly break up a six -year assistance agency recorded in congress legislation.
The Musk Government Efficiency Department (Doge), which seems to be included in the team of Tuzzle young men previously unknown to the US government, raised concerns about the private information of Americans, leaving many government employees uncertain of their employment status.
Muska's own companies, including SpaceX and Tesla, received billions of dollars of US government contracts, increasing further fears about potential conflicts of interest.
Here are some of the questions about the recent Doge activities.
Privacy and security
Democratic legislators are looking for an investigation of the treasury department on the MUSK team of access to the government payment system, citing “threats to national economy and security, as well as a potential violation of the provisions of the protection of the privacy and tax data of Americans.”
The payment system supports tax returns, social insurance benefits and much more, raising questions about whether the Doge review is legal. Any failures in the system can mean omitted payments for people and even sharing confidential personal data.
Nineteen democratic lawyers generally sued Trump on Friday to stop the dog from access to the registers of the treasury department, which contain confidential personal data. The case, submitted to the Federal Court in New York, claims that the Trump administration allowed Musk's access to the department's central payment system in violation of federal law.
The Treasury Department maintained that its review only applies to the assessment of the system integrity and that no changes are introduced.
Secrecy
In a letter to the Secretary for Acting Education, the Democrats group demanded details about the work of Doge and swore to fight every attempt to close the education department, which was involved when Trump decides to bear it.
Dozens of employees were dismissed with a little explanation, and employees from Doge began to search the entries of the department when they are looking for expenses.
The Doge team has already gained access to personal data in a database on millions of students and parents with federal student loans, according to two people with knowledge of this problem. The third person said that the dog will receive the Administrator access to the department's website on Friday, enabling Musk employees to change the text on any page or delete the site in offline mode.
The undisputed, but authorized by the US President Donald Trump to reduce the waste of government, the world's richest man Elon Musk facilitates the growing resistance to his federal tasks and departments in what one democratic senator called “illegal power”.
The federal lawsuit filed on Friday is aimed at blocking dog access to student financial assistance systems, calling it a “huge and unprecedented” privacy invasion, which violates the privacy rights of millions of federal federal borrowers of student loans. He was submitted by the Valocacy Group Student Defense on behalf of the University of California Student Association.
He says that Doge may now have access to social insurance numbers, driving license numbers, birth dates and contact details for student loan borrowers.
The Education Department said that Doge helps him return to his personal work, restoring responsibility for employees and reforming the employment process in order to focus on merits. He said “there is nothing inappropriate or wicked.”
Conflict of interest
The Trade Union Group sued to keep the Doge employees away from the systems of the American Labor Department, which, they claim, contain confidential information about employees, including those who filed security complaints about their employers.
The Work Department also contains information on investigations regarding SpaceX and Tesla and about commercial secrets of competitors, as related to their suit. The department is home to the safety and health administration at work, which examined and punished SpaceX and Tesla in connection with the safety of employees, they gave relationships in court documents.
The federal judge wondered on Friday whether to block Musk's team before accessing systems in the work department, although the trial ended without a ruling.
“At every stage”, the lawyers of the Union wrote employees represented by the democracy of a material group, “dog violates many provisions, from constitutional restrictions on executive power, after the Act on protecting officials against arbitrary threats and functional actions, after key protection of government data collected and kept at hundreds Millions of Americans. “
The Department of Justice said that the relationships are simply speculated and did not show that dog employees would gain access to information they are worried about.
Questions about employees
Gavin Kliger mentions his work at LinkedIn as a “special director advisor” at the Office of Personnel Management, who managed Musk's efforts to reduce the federal workforce.
In social media posts between October 2024, an IT specialist educated in Berkeley expressed controversial views and published the content of the white supremacy of Nick Fuentes and misogyneist Andrew Tate.
Kliger is one of the dozen men identified by Reuters and other information services that were employed by Musk and his Doge office.
Senator Elizabeth Warren and other democratic legislators spoke at a rally outside the US Treasury Department on February 4, 2025, after Elon Musk billionaire received access to the payment system and sensitive government databases.
Another Doge employee, Marko Elez, gave up on Thursday among the questions from Wall Street Journal About links to the deleted social media account, which was in favor of racism and eugenics.
Musk said on Friday that he would give up Elez.
Reuters could not determine how Elez, Kliger or any of the people working from Musk to cut the government and staff were chosen to work.
The White House official said Reuters on Wednesday that Musk and his engineers have appropriate security permits and act in “full federal law, appropriate security permits and as employees of relevant agencies, and not as external advisers or entities.”