In a recent interview with Fox News, Donald Trump made a startling admission about his collaboration with Elon Musk. Trump revealed that he had initially searched for “somebody smarter” to lead the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), but ultimately “settled” on Musk. 

During the interview, Trump candidly expressed his desire for someone with exceptional intelligence, stating, “He’s good… I wanted to find somebody smarter than him. I searched all over. I just couldn’t do it. I couldn’t find anyone smarter, right? So, we had to, for the country, settled on this guy”. He then acknowledged that Musk, though not his first choice, was still a valuable asset. Musk responded to Trump’s comments saying, “Well, thanks for having me. I’m just trying to be useful here.”

“I wanted to find someone smarter than Elon… I couldn’t find someone smarter than Elon” pic.twitter.com/fcDXrXSToC

— Gunther Eagleman (@GuntherEagleman) February 19, 2025

The conversation took an interesting turn when Fox host Sean Hannity pointed out the significant disparity in wealth between Musk and Trump. Trump swiftly responded, saying, “That’s why I became president.” He then delved deeper into his decision to collaborate with Musk, highlighting the billionaire’s impressive business acumen. Trump praised Musk, saying, “He’s actually a very good businessman. What he does, with his 100 geniuses, is ensure that things get done.”

Despite Musk’s title as senior adviser to the president, a White House court filing clarified that he had no “formal authority” to make government decisions. Nevertheless, Trump emphasised Musk’s crucial role in executing executive orders. He explained, “You write an executive order and think it’s done. You send it out, but it doesn’t get implemented. What Elon does is take that and make sure it gets done.”

As the interview progressed, Hannity jokingly referred to Musk as Trump’s “tech support.” Trump quickly corrected him, saying, “He’s much more than that.”

The partnership between Trump and Musk has been a subject of interest, particularly given Musk’s role. The DOGE has been instrumental in Trump’s efforts to overhaul the government, which has included thousands of job cuts.

Trump has assured that Musk will not be involved in any DOGE decisions that may pose a conflict of interest saying, “If there’s a conflict, he won’t be involved. I mean, I wouldn’t want that, and he wouldn’t want it.”
 

Washington:

 President Donald Trump said on Tuesday he will not let billionaire Elon Musk take part in any space-related government decisions, when the president was asked about Musk’s potential conflicts of interest amid his drive to cut government spending.

“So anything to do with possibly even space, we won’t let Elon partake in that,” Trump told reporters.

The White House has previously said Musk would excuse himself from any conflicts of interest between his various business interests and efforts to cut costs for the federal government via his Department of Government Efficiency.

The White House said on Monday that Musk’s role in the Trump administration was as a White House employee and senior adviser to the president, and that he was not an employee of DOGE. The White House also said Musk had no decision-making authority.

DOGE has swept through federal agencies since Trump began his second term as president last month and put Musk in charge of rooting out wasteful spending as part a dramatic overhaul of government that has included thousands of job cuts.

“Elon is, to me, a patriot. So you know, you could call him an employee, you could call him a consultant,” Trump said about Musk on Tuesday. “You could call him whatever you want, but he’s a patriot.”

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Washington:

Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) has sparked alarm by seeking access to a system with the US tax office that has detailed financial data about millions of Americans, US media reported.

Spearheaded by Musk, the world’s richest man, US President Donald Trump has embarked on a campaign to slash public spending deemed wasteful or contrary to his policies.

The Washington Post and others reported that the latest request is for DOGE officials to have broad access to Internal Revenue Service (IRS) systems, property and datasets.

This includes the Integrated Data Retrieval System (IDRS), access to which is usually extremely limited and which offers “instantaneous visual access to certain taxpayer accounts”, according to the IRS.

As of Sunday evening, the request had not been granted, the reports said.

But it has sparked alarm within the government and among privacy experts who say granting Musk access to private taxpayer data could be extraordinarily dangerous, according to ABC News.

“People who share their most sensitive information with the federal government do so under the understanding that not only will it be used legally, but also handled securely and in ways that minimize risks like identity theft and personal invasion, which this reporting brings into serious question,” Elizabeth Laird, a former state privacy officer now with the Center for Democracy and Technology, told ABC.

“Waste, fraud, and abuse have been deeply entrenched in our broken system for far too long,” White House spokesperson Harrison Fields said when asked about the employee’s potential access to the sensitive system, NBC News reported.

“It takes direct access to the system to identify and fix it.

“DOGE will continue to shine a light on the fraud they uncover as the American people deserve to know what their government has been spending their hard-earned tax dollars on,” Fields added.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

New Delhi:

Billionaire and head of the newly created US Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) Elon Musk, along with US President Donald Trump, has taken on the legacy media houses in the US. The attempt to discredit the legacy media is being channelled through X.com, the social media platform owned by Musk and Truth Social where the President usually posts.

In the most recent attack, Musk and Trump trained their guns on the reputed news agency Reuters.

Reuters received far more money than this from US government organizations, but via various subsidiaries and intermediaries to hide how they were getting it.

This is just what @DOGE has found so far. pic.twitter.com/PXbL1OkEKO

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 13, 2025

 
Earlier, Musk had alleged that Reuters had been paid $9 million by the Biden administration for “large-scale social deception”.

Reuters was paid millions of dollars by the US government for “large scale social deception”.

That is literally what it says on the purchase order! They’re a total scam.

Just wow. https://t.co/GGxoVQSwN8

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 13, 2025

Reuters responded to Musk’s post saying the contract was “inaccurately represented.” It clarified that the contract was awarded to Thomson Reuters Special Services (TRSS), a division separate from the news agency. The news agency also carried a clarification by Spokesperson Tabatha Thompson of the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), which is the R&D arm of the US military. DARPA had funded the contract in question. Thompson was quoted by Reuters as saying – “Thomson Reuters Special Services (TRSS) was competitively selected to serve as the evaluator to test the defensive tools. … They (Thomson Reuters) assessed the effectiveness of our defensive tools.”

The US government website www.usaspending.gov lists the contracts from different government agencies to different vendors. A cumulative search on the site shows that different arms of Reuters received `140 million in funding since 2008. 

Photo Credit: www.usaspending.gov

Photo Credit: www.usaspending.gov

Photo Credit: www.usaspending.gov

Photo Credit: Photo Credit: www.usaspending.gov

Photo Credit: Photo Credit: www.usaspending.gov

Photo Credit: Photo Credit: www.usaspending.gov

(Funding for Thomson Reuters from US govt agencies yearwise)

In the past week, Elon Musk has been targeting a number of publications as his DOGE team raided the offices of USAID in an effort to uncover wasteful and fraudulent spending.

Associated Press

The US government site www.usaspending.gov shows that the US government spent over half a million dollars on the Associated Press. These payouts have been promptly terminated by the DOGE.

Politico

DOGE has alleged that space agency NASA spent $500,000 on subscriptions to Politico.

Photo Credit: Screenshots of funding for AP: Source: www.usaspending.gov

NASA subsequently cancelled the enormous subscriptions for Politico.
 

NASA leadership has verified that this was cancelled today. https://t.co/wSqWOFtHeT

— Department of Government Efficiency (@DOGE) February 5, 2025

 Other government departments have spent $32 million on Politico.

Photo Credit: www.usaspending.gov

 

Politico got $32 million in funding from the United States government.

Funding for Politico from US government agencies yearwise.
Photo Credit: www.usaspending.gov

The New York Times

Elon Musk called the New York Times “government-funded media” on X.com in response to another post

Photo Credit: Image posted on X by @elonmusk

One of the most venerated names in the world when it comes to journalism, the New York Times has received at least $2.6 million in funding from various agencies of the US government between fiscal years 2008 to 2024.

Photo Credit: www.usaspending.gov

Photo Credit: www.usaspending.gov

Photo Credit: www.usaspending.gov

Funding for NYT from US govt agencies yearwise
Photo Credit: www.usaspending.gov

BBC

Another household name and go-to media house – the BBC – received funding to the tune of 2.6 million pounds sterling, equivalent to $3.2 million from USAID.

The BBC thanks its donor USAID for the generous $3.2 million in funding
Photo Credit: BBC.com

The yearwise spending on the BBC by USAID and other agencies of the US government appears to have stopped in 2011 as per the US government site www.usaspending.gov , but the BBC website currently thanks the USAID for being one of its most generous donors.

Funding for NYT from US govt agencies yearwise
Photo Credit: www.usaspending.gov

Internews

Elon Musk has been reposting about Internews – an agency that trains “journalists, and digital rights activists, advance internet freedom and offer business expertise to help media outlets become financially viable.”

Internews has received $404 million since 2008.  

Photo Credit: www.usaspending.gov

Internews funding from US government agencies yearwise
Photo Credit: www.usaspending.gov

Internews funds individual journalists and media outlets in over 100 countries, including in India.

Internews claims to have reached 75,000 people in India – including journalists, activists, students of schools and colleges as well as villagers in remote parts of the country.

Washington DC:

In its bid to save US taxpayers’ money, the Donald Trump administration’s cost-cutting team–Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE)– has cancelled a slew of overseas projects, including one in Bangladesh that raised several eyebrows. The billionaire Elon Musk-led department said it is cancelling $29 million funding intended for “strengthening the political landscape in Bangladesh”.

In a post on X listing a list of cancelled US funding abroad, DOGE said, “USD 29M to ‘strengthening the political landscape in Bangladesh” has been stopped.

US taxpayer dollars were going to be spent on the following items, all which have been cancelled:
– $10M for “Mozambique voluntary medical male circumcision”
– $9.7M for UC Berkeley to develop “a cohort of Cambodian youth with enterprise driven skills”
– $2.3M for “strengthening…

— Department of Government Efficiency (@DOGE) February 15, 2025

This comes days after American President Trump denied allegations of US involvement in the regime change in Bangladesh last year when former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina was ousted following a nationwide protest led by students.

About Strengthening Political Landscape Project in Bangladesh

Funded by the United States Agency For International Development (USAID) and the United Kingdon’s erstwhile Department for International Development, the strengthening Political Landscape in Bangladesh program (SPL) worked to build political party capacity and strengthen relationships between parties and constituents while reducing political violence, according to Democracy International (DI).

Per DI, the programme supported political activists and citizens as they built the skills they needed to become effective leaders, advocate for inclusive policies, and constructively engage with one another to mitigate conflict.

In addition, SPL confronted the challenges of political violence by engaging political parties, grassroots activists, and university students, monitoring incidents of violence, and promoting peaceful alternatives.

Trump On US Involvement In Bangadesh’s Regime Change

After a bilateral meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday, US President Donald Trump dismissed any American involvement in the Bangladesh political crisis, stating that the issue has been handled by India for a long time.

When a reporter sought the views of President Trump on whether the previous Democratic government under former President Joe Biden carried out a regime change in Bangladesh, and installed Muhammad Yunus as a chief adviser, the Republican said, “There is no role for our deep state. This is something that the Prime Minister has been working on for a long time and has worked on for hundreds of years… I have been reading about it.”

Then pointing at PM Modi he added, “I will leave Bangladesh to the PM.”

While the Republican did not directly address the question, speculation is that the response indicated the new Trump administration may not get itself involved in Bangladesh, where alleged radical Islamist elements have been targeting religious minorities including Hindus.

India-Bangladesh Relations

Ties between India and Bangladesh have nosedived after Ms Hasina fled Dhaka in August in the face of a massive anti-government protest.

The interim government headed by Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus, who returned from the US to work as Bangladesh’s caretaker, continues to draw sharp criticism over not doing enough to stop attacks on minorities by radical Islamists.

Bangladesh-US Ties

Meanwhile, Bangladesh’s Chief Adviser, Professor Muhammad Yunus, on Friday said that he has discussed with Tesla CEO Elon Musk a potential collaboration to launch Starlink satellite internet service in Bangladesh.

Yunus on Thursday held an extensive video discussion with Musk to make further progress in introducing Starlink satellite to enhance internet service in Bangladesh.

Professor Yunus also extended an invitation to Musk to visit Bangladesh for the potential launch of Starlink services, underscoring the significance of this initiative for national development, to which Musk responded positively. 

“I look forward to it,” Musk said.

Other Biden-Era Funding Slashed By DOGE

In a post on X, the official DOGE handle listed the number of spending by US taxpayers that has been cancelled, including $22 million in funding intended for ‘voter turnout in India’ and $ 39 million for “fiscal federalism” and “biodiversity conservation” in Nepal.

This is part of DOGE’s continued effort to outline significant changes in government spending over the last few weeks.

About Nepal’s  “Fiscal Federalism” Programme

With the promulgation of the 2015 constitution, Nepal embarked on its federalism journey and established three tiers of government– one federal, seven provinces, and 753 local levels in 2017. 

The fiscal federalism programme is based on the canon that “single penny expense is not levied without the consent of parliament”

To adhere to this norm, Nepal’s Constitution has clear provisions with regard to the financial procedures of the federal, provincial and local governments, according to a report by International Alert.

About DOGE

The effort by what the Donald Trump administration calls DOGE is intended to cut government costs drastically. Musk’s department has swept through federal agencies in recent weeks searching for spending cuts as part of Trump’s goal to overhaul and shrink the US government.

New Delhi:

The United States Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), led by Elon Musk, has cancelled a $21 million US taxpayer-funded grant – under former President Joe Biden’s administration – meant to influence “voter turnout in India.” In its announcement, DOGE highlighted that the $21 million was part of a larger $486 million budget allocated to the “Consortium for Elections and Political Process Strengthening.” 

Another $29 million was slated for “strengthening the political landscape in Bangladesh” – a country that witnessed political turmoil amid allegations of US ‘deep state’ involvement in the ouster of former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. 

The Musk-led department revealed that other taxpayer-funded projects also faced the axe, including:

• $47 million for “improving learning outcomes in Asia”
• $40 million for a “gender equality and women empowerment hub”
• $32 million to the Prague Civil Society Centre
• $22 million to foster an “inclusive and participatory political process” in Moldova. 
• $20 million for “fiscal federalism” in Nepal
• $19 million for “biodiversity conservation” in Nepal
• $14 million for “social cohesion” in Mali
• $14 million for “improving public procurement” in Serbia
• $10 million for “Mozambique voluntary medical male circumcision”
• $9.7 million for UC Berkeley to develop “a cohort of Cambodian youth with enterprise-driven skills”
• $2.5 million for “inclusive democracies in Southern Africa”
• $2.3 million for “strengthening independent voices in Cambodia”
• $2 million to develop “sustainable recycling models” to “increase socio-economic cohesion among marginalised communities of Kosovo Roma, Ashkali, and Egypt”
• $1.5 million for “voter confidence” in Liberia

US taxpayer dollars were going to be spent on the following items, all which have been cancelled:
– $10M for “Mozambique voluntary medical male circumcision”
– $9.7M for UC Berkeley to develop “a cohort of Cambodian youth with enterprise driven skills”
– $2.3M for “strengthening…

— Department of Government Efficiency (@DOGE) February 15, 2025

The sweeping cancellations, Mr Musk’s department stated, were part of efforts to improve government efficiency and ensure taxpayer dollars were not being spent on “questionable” overseas political activities.

BJP’s “External Interference” Response

The BJP termed the now-cancelled funding “external interference” in India’s electoral process.

“$21M for voter turnout? This definitely is external interference in India’s electoral process. Who gains from this? Not the ruling party for sure!” said BJP national spokesperson Amit Malviya in a statement 

Mr Malviya further alleged “systematic infiltration” of Indian institutions by foreign forces, particularly targeting billionaire investor and philanthropist George Soros and his alleged network of global influence through his Open Society Foundation.

“Once again, it is George Soros, a known associate of the Congress party and the Gandhis, whose shadow looms over our electoral process,” Mr Malviya claimed.

Once again, it is George Soros, a known associate of the Congress party and the Gandhis, whose shadow looms over our electoral process.

In 2012, under the leadership of S.Y. Quraishi, the Election Commission signed an MoU with The International Foundation for Electoral… https://t.co/PO13Iyroee pic.twitter.com/gdgAQoDbPh

— Amit Malviya (@amitmalviya) February 16, 2025

He also flagged the controversial 2012 Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed between the Election Commission of India and The International Foundation for Electoral Systems, an organisation linked to Mr Soros’s Open Society Foundation, which is primarily funded by USAID – the American federal body that oversees foreign aid and is facing massive budget cuts under Donald Trump’s presidency. 

“Ironically, those questioning the transparent and inclusive process of appointing India’s Election Commissioner-a first in our democracy, where previously the Prime Minister alone made the decision-had no hesitation in handing over the entire Election Commission of India to foreign operators,” Mr Malviya added.

According to Mr Malviya, the Congress-led UPA government “systematically enabled the infiltration of India’s institutions by forces opposed to the nation’s interests-those who seek to weaken India at every opportunity.”

The BJP alleges that foreign-backed civil society organisations and NGOs, particularly those linked to Mr Soros, have been working to influence Indian politics. 

The Bangladesh Situation 

The announcement that $29 million was marked for “strengthening the political landscape in Bangladesh” comes just days after President Trump addressed allegations of ‘deep state’ involvement in the recent political developments in Bangladesh. Asked during a joint press briefing with PM Modi whether the previous Biden administration had orchestrated a regime change, President Trump denied any such involvement.

“There was no role for our deep state. This is something the Prime Minister has been working on for a long time, for hundreds of years, frankly. I have been reading about it. I will leave Bangladesh to the Prime Minister,” President Trump said.

The response has done little to quell speculation. The ousting of former Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and the subsequent rise of Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus as the country’s interim leader have fueled claims of US-backed political manoeuvring.

Since Ms Hasina’s departure, diplomatic tensions between India and Bangladesh have escalated. Delhi has raised concerns about increasing attacks on religious minorities under the new regime.

Washington:

Nearly half of an elite US epidemiology program known as the “disease detectives” were dismissed by the Trump administration on Friday, according to sources familiar with the matter, dealing a blow to public health efforts as fears rise over bird flu.

The sackings come as Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency pushes to downsize the federal government and as newly-confirmed Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr vows to overhaul the nation’s health agencies. 

“I’m so angry,” a senior epidemiologist in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention who supervised some of those affected by the cuts told AFP. 

“We’re on the verge of potentially another pandemic and we’re firing the people who have probably more expertise than anyone else in the country collectively.”

The cuts, first reported by CBS News, are part of broader efforts to remove employees still in their probationary periods, who can be dismissed more easily.

Established in 1951, the Epidemic Intelligence Service is a two-year post-doctoral training program whose officers have been on the frontline of investigating outbreaks from the first Ebola cases in Africa in the 1970s to the earliest case reports of Covid-19 in the United States. 

“Without those officers we would not have eliminated smallpox from the globe,” the official said. “We had people fanning across countries, wading through mud and navigating rivers on boats to eliminate smallpox.”

‘Directly impact health security’

Known colloquially as the “disease detectives,” the researchers are hired annually through a competitive process that each year whittles down hundreds of applicants — including doctors, nurses, scientists and more — to a class of a few dozen.

While some are stationed at CDC headquarters in Atlanta, others are posted around the country. 

Several former CDC directors began their careers as EIS officers, highlighting the program’s role as a pipeline for leadership in public health.

There are approximately 140 officers across two classes. On Friday, the class of 2024 was informed they would receive termination emails that afternoon, while the class of 2023 was informed that their status was still under review.

Around 30 officers from both classes were hired through a different mechanism under the US Public Health Service, meaning they remain unaffected for now.

In total, nearly 1,300 CDC employees — roughly 10 percent of the agency’s workforce — were dismissed, according to CBS News.

“The Epidemic Intelligence Service is one of the most storied and prestigious programs of the CDC,” infectious disease physician Amesh Adalja, a senior scholar at Johns Hopkins University told AFP.  

“Any attempts to end this program will directly impact the national and health security of the US.”

Health Secretary RFK Jr. has made no secret of his disdain for infectious disease research, suggesting recently that it should be paused entirely for eight years while the focus shifts to addressing chronic conditions. 

Beyond his well-known anti-vaccine stances, Kennedy has also expressed skepticism about widely accepted infectious disease science, questioning whether germs cause disease and whether HIV causes AIDS.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

An Elon Musk aide was mistakenly given clearance to make changes to the US Treasury Department’s highly sensitive payments system containing millions of Americans’ personal information, a department official said Tuesday.

The admission came in a sworn statement to a federal judge amid heated criticism that the 25-year-old employee of billionaire Musk had editing rights to a system that handles trillions of dollars in government payments.

The employee, Marko Elez — who had no federal government status — resigned Friday after being linked to a racist social media account, only for Musk to announce that he was being reinstated.

President Donald Trump has tasked Musk with taking an axe to government spending as the leader of a new agency called the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE.

The sworn statement, seen by AFP, says that Elez was supposed to gain read-only access to the system, under the supervision of the Bureau of the Fiscal Service, the Treasury Department section that manages payments and collections.

“On the morning of February 6, it was discovered that Mr. Elez’s database access to SPS on February 5 had mistakenly been configured with read/write permissions instead of read-only,” said the statement from Joseph Gioeli, an official from the payments section.

SPS stands for Secure Payment System.

An initial investigation showed all of Elez’s interactions with the SPS system occurred within a supervised session and that “no unauthorized actions had taken place,” the official added.

Elez gained access through a Treasury Department laptop computer, triggering an uproar among critics of the Trump administration and worries about the safety of Americans’ personal data.

DOGE has no statutory standing in the federal government — which would require authorization from Congress — and neither Musk nor his aides are civil servants or federal employees. 

Elez was one of two DOGE workers who gained access to the sensitive Treasury payments system.

A confidential internal assessment reported by US media warned the Treasury Department that this access represented an “unprecedented insider threat risk.”

Before he resigned, a court order forced Elez back to read-only permission for the payments system as Democratic lawmakers and citizen advocacy groups warned about the dangers to national security and the economy because of the data he could access.

Another member of the DOGE team, Thomas Krause, also submitted a sworn statement to the same judge on Tuesday, stating that he was employed by the Treasury on January 23 as an unpaid “Senior Advisor for Technology and Modernization.”

He was later delegated the duties of “Fiscal Assistant Secretary,” but said “I have not yet assumed the duties.”

Krause is listed in the Treasury Department’s organizational chart under this title. 

“Although I coordinate with officials at USDS/DOGE, provide them with regular updates on the team’s progress, and receive high-level policy direction from them, I am not an employee of USDS/DOGE,” he said in his statement, adding that the department’s team within the Treasury consisted of himself and Elez.

(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

New Delhi:

A group of Elon Musk’s close associates, including former interns and trusted sidekicks, has taken control of the General Services Administration (GSA), the federal agency which manages government offices and technology. The team is attempting to use White House security credentials for unusual access to GSA tech, deploying AI software, and restructuring the office to reflect Musk’s vision, according to leaked documents obtained by Wired.

Several people who helped Musk take over Twitter now have key roles at GSA. Nicole Hollander, who was part of Musk’s Twitter transition team, now holds a top government position with access to GSA systems. Her husband, Steve Davis, who also stayed at Twitter HQ, is now an integral member of Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).

Other appointees include Thomas Shedd, a former Tesla engineer, Edward Coristine, a past Neuralink intern, and Ethan Shaotran, a Harvard AI researcher. The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) has also brought in key figures from Musk’s circle – Amanda Scales, formerly with xAI, is now OPM chief of staff, and ex-Tesla engineer Riccardo Biasini is a senior advisor.

A current GSA employee, speaking anonymously, expressed concern over the shift. “They are acting like this is a takeover of a tech company” rather than an effort to improve government services, the employee said.

Elon Musk’s team aims to cut federal spending by 50 per cent across GSA offices, Wired reports. Internal documents suggest an attempt to use IT credentials from the Executive Office of the President to access GSA systems. A former Biden official warned this could let non-government DOGE members view sensitive contracts and monitor federal workers.

The new leadership is also cutting GSA’s real estate holdings. A whiteboard in a DC office listed $585 million in cuts, 15 regulations removed, and 2,03,000 square feet of office space eliminated. Acting GSA Administrator Stephen Ehikian called it the “first step” in revising federal real estate.

Nicole Hollander has requested multiple “resting rooms” for senior GSA staff, similar to the sleeping pods set up at Twitter HQ after Musk’s takeover. A GSA working group recently discussed funding and waivers for these rooms.

Musk’s team is also pushing for AI integration in government operations. Documents show efforts to authorise Google Gemini and Cursor for federal use. A recent meeting with Google covered Telemetry, a software monitoring tool. A-suite engineers have also requested access to a decade’s worth of GSA accounting, vendor payments, and procurement records.

Earlier this month, OPM emailed over two million federal employees, offering “deferred resignations.” This would let them leave for the private sector while receiving full pay and benefits until September 30. A follow-up email confirmed the offer was real.

But the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) warned that Congress may not approve the plan and that funding is uncertain. There are also concerns that payments may not be honoured, given Elon Musk’s history of legal battles over unpaid severance at Twitter.

Washington:

Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla and X, has taken his dedication to work to new heights by reportedly living at the Department of Government Efficiency’s (DOGE) headquarters in Washington D.C., per reports by WIRED. This move is part of his efforts to exert greater control over the federal government, and it’s not the first time Musk has made headlines for his extreme work ethic.

Musk has been staying at DOGE’s offices in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, just a stone’s throw away from the White House. He even claimed that he was invited to spend the night in the White House’s Lincoln Bedroom, but chose to stay at the DOGE headquarters instead. This decision was reportedly made to avoid a more formal relationship with President Donald Trump’s team, after Chief of Staff Susie Wiles denied him office space in the West Wing, according to Daily Mail.

Musk’s commitment to “hardcore” work habits is nothing new. In the early days of Tesla, he famously slept on the factory floor during busy periods, claiming it allowed employees to see their leader’s dedication firsthand. He reiterated this sentiment in a 2022 interview with Ron Baron, saying, “This is important because if the team thinks their leader is off somewhere having a good time, drinking Mai Tais on a tropical island… they knew I was there, and that made a huge difference”.

This work culture is now being implemented at DOGE, which Musk leads to reduce government spending and streamline operations. The department has already made significant cuts, saving taxpayers around $1 billion per day by halting unnecessary hiring and cutting spending on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives. Musk’s team has also begun eliminating websites and programs related to DEI, with the US Office of Personnel Management’s Chief Diversity Officers Executive Council website being taken down.

The Department of Government Efficiency, under Musk’s guidance, is prioritising cost-cutting measures, with a notable focus on the production of pennies. A striking statistic reveals that the expense of manufacturing pennies now surpasses their face value, resulting in an estimated $179 million loss to taxpayers in 2023. In response, DOGE is exploring alternatives to reduce or potentially discontinue penny production, a move that could yield substantial savings for taxpayers.

It’s worth noting that Musk’s leadership style has raised concerns about toxic workplace culture. In 2018, he claimed that he was “sleeping on the factory floor” of Tesla because he didn’t have “time to go home and shower”. He has also directed workers to do the same, with some employees reportedly sleeping on the manufacturing line to ensure new EV model rollouts.