WARNING * WARNING * WARNING

This is from Heather Cox Richardson:

Billionaire Elon Musk’s team yesterday took control of the Treasury’s payment system, thus essentially gaining access to the checkbook with which the United States handles about $6 trillion annually and to all the financial information of Americans and American businesses with it. Apparently, it did not stop there.

Today Ellen Knickmeyer of the Associated Press reported that yesterday two top security officials from the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) tried to stop people associated with Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, from accessing classified information they did not have security clearance to see. The Trump administration put the officials on leave, and the DOGE team gained access to the information.

Vittoria Elliott of Wired has identified those associated with Musk’s takeover as six “engineers who are barely out of—and in at least one case, purportedly still in—college.” They are connected either to Musk or to his long-time associate Peter Thiel, who backed J.D. Vance’s Senate run eighteen months before he became Trump’s vice presidential running mate. . . .

Public policy expert Dan Moynihan told reporter Elliott that the fact these people “are not really public officials” makes it hard for Congress to intervene. “So this feels like a hostile takeover of the machinery of governments by the richest man in the world,” he said. Law professor Nick Bednar noted that “it is very unlikely” that the engineers “have the expertise to understand either the law or the administration needs that surround these agencies.”

After Musk’s team breached the USAID computers, cybersecurity specialist Matthew Garrett posted: “Random computers being plugged into federal networks is obviously terrifying in terms of what data they're deliberately accessing, but it's also terrifying because it implies controls are being disabled—unmanaged systems should never have access to this data. Who else has access to those systems?”

USAID receives foreign policy guidance from the State Department. Intelligence agencies must now assume U.S. intelligence systems are insecure.

Musk’s response was to post: “USAID is a criminal organization. Time for it to die.” Also last night, according to Sam Stein of The Bulwark, “the majority of staff in the legislative and public affairs bureau lost access to their emails, implying they’ve been put on admin leave although this was never communicated to them.”

Congress established USAID in 1961 to bring together the many different programs that were administering foreign aid. Focusing on long-term socioeconomic development, USAID has a budget of more than $50 billion, less than 1% of the U.S. annual budget. It is one of the largest aid agencies in the world.

Musk is unelected, and it appears that DOGE has no legal authority. As political scientist Seth Masket put it in tusk: “Elon Musk is not a federal employee, nor has he been appointed by the President nor approved by the Senate to have any leadership role in government. The ‘Department of Government Efficiency,’ announced by Trump in a January 20th executive order, is not truly any sort of government department or agency, and even the executive order uses quotes in the title. It’s perfectly fine to have a marketing gimmick like this, but DOGE does not have power over established government agencies, and Musk has no role in government. It does not matter that he is an ally of the President. Musk is a private citizen taking control of established government offices. That is not efficiency; that is a coup.”

DOGE has simply taken over government systems. Musk, . . . is personally deciding what he thinks should be cut from the U.S. government.

End Quote

This is from me:

This coup - I really don't know what else to call it - means that an unelected immigrant from South Africa now has all of most Americans financial information. If you or your company does any business with the government of any kind - direct deposit of your Social Security payment, your tax refund, your federal pensions, Armed Services benefits, grants, or even purchases the government made from your company - then all of your financial and personal information, including your tax records, Social Security number, address, etc., are now compromised.

We took steps over the weekend and removed most of our money from our account where our tax refunds were deposited and from the accounts where we paid estimated taxes. I suggest everyone do the same to ensure that this new government, which is no longer ours or following the U.S. Constitution, does not reach into your accounts and take your hard-earned money. I don't know that this will happen, but I also don't know that it won't. I'd rather be safe than sorry.

This is not a partisan issue. This is highly illegal and just plain wrong. I'm pretty sure no one voted for Elon Musk. He wasn't on the ballot.

Here are some links to articles about this. Don't take my word for it. Read about it yourself. I imagine some sites have spun it so that it doesn't look like what it is, and I know some people don't trust the media. But you must get your information from somewhere. See what they say about it. There are also other links to many different outlets in the HCR link above.

Warren Questions Bessent Over Musk Access to Treasury Payment System - The New York Times

Elon Musk’s Team Now Has Access to Treasury’s Payments System - The New York Times

Elon Musk’s Friends Have Infiltrated the General Services Administration | WIRED

We do not know what exactly Elon Musk is doing to the federal government - MSN

Senior U.S. official exits after rift with Musk allies over payment system - The Washington Post via MSN