Elon Musk arrives for the inauguration of U.S. President-elect Donald Trump within the U.S. Capitol Rotunda on Jan. 20, 2025 in Washington, DC.
Kenny Holston | Getty Photographs
Aides to Elon Musk charged with operating the U.S. authorities human assets company have locked profession civil servants out of pc methods that include the non-public information of thousands and thousands of federal staff, in line with two company officers.
Since taking workplace 11 days in the past, President Donald Trump has launched into an enormous authorities makeover, firing and sidelining a whole lot of civil servants in his first steps towards downsizing the forms and putting in extra loyalists.
Musk, the billionaire Tesla CEO and X proprietor tasked by Trump to slash the scale of the two.2 million-strong civilian authorities workforce, has moved swiftly to put in allies on the company referred to as the Workplace of Personnel Administration.
The 2 officers, who spoke to Reuters on situation of anonymity for concern of retaliation, stated some senior profession staff at OPM have had their entry revoked to a number of the division’s information methods.
The methods embrace an unlimited database known as Enterprise Human Assets Integration, which comprises dates of beginning, Social Safety numbers, value determinations, dwelling addresses, pay grades and size of service of presidency employees, the officers stated.
The scene from outdoors the U.S. Workplace of Personnel Administration in Washington, D.C., on Might 21, 2019.
Sarah Silbiger | The Washington Publish | Getty Photographs
“Now we have no visibility into what they’re doing with the pc and information methods,” one of many officers stated. “That’s creating nice concern. There is no such thing as a oversight. It creates actual cybersecurity and hacking implications.”
Officers affected by the transfer can nonetheless go online and entry capabilities resembling e mail however can not see the large datasets that cowl each aspect of the federal workforce.
Musk, OPM, representatives of the brand new group, and the White Home didn’t instantly reply to requests for remark.
OPM has despatched out memos that eschew the conventional dry wording of presidency missives because it encourages civil servants to contemplate buyout presents to stop and take a trip to a “dream vacation spot.”
Don Moynihan, a professor on the Ford College of Public Coverage on the College of Michigan, stated the actions inside OPM raised issues about congressional oversight on the company and the way Trump and Musk view the federal forms.
“This makes it a lot more durable for anybody outdoors Musk’s inside circle at OPM to know what is going on on,” Moynihan stated.
Musk affect
A group together with present and former staff of Musk assumed command of OPM on Jan. 20, the day Trump took workplace. They’ve moved couch beds onto the fifth ground of the company’s headquarters, which comprises the director’s workplace and might solely be accessed with a safety badge or a safety escort, one of many OPM staff stated.
The couch beds have been put in so the group can work across the clock, the worker stated.
Musk, a significant donor to a famously demanding boss, put in beds at X for workers to allow them to work longer when in 2022 he took over the social media platform, previously referred to as Twitter.
“It seems like a hostile takeover,” the worker stated.
The brand new appointees accountable for OPM have moved the company’s chief administration officer, Katie Malague, out of her workplace and to a brand new workplace on a unique ground, the officers stated.
Malague didn’t reply to a request for remark.
The strikes by Musk’s aides at OPM, and upheaval contained in the Treasury constructing brought on by different Musk aides that was reported on Friday, underscore the sweeping affect Musk is having throughout authorities.
David Lebryk, the top-ranking profession U.S. Treasury Division official, is about to depart his put up following a conflict with allies of Musk after they requested for entry to cost methods, the Washington Publish reported on Friday.
The brand new group at OPM contains software program engineers and Brian Bjelde, who joined Musk’s SpaceX enterprise in 2003 as an avionics engineer earlier than rising to change into the corporate’s vp of human assets. Bjelde’s position at OPM is that of a senior adviser.
The performing head of OPM, Charles Ezell, has been sending memos to your entire authorities workforce since Trump took workplace, together with Tuesday’s providing federal staff the prospect to stop with eight months pay.
“No-one right here knew that the memos have been popping out. We’re discovering out about these memos the identical time as the remainder of the world,” one of many officers stated.
Among the many group that now runs OPM is Amanda Scales, a former Musk worker, who’s now OPM’s chief of employees. In some memos despatched out on Jan. 20 and Jan. 21 by Ezell, together with one directing companies to establish federal employees on probationary intervals, company heads have been requested to e mail Scales at her OPM e mail tackle.
One other senior adviser is Riccardo Biasini, a former engineer at Tesla and most not too long ago a director at The Boring Firm, Musk’s tunnel-building operation in Las Vegas.