DOGE’s expenses have risen above $40 million, with weekly costs now exceeding $10 million.
If Musk doge is searching computer data for waste or fraud why are the people doing this programmers who write code instead of forensic accountants who crunch numbers?
In its supposed “savings” report, DOGE claimed to have saved $55 billion — a small portion of of which came from capping payments for research grants. The rest? There aren’t any real savings. All DOGE did was cancel government contracts. That’s like deciding to stop paying your bills and mortgage to cover your credit card debt, only to realize your so-called “savings” won’t even cover a single interest payment.
A common theme in the DOGE data is the cancellation of subscription-based services that federal congressional and public affairs offices rely on, such as newspapers with paywalls, Beltway tipsheets, and telephone and email directory systems. This move will only make the government less efficient and force those in these roles to spend more time tracking down news and contact information essential to their work. These contracts were all approved by the agencies with money allocated by Congress, who seems to have conceded more of their authority to Musk every day.
Since Trump's inauguration on January 20, Musk has dispatched members of his Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) to scrutinize sensitive personnel and payment information in government computer systems and led a successful drive to dismantle two agencies - one that provides a lifeline to the world's needy and another that protects Americans from unscrupulous lenders.
Douglas Holtz-Eakin, a former Republican director of the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), said the agencies Musk and Trump have targeted to date account for a tiny fraction of the overall federal budget, which is projected to reach $7 trillion this fiscal year, according to the CBO.
Musk’s overhaul of the federal government seems to have hit a snag: His Department of Government Efficiency posted classified information on its website.
Musk’s team posted secret information about the staff and size of a U.S. intelligence agency on their new website harming national security.
A person from Musk's (DOGE) has IT access to the Washington department overseeing nuclear weapons, without a government background check, according to multiple reports.
And plans by Musk’s DOGE team to gain access to an IRS system that contains detailed financial information about millions of taxpayers, including their tax returns are raising alarms.
Several members of the DOGE team run by the South African-born billionaire were granted "administrative" access to OPM computer systems days after Trump's Jan. 20 inauguration.
They were given them sweeping authority to install and modify software on government-supplied equipment and, according to two OPM officials, to alter internal documentation of their own activities.
The approval for Musk’s team to use the remote-access and file-transfer software, known as PuTTY, has alarmed Labor Department’s career employees. Musk, the head of DOGE, has dispatched subordinates throughout the government to radically overhaul or dismantle federal agencies with the backing of President Donald Trump.
Five former Treasury secretaries warned that recent actions by the Trump administration and Elon Musk’s DOGE team at the Treasury Department raise “substantial cause for concern” that the United States’ financial commitments are being “unlawfully” undermined.
“Any hint of the selective suspension of congressionally authorized payments will be a breach of trust and ultimately, a form of default. And our credibility, once lost, will prove difficult to regain,” they wrote.
Additionally, Musk’s activities present a national security nightmare as they gain accessto HomelandSecurity, the Department of Defense, FBI and CIA. . Consider what the intelligence agencies of U.S. allies and adversaries see when the American president grants sweeping access to the basic systems that make the U.S. government run to a team of young people who havee no government experience, who may not have been put through standard personnel vetting processes, and who work for an unelected figure with extensive personal financial interests in national security spending.
USAID was investigating Starlink for helping Russia in the Ukraine war. Not only do many Russian operatives claim to have access to Starlink, but last September Ukrainian forces downed a Russian drone that had a Starlink terminal integrated with its systems.
A representative from Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency now works at the Department of Veterans Affairs, where they have been given access to contracting systems as well as information on VA operations and information technology systems.
Few developments better typify the unique insanity of the current political moment than the ascent of “Big Balls,”a 19-year-old software engineer who briefly worked at Elon Musk’s brain startup Neuralink, got recruited to the billionaire’s government-deconstructionist effort DOGE and, now, in a twist so ridiculous it seems like it was stolen straight out of South Park, has apparently been hired as a “senior advisor” to the U.S. State Department.
In reality, “Big Balls” is Edward Coristine, a high-achieving tech wunderkind, and the large-testicle-alluding-honorific is merely his online username.
Wired initially reported that Coristine had previously worked for Path Network, a cybersecurity firm that was known to hire reformed cybercriminals. Bloomberg subsequently reported that Coristine was actually fired from that firm after he leaked “internal information to the [company’s] competitors.” “I can confirm that Edward Coristine’s brief contract was terminated after the conclusion of an internal investigation into the leaking of proprietary company information that coincided with his tenure,” a Path Network spokesperson told the outlet last week.
Now, for whatever reason Balls/Coristine has been given a horrifying amount of access to the data and internal systems of the federal government. In addition to Coristine, another DOGE member—23-year-old former SpaceX intern Luke Farritor—has also reportedly been given some position at the State Department. Like Coristine, he is also listed as working for the Bureau of Diplomatic Technology. Gizmodo reached out to the State Department for more information on what Big Balls and Farritor are doing for the government and will update this story if it responds.
American adversaries surely see an espionage and blackmail bonanza. Less obviously but just as crucially, U.S. allies, accustomed to doing business and sharing information with the United States on a day-to-day basis, are likely to take a hard look at their typical routines. Will they be willing to continue operating as usual?
Mr. Musk’s business ventures are heavily reliant on China. He borrowed at least $1.4 billion from banks controlled by the Chinese government to help build Tesla’s Shanghai gigafactory, which was responsible for more than half of Tesla’s global deliveries in the third quarter of 2024," the general Honore writes in an Op-Ed for The New York Times.
"China does not tend to give things away," he adds. "The country’s laws stipulate that the Communist Party can demand intelligence from any company doing business in China, in exchange for participating in the country’s markets."
If Musk doge is searching computer data for waste or fraud why are the people doing this programmers who write code instead of forensic accountants who crunch numbers?
In its supposed “savings” report, DOGE claimed to have saved $55 billion — a small portion of of which came from capping payments for research grants. The rest? There aren’t any real savings. All DOGE did was cancel government contracts. That’s like deciding to stop paying your bills and mortgage to cover your credit card debt, only to realize your so-called “savings” won’t even cover a single interest payment.
A common theme in the DOGE data is the cancellation of subscription-based services that federal congressional and public affairs offices rely on, such as newspapers with paywalls, Beltway tipsheets, and telephone and email directory systems. This move will only make the government less efficient and force those in these roles to spend more time tracking down news and contact information essential to their work. These contracts were all approved by the agencies with money allocated by Congress, who seems to have conceded more of their authority to Musk every day.
Since Trump's inauguration on January 20, Musk has dispatched members of his Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) to scrutinize sensitive personnel and payment information in government computer systems and led a successful drive to dismantle two agencies - one that provides a lifeline to the world's needy and another that protects Americans from unscrupulous lenders.
Douglas Holtz-Eakin, a former Republican director of the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), said the agencies Musk and Trump have targeted to date account for a tiny fraction of the overall federal budget, which is projected to reach $7 trillion this fiscal year, according to the CBO.
Musk’s overhaul of the federal government seems to have hit a snag: His Department of Government Efficiency posted classified information on its website.
Musk’s team posted secret information about the staff and size of a U.S. intelligence agency on their new website harming national security.
A person from Musk's (DOGE) has IT access to the Washington department overseeing nuclear weapons, without a government background check, according to multiple reports.
And plans by Musk’s DOGE team to gain access to an IRS system that contains detailed financial information about millions of taxpayers, including their tax returns are raising alarms.
Several members of the DOGE team run by the South African-born billionaire were granted "administrative" access to OPM computer systems days after Trump's Jan. 20 inauguration.
They were given them sweeping authority to install and modify software on government-supplied equipment and, according to two OPM officials, to alter internal documentation of their own activities.
The approval for Musk’s team to use the remote-access and file-transfer software, known as PuTTY, has alarmed Labor Department’s career employees. Musk, the head of DOGE, has dispatched subordinates throughout the government to radically overhaul or dismantle federal agencies with the backing of President Donald Trump.
Five former Treasury secretaries warned that recent actions by the Trump administration and Elon Musk’s DOGE team at the Treasury Department raise “substantial cause for concern” that the United States’ financial commitments are being “unlawfully” undermined.
“Any hint of the selective suspension of congressionally authorized payments will be a breach of trust and ultimately, a form of default. And our credibility, once lost, will prove difficult to regain,” they wrote.
Additionally, Musk’s activities present a national security nightmare as they gain accessto HomelandSecurity, the Department of Defense, FBI and CIA. . Consider what the intelligence agencies of U.S. allies and adversaries see when the American president grants sweeping access to the basic systems that make the U.S. government run to a team of young people who havee no government experience, who may not have been put through standard personnel vetting processes, and who work for an unelected figure with extensive personal financial interests in national security spending.
USAID was investigating Starlink for helping Russia in the Ukraine war. Not only do many Russian operatives claim to have access to Starlink, but last September Ukrainian forces downed a Russian drone that had a Starlink terminal integrated with its systems.
A representative from Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency now works at the Department of Veterans Affairs, where they have been given access to contracting systems as well as information on VA operations and information technology systems.
Few developments better typify the unique insanity of the current political moment than the ascent of “Big Balls,”a 19-year-old software engineer who briefly worked at Elon Musk’s brain startup Neuralink, got recruited to the billionaire’s government-deconstructionist effort DOGE and, now, in a twist so ridiculous it seems like it was stolen straight out of South Park, has apparently been hired as a “senior advisor” to the U.S. State Department.
In reality, “Big Balls” is Edward Coristine, a high-achieving tech wunderkind, and the large-testicle-alluding-honorific is merely his online username.
Wired initially reported that Coristine had previously worked for Path Network, a cybersecurity firm that was known to hire reformed cybercriminals. Bloomberg subsequently reported that Coristine was actually fired from that firm after he leaked “internal information to the [company’s] competitors.” “I can confirm that Edward Coristine’s brief contract was terminated after the conclusion of an internal investigation into the leaking of proprietary company information that coincided with his tenure,” a Path Network spokesperson told the outlet last week.
Now, for whatever reason Balls/Coristine has been given a horrifying amount of access to the data and internal systems of the federal government. In addition to Coristine, another DOGE member—23-year-old former SpaceX intern Luke Farritor—has also reportedly been given some position at the State Department. Like Coristine, he is also listed as working for the Bureau of Diplomatic Technology. Gizmodo reached out to the State Department for more information on what Big Balls and Farritor are doing for the government and will update this story if it responds.
American adversaries surely see an espionage and blackmail bonanza. Less obviously but just as crucially, U.S. allies, accustomed to doing business and sharing information with the United States on a day-to-day basis, are likely to take a hard look at their typical routines. Will they be willing to continue operating as usual?
Mr. Musk’s business ventures are heavily reliant on China. He borrowed at least $1.4 billion from banks controlled by the Chinese government to help build Tesla’s Shanghai gigafactory, which was responsible for more than half of Tesla’s global deliveries in the third quarter of 2024," the general Honore writes in an Op-Ed for The New York Times.
"China does not tend to give things away," he adds. "The country’s laws stipulate that the Communist Party can demand intelligence from any company doing business in China, in exchange for participating in the country’s markets."
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