Elon Musk's raid on the government

 MSNBC - So far Musk’s foray into government appears to be based on the model of sloppily gutting a company, which bodes poorly for a functioning government. Equally concerning is that Musk's reach appears to far exceed the kind of influence any private citizen should have over the federal government, which is in turn raising a crisis of authority in Washington.

The firehose of news surrounding Musk’s “efficiency” initiatives in Washington has been astonishing. Here’s a quick round-up of some of the most notable developments. 

• On Tuesday, millions of federal employees received an email from the Office of Personnel Management demanding that they either accept a huge set of changes to the workplace or resign. The subject line of the email, “Fork in the Road,” was the same subject line Musk used in an email to employees of Twitter shortly after he purchased the company in 2022, and employees of the social media platform were given a similar edict. The Washington Post, citing four people familiar with the situation, reported that the email was the result of Musk’s influence. Among other things, the listed changes to federal jobs included a new “performance culture” and “enhanced standards of conduct.” The email offered federal workers an option to take a “deferred resignation,” which would apparently mean agreeing to leave their jobs now but getting paid through September.
• Musk appears to have acted without consulting at least some of Trump’s inner circle. Those same sources told the Post that the email “blindsided some advisers to President Donald Trump, including officials in the budget office and agencies that typically would be consulted in advance of such monumental changes to personnel and spending policies.” And Reuters cites two agency officials who said Musk aides “have locked career civil servants out of computer systems that contain the personal data of millions of federal employees.” 
• Musk has drawn from his lieutenants in the private sector to help him oversee his interventions in the government. As The New York Times reports, his meddling includes placing a human resources executive from SpaceX as an adviser to the Office of Personnel Management; the head of Musk’s tunneling startup, The Boring Company, who also helped him cut costs at Twitter, at the new Department of Government Efficiency; and a Tesla engineer at the General Services Administration. A Morgan Stanley banker who helped lead Musk’s purchase of Twitter is slated to take a gig at the Commerce Department.
• According to a Washington Post report, citing three people with knowledge of the matter, the “highest-ranking career official at the Treasury Department is departing after a clash with allies of billionaire Elon Musk over access to sensitive payment systems.” That payments system disburses trillions of dollars annually and affects the lives of tens of millions of Americans who, among other things, receive support from Social Security and Medicare. The Post also noted: “It is unclear precisely why Musk’s team sought access to those systems. But both Musk and the Trump administration more broadly have sought to control spending in ways that far exceed efforts by their predecessors and have alarmed legal experts.”
• Musk’s involvement in the General Services Administration includes terminating leases for federal offices. Cost-cutting there could also affect federal contracting and technology services across the government. More