Summary
Elon Musk warned federal employees against leaking information, stating, “if in doubt, they are out,” as he helps Trump implement sweeping government changes.
A Reddit post alleged Musk’s team is using “fingerprinting” tactics to track leakers. Musk, who spent heavily on Trump’s re-election, now leads the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), which has controversially seized control of federal payment and personnel systems.
The administration is also encouraging civil servants to resign, prompting lawsuits.
Whistleblower protections may challenge Musk’s crackdown on leaks.
He technically does have authority, because he’s got his team into the IT systems via Trump’s orders.
Since the federal government basically runs on Microsoft, that means his goons can go into Active Directory and start locking other people out of key government systems. Then he has payroll mark you as “Terminated” in the accounting system, because his people are in that system, too. If you can’t badge into your office, you can’t log on to your computer, you can’t use your phone, and you won’t receive a paycheck, what are you except “fired”?
In Europe we declare ourselves ready to work and are considered to be on paid leave until called upon.
That works so long as the paychecks keep coming. But also, it works because of the large well-structured unions that populate the European bureaucracy.
The US has made a point to dismantle public sector unions precisely because bosses don’t like when this happens. We’ve also turned a great deal of the government over to contractors, both to keep public labor divided and to guarantee the rolls as a means of patronage (landing a contractor job means being in good standing politically) and efficient avenue for kickbacks (contractors and their staff financially support the candidates that send them billable work).
So it’s less a question of “will we show up to work for this administration?” and more a question of "will we get included in this administration’s patronage scheme?
Thanks for this writeup, fascinating read!