DOGE

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Ex-Social Security Head: This Is When Elon Musk Will Stop Checks Going Out

Martin O’Malley, who ran Social Security under President Joe Biden, reveals that Elon Musk is well on his way to spoiling the agency’s perfect record.

by Michael Daly

Whether or not Elon Musk does step down as chainsawer-in-chief in the weeks ahead, the Social Security Administration (SSA) may be on the way to spoiling a perfect record of having sent out benefit checks every month since the very first one on Aug. 14, 1935.

“The Trump co-presidency is gutting this agency,” former SSA Administrator Martin O’Malley told the Democratic Steering and Policy Committee on Tuesday. “It is breaking it from within, and it ultimately will lead to cascading failures, interruptions and system shutdowns that will eventually and I think within the next couple of months lead to benefit interruptions for the first time in 90 years.”

O’Malley, also a former Maryland governor and Baltimore mayor, happened to be addressing the committee the same day as a Wisconsin state Supreme Court election that was the most expensive judicial race in state history. Musk was seeking to buy it with record campaign cash while peddling some of the very falsehoods that O’Malley feels are aimed at wrecking the agency he headed until four months ago.

O’Malley noted that at a pre-election rally in Green Bay on Sunday night, Musk and a crony had strutted on stage with a huge American flag in the background, a scene right out of the eponymous movie about the World War II general George Patton. Musk also had a series of outsized charts to show a surge in immigration in recent years.

O’Malley had watched video of the event and he reported to the committee that the crowd had audibly gasped when told that the millions of immigrants had received Social Security numbers. Musk failed to tell them that the first Trump administration had instituted a system by which newly arrived immigrants eligible to work were automatically mailed a Social Security card to their home. Musk also neglected to say that only citizens and people officially authorized to work can receive Social Security benefits. But everybody pays taxes into the SSA fund.

“The big lie ... that illegal immigrants steal your Social Security benefits and are going to bankrupt the system, when the truth is people working here outside of legal status, illegal immigrants, so called, are prohibited by law from receiving any Social Security benefits, although they pay in $22 billion for the rest of us,” O’Malley told the committee on Tuesday.

And Musk and his minion had made the big lie even bigger.

“They said this was all part of a blue state plan to give illegal immigrants the right to vote so that we [will be in] a blue state in perpetuity, from which none of us will ever be able to escape.” O’Malley added.

In what was either a deliberate falsehood or just a misunderstanding, Musk also said that 40 percent of calls to SSA are fraudsters seeking to steal direct deposit checks. Musk may have been confused; 40 percent of fraud attempts are by phone, but that is only a small fraction of the total calls.

O’Malley later said, “Truth: 8 million people a month call SSA’s 1-800 number. Only 1 out of every 3,100 is a successful attempt at direct deposit fraud. We thwart 4 for every on that gets through. In other words, 0.000322581% percent are a successful over the phone direct deposit fraud attempt. The total amount last year was $133 million, represents 0.000095 percent of the 1.4 trillion paid out in benefits.”

O’Malley added, “The crime of impersonating a beneficiary to hijack/redirect their direct deposit is typically discovered by the beneficiary the first month they bounce their own automatic withdrawal to a nursing home or their rent check bounces. Additionally, we mail paper notices within two weeks to beneficiaries telling them their direct deposit was changed and if it wasn’t them, go to a field office with their ID.”

He further noted, “We were about to implement electronic notification to anyone that had a myssa account. But I’m guessing they didn’t move forward once the election happened.”

O’Malley could have also told the committee that Musk had gone so far as to claim that the reason people are burning Teslas is the Democrats fear that DOGE is going to cut off social security payments to illegals.

But for all Musk’s bucks and balderdash, the candidate bankrolled by this would-be-Patton was vanquished at the polls. A muted Musk claimed on X that he had won what he said was the really important issue: a measure incorporating a voter ID requirement into the state constitution. Never mind that Wisconsin voters had been required to show ID since 2011.

But the bigger-than-big lies, and the damage to the SSA will persist, even after Musk is expected to leave Washington and self-DOGE in the weeks ahead.

O’Malley cannot help but fear that an agency he came to love has been deliberately damaged beyond repair.

When he was appointed by President Joe Biden in late 2023, O’Malley discovered that the SSA operated with heroic dedication in extremely difficult circumstances.

“They were sprinting up a downward-moving escalator,” O’Malley said. “And what was moving it downward at such an increased velocity was the greater numbers of people every single day that they were serving … due to Baby Boomers. Every single day was a new record high, and after 10 years of staffing reductions imposed by House Republicans, their staffing was at a 5- year low.”

O’Malley instituted SecurityStat, a variation on Compstat, the data-driven performance management system developed by the late, great NYPD Deputy Commissioner Jack Maple. Compstat has been rightly credited with reducing crime from record highs to a record low in the 1990s. Compstat is largely why crime remains low in New York.

In SecurityStat, the various departments of SSA would rotate to bi-monthly meetings aimed at improving their performance. The session would be live-streamed to leadership in the nine national divisions. Democrats and Republicans on the congressional oversight committee were invited to attend virtually.

“So they could see what we were wrestling with,” O’Malley told the Daily Beast on Tuesday. “It was a degree of openness, transparency and performance management that’s never been created before in the history of our federal government.”

At the time O’Malley had to depart the SSA and DOGE arrived, the agency had a payment accuracy rate of over 99 percent. Less than 1 percent of social security payments were fraudulent, considerably less than experienced by credit card companies. And SSA had an overhead of just 1.2 percent—markedly lower than any private insurance company—while maintaining customer service that long made it the most popular government agency.

DOGE began by demanding unrestricted access to the databases, which include the new identities of mob informants and spies and others in the witness protection program.

The supposed computer geniuses then either misinterpreted or embellished what they saw. They falsely claimed that tens of millions of dead people over 100 years old were receiving benefits. The truth is that only 0.1 percent of SAA recipients are over 100 years old. Payments are automatically stopped by age 115.

At the same time, Musk talked of “massive waste.” DOGE spoke of closing dozens of branch offices and reducing the workforce from 57,000 to 50,000, either through retirements or buyouts.

“If you want to find wasted Social Security today, look at the cash payments of our money and beneficiaries money in earning their benefits, look at the cash that they are burning by paying experienced, if overworked men and women to leave the agency; some of them they’re paying for the entire year,” O’Malley said.

Elderly recipients who would have otherwise been able to straighten out problems with SSA by phone will be forced to make their way to whatever offices remain open, which will be staffed by fewer people.

“It seems that what they’re trying to do, even as they threaten to close offices, is to jam them up and give people the worst possible experience they can have,” O’Malley told the committee. “So then, after wrecking it, they can rob it.”

And there is a $2.7 trillion surplus.

“This agency should be able to function for another 90 years, because it is a pay-as-you-go system,” “O’Malley said. “Americans who worked last year paid in $1.3 billion, and we paid out to the people in beneficiary status $1.4 billion… The difference was taken from that $2.7 trillion surplus intentionally built up… to cover the lifespan of the baby boomers. So the long term viability of this agency should not be in question. It’s only in question now because of the chainsaw that is gutting this agency and destroying its ability to function as designed.”

And what do the SSA haters want to do with a surplus that dwarfs even what the richest man in the world has amassed?

“I cannot tell you,” O’Malley continued. “But I can see that they’re trying to wreck this agency, and the people of the United States who are in this benefit need to stand up right now. I truly believe only an aroused democracy can stop them from doing what they’re already 90 percent of the way to doing.”

https://www.thedailybeast.com/ex-social-security-head-this-is-when-elon-musk-will-stop-checks-going-out/?

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DOGE drove layoff announcements to their third-highest-ever level in March

More than 275,000 layoffs were announced last month, reaching a level not seen since the pandemic, according to a new report published Thursday.

https://www.cnn.com/2025/04/03/economy/us-jobs-report-preview-march-doge-layoffs/index.html?

Musk's claim Biden administration gave Social Security numbers to millions of noncitizens lacks context

The Enumeration Beyond Entry program grants Social Security numbers to successful applicants for U.S. residency, work permits and citizenship.

https://www.snopes.com/news/2025/04/01/musk-biden-social-security-numbers/?

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DOGE’s Pentagon Budget Cuts Don’t Touch Elon Musk’s SpaceX

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth boasts he’s nixing contracts and grants amid DOGE’s cost-cutting campaign. But those trims won’t hit SpaceX.

https://theintercept.com/2025/04/03/doge-pentagon-budget-spacex-government-contracts-musk/?

ps:Of course it wont!!!!!

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DOGE associate is made acting head of foreign assistance at the State Department, a US official says

The Trump administration has expanded the power of adviser Elon Musk’s government-cutting team over the State Department, making a Musk lieutenant acting head of all foreign assistance there. Read More.

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Elite Pentagon Unit Resigns En Masse After Clashing With DOGE

“The best way to put it, I think, is either we die quickly or we die slowly,” the program’s director said.

The Pentagon’s elite tech unit is collapsing after clashing with Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).

Nearly every staffer at the Defense Digital Service (DDS) is resigning over the coming month, according to the program’s director Jennifer Hay and three other current members of the office—effectively shutting down the program.

“The best way to put it, I think, is either we die quickly or we die slowly,” Hay said, according to Politico. She plans to leave by May 1.

Dubbed the Pentagon’s “SWAT team of nerds,” the DDS was created in 2015 with the aim to modernize defense operations with fast tech fixes and digital tools for the military.

Hay’s 14 person team was reportedly blindsided at being sidelined by DOGE, having expected the DDS, with its tech talent, to be brought into Musk’s drive to automate operations at the Pentagon and integrate AI.

“The reason we stuck it out as long as we have is that we thought we were going to be called in,” Hay told Politico.

Instead, DOGE appears to have followed a familiar playbook, cutting employees and pressuring them to quit. Hay and 11 DDS staffers are taking President Donald Trump’s deferred resignation package.

Every employee interviewed by Politico said they would have stayed if not for DOGE.

An unidentified departing team member said that with the resignations, critical initiatives—like improving the Pentagon’s tech talent pipeline and countering enemy drones—will be abandoned.

A former senior Pentagon official dismissed DOGE’s supposed mission to eliminate “waste and fraud,” arguing Musk’s brainchild is essentially a wrecking ball.

“They’re not really using AI, they’re not really driving efficiency. What they’re doing is smashing everything,” the former official said.

DOGE’s cost-cutting crusade has already shuttered other digital modernization programs, including the General Services Administration’s 18F program. Staff there—who built open-source digital tools for government use—had less time to resign, losing access to their email accounts immediately after receiving an overnight shutdown notice on March 1.

A Pentagon spokesperson told Politico the office’s functions would be absorbed by the Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence Office (CDAIO), the broader department it falls under.

When reached for comment, a press officer at the Department of Defense told the Daily Beast, “We don’t have anything to provide on this currently.”

https://www.thedailybeast.com/elite-pentagon-unit-resigns-en-masse-after-clashing-with-doge/?

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What is DOGE doing to Social Security?

https://www.epi.org/blog/what-is-doge-doing-to-social-security/?

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💔 D.C. dating meets DOGE cuts

Illustration: Aïda Amer/Axios

There's a new description appearing on dating app bios, D.C. singles tell Axios: "Laid off by DOGE." It's not news that dating has become highly partisan, especially in a town as politically obsessed as Washington. 🗳️ D.C. residents overwhelmingly vote Democratic, and Trump staffers and those on the right have found it difficult to find a date among the city's more liberal permanent dwellers since the first administration. It's not just a vote for Trump that's a dealbreaker for these left-leaning D.C. singles. "Four years ago, five years ago, I was hearing, 'Oh, I couldn't date a Trump supporter,'" says Kat Markiewicz, a D.C.-based matchmaker. "Now it's like, 'I cannot date someone if they drive a Tesla.'" 🐘 The other side: More Washingtonians are openly expressing their conservative views on dating apps, users tell Axios — a departure from Trump's first term, when some conservatives listed their political affiliation as "moderate" in their bios. D.C. resident Samantha White says she's seen several photos on dating app profiles of people posing with Trump or in his Oval Office. Keep reading.

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This Midwestern city has long been a federal hub. The pain from DOGE’s cuts is everywhere

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — In her 28 years working for the federal government, Shea Giagnorio provided day care for the children of U.S. soldiers, training for employees and oversight for safety net programs.

https://apnews.com/article/doge-federal-cuts-job-musk-trump-kansas-city-06023cbc68c82fdaa021ced1069fd81c?

DOGE Installs a Former Tesla Employee at the FBI

As part of the so-called Department of Government Efficiency, a former Tesla employee has been installed as a senior adviser to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, records shared with The Intercept show.

https://theintercept.com/2025/04/18/doge-tesla-employee-justice-department-fbi/?

ps:It gets better and better!!!

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🚨 DOGE hits coal

West Virginia's GOP senators are urging top Trump officials to undo DOGE cuts that threaten the health and safety of their state's coal miners.

• Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.) sent a letter to HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. today asking him to undo some of the thousands of layoffs at the agency that are part of the DOGE cuts.

Why it matters: It's a clear example of how the fast-paced, deep cuts in federal spending are hitting even rural, GOP communities — and creating crises for the lawmakers who represent them.

• The issue is specifically at the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) in Morgantown, West Virginia, a main hub for the safety and health of coal miners and other workers.
• "It is my understanding that the [Reduction in Force] impacted every employee in these important programs," Capito wrote. "I urge you to bring back the NIOSH employees immediately so they can continue to support our nation's coal industry."

Sen. Jim Justice (R-W.Va.) also called the cuts to NIOSH "problematic," and told us he has spoken with several Trump officials about the issue, but not RFK Jr.

• "West Virginians, they're in lock step with President Trump," Justice told us. "But at the same time, there's so, so, so many people that are dependent" on programs like NIOSH. Justice expressed faith that Trump would fix the issue.

Zoom in: Before leaving for the two-week congressional recess, Capito told us she had raised her concern directly with Kennedy but was still waiting for action.

• "He listened, and I'm hoping that we get some reinstatement there," she said, adding she's "concerned" about the cuts to the programs, especially in Morgantown.

— Stef Kight

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Musk Goons Purged Living U.S. Citizens from Social Security

Elon Musk and his DOGE foot soldiers effectively killed the financial lives of “countless” citizens through their database meddling.

What might be called Day of the Dead Living is being continually played out at a Social Security Administration (SSA) office in upstate New York, and likely across the country.

“We have people who did not receive benefits come in every day with their ID and say, ‘I’m not dead, I’m alive!” says Rennie Glasgow, a claims technical analyst with 15 years of experience at the agency who handles the most challenging cases at the Schenectady office.

These supposed dead are not to be confused with more than 6,000 living immigrants the Trump administration moved to the SSA Death Master File (DMF) in an attempt to force them to self-deport by depriving them of the ability to work legally.

Many more American citizens were wrongly consigned to the DMF after Elon Musk’s DOGE goons bullied their way onto the SSA’s databases and mistakenly decided that “countless” people listed as 120 years old and older were receiving benefits.

“[DOGE staffers] went into the system and they killed off people,” Glasgow told the Daily Beast. “About 4 million people, they marked them as dead. But they’re not sure if those people were supposed to be marked as dead, so they’re sending us an email saying, ‘If these people come into the office with their identification, you can reinstate them.’”

The 55-year-old father of six added, “So we’re going to be resurrecting a lot of dead people.”

And restoring financial life is never simple.

“We have to go through this long process to resurrect them, to get them back as alive, which can take about three to four days,” Glasgow said.

He noted that until people get off the DMF, they endure a kind of financial death.

“When they mark someone dead on the Social Security record, it stops their life,” he said. “It stops their car payments, it stops their credit, it stops their ability to do anything. Their identification gets flagged. And most times those things have to go to the payment center.”

The system’s payment centers have suffered DOGE cutbacks that have at least doubled and maybe tripled the wait people must endure.

“What used to take 15 days to get done when we send something to a payment center is now taking about 30 to 45,” Glasgow reported.

Cutbacks have also hit Glasgow’s office hard. The staff there has been cut from 38 to a bare-bones 30. Only four of the 18 service windows are open due to the staffing shortage. And a person could finally step up to a window after a three-hour wait only to encounter more DOGE-induced inefficiency.

“Every day, between the hours of 10 to about 12, our system goes down,” Glasgow told The Daily Beast. “So it’s not just that people are sitting there, waiting for us to help them. When they get to the window, they’re told, ‘Our system is down. We can’t help you. We don’t know what’s going on.”

The staffing might get even tighter. Glasgow says that on Friday, DOGE sent out a renewed offer of a lump sum of $20,000 for early retirement.

DOGE is simultaneously making the workday more stressful for the remaining staff.

“Every day there is a new email that is either derogatory, disgusting, [or] threatening,” Glasgow said.

In the DOGE era, even missives that might have otherwise seemed positive can have a malevolent undertone.

“Today, there was a new email that came out [saying] that, ‘We want to recognize Social Security month. April every year will be Social Security month, and we will continue with our efficiency push to maximize customer service,’” Glasgow said on Wednesday.

The DOGE-controlled SSA did not respond to a request for comment.

Glasgow, who is vice president of the union representing the region’s SSA workers, Local 3343 of the American Federation of Government Employees, cannot help but feel there is a deliberate effort to sabotage the heretofore-popular SSA to the point that the public will turn against it. The next step would be privatization and access to the trillions in the SSA coffers.

Whatever the motive, the purported “efficiency” people are creating onerous inefficiencies.

“It’s crazy,” Glasgow said.

Glasgow figures it will all continue even if Musk reduces his direct involvement next month, as he said he will this week.

Whether or not Musk goes, the Day of the Dead Living seems sure to continue.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/doges-social-security-cuts-create-chaotic-day-of-the-dead-living/?

ps:I thank God it hasn't touched me or my wife!!!!!

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National Science Foundation

The director of the National Science Foundation, a $9 billion agency charged with advancing discoveries across the scientific spectrum, resigned on Thursday. President Trump selected Sethuraman Panchanathan to run the NSF during his first term and the Senate unanimously confirmed his nomination. Panchanathan's resignation came amid the Department of Government Efficiency's demands that the NSF cancel hundreds of grants totaling more than $230 million and begin sweeping cuts of its roughly 1,500-person workforce. Much of the terminated research was undertaken by scientists on college campuses and was related to diversity, equity and inclusion or the study of misinformation and disinformation.

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A DOGE Aide Involved in Dismantling Consumer Bureau Owns Stock in Companies That Could Benefit From the Cuts

A federal employee who is helping the Trump administration carry out the drastic downsizing of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau owns stock in companies that could benefit from the agency’s dismantling, a ProPublica investigation has found.

https://www.propublica.org/article/doge-consumer-financial-protection-bureau-gavin-kliger-stock?

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Musk interview: DOGE here to stay

Elon Musk acknowledges his budget-cutting exercise known as DOGE hasn't been as successful as he hoped. But he says it may go on for President Trump's entire four years in office — more than twice as long as originally planned.

Why it matters: DOGE was set up to terminate on July 4, 2026. But Musk now says his controversial group could help oversee the slashing of federal spending through the end of 2028.

• "I think so," Musk said of DOGE being extended. "It's up to the president."

Musk held an hour-long Q&A with Axios' Alex Isenstadt and about a dozen other news outlets in the White House's Roosevelt Room, just outside the Oval Office.

• It had the feel of a de-facto exit interview for Musk, who's planning to scale back his time in Washington to focus on running his companies.
• Tesla last month reported a big drop in profits. Musk told analysts he'll spend more time running the car company "now that the major work of establishing Department of Government Efficiency is done."

Musk insisted his transition doesn't mean DOGE was done.

• "DOGE is a way of life, like Buddhism," he said. "Buddha isn't alive anymore. You wouldn't ask the question: 'Who would lead Buddhism?'"

Top takeaways from the wide-ranging interview:

1. He acknowledged DOGE's shortcomings.

• Musk said that so far, DOGE has cut $160 billion in federal spending — far short of the $2 trillion goal he set last year.
• "In the grand scheme of things, I think we've been effective. Not as effective as I like ... but we've made progress."
• Many critics — including some of the thousands of federal workers who lost their jobs to DOGE cuts — have questioned whether the relatively small savings is worth the chaos.
• Some of the resistance to the cost-cutting, he said, has come from within the administration.
• "There's a long way to go," he said. "It's pretty difficult ... It's like: How much pain is the Cabinet and Congress willing to take? It can be done. But it requires dealing with a lot of complaints."

DOGE leaders said they had cut about 1% of the federal workforce, or 20,000 people.

• "I think we're probably getting things right 70-80% of the time," Musk said, adding that he thought DOGE eventually could reach $1 trillion in savings.

2. He hasn't always liked the job.

• Musk recounted the backlash he faced for leading DOGE, and protests and vandalism targeting Tesla dealerships.
• "Being attacked relentlessly is not super fun," he said. "Seeing cars on fire is not fun."

3. He quietly advised the Pentagon on defense spending.

Musk — owner of the SpaceX rocket company — said he'd aggressively encouraged Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to invest in hypersonic missiles and low-range drones.

• "I think he's in agreement, by the way," Musk added.

4. Musk sometimes stays in the Lincoln Bedroom.

• He's been tight-lipped about where he spends his time while in Washington. But he revealed that he'd stayed overnight "more than once" in the White House's Lincoln Bedroom at Trump's invitation.
• "He was like: 'Where are you staying?' I was like: 'I don't know. At a friend's house, I guess.' And then he was like: 'Why don't you stay here?' I was like: 'Sure.'"
• Trump, Musk recalled, once called him late at night and encouraged him to get ice cream from the White House kitchen. "Don't tell RFK," Musk joked.

5. His West Wing office is small. And doesn't get much natural light.

• Musk, the world's richest person, said he plans to keep his tiny office to use when he's in Washington, which he said will be just one to two days a week. He said it's a tight space and gets only a "glimmer of sunlight."

But Musk, who's spoken previously about the death threats he and his team have faced, said he didn't mind it from a security standpoint.

• "It has a view of nothing," he said. "It has a window but all you see is the HVAC unit, which is fine. It makes it harder to shoot me, I guess. There's not a good line of sight."

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Coping with chaos

Because of Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, tens of thousands of federal workers have been fired or quit, leaving those who are still employed to cope with a new culture at work. One said “people are afraid to do things that were once routine.”

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DOGE Aide Who Helped Gut CFPB Was Warned About Potential Conflicts of Interest

Last month, a Department of Government Efficiency aide at the nation’s consumer watchdog agency was told by ethics attorneys that he held stock in companies that employees are forbidden from owning — and was advised not to participate in any actions that could benefit him personally, according to a person familiar with the warning.

https://www.propublica.org/article/cfpb-gavin-kliger-doge-conflict-of-interest-consumer-financial-protection-bureau?

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🏛️ D.C. faces DOGE recession

Illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios

Signs of a DOGE recession are flashing in D.C. — rising unemployment, less credit card spending and jitters about more federal cuts, Axios D.C.'s Cuneyt Dil writes. Why it matters: A local "mild recession" is expected as the Trump administration downsizes the capital city's big factory — the federal government, employer to 17% of the region's workforce. State of play: Even before most of the federal job cuts, the number of unemployed residents in D.C. increased 12.2% in February over last year, city stats show. Spending at big retailers in the region dropped 2% in April, the Washington Post reported after crunching credit card data from Earnest Analytics. Everyday locals are skipping pricey gym memberships and dining out less, business owners tell the Post. D.C. home listings are soaring. Keep reading ...

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Musk Adviser May Make as Much as $1 Million a Year While Helping to Dismantle Agency that Regulates Tesla and X

One of Elon Musk’s employees is earning between $100,001 and $1 million annually as a political adviser to his billionaire boss while simultaneously helping to dismantle the federal agency that regulates two of Musk’s biggest companies, according to court records and a financial disclosure report obtained by ProPublica.

https://www.propublica.org/article/doge-elon-musk-chris-young-cfpb-tesla-x?

ps:This by the way is one of the real reason for gutting the agencies that DOGE is dismantling! It's to stop the investigating of Musk's companies!!!!!

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The New War On State Regulators

After kneecapping and culling federal agencies, corporate interests have a coordinated plan to defang government protections, state by state.

https://www.levernews.com/the-new-war-on-state-regulators/?

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DOGE Developed Error-Prone AI Tool to “Munch” Veterans Affairs Contracts

As the Trump administration prepared to cancel contracts at the Department of Veteran Affairs this year, officials turned to a software engineer with no health care or government experience to guide them.

https://www.propublica.org/article/trump-doge-veterans-affairs-ai-contracts-health-care?

🗳️ Virginia's DOGE test

Illustration: Aïda Amer/Axios

Republicans are increasingly worried that budget cuts by Elon Musk's DOGE could cost them dearly in November's vote for Virginia governor — an early electoral test of President Trump's policies. Why it matters: Virginia has one of the highest percentages of federal employees in the country — more than 5% of the state's workforce by some estimates. Republicans' internal polls are starting to show the damage from tens of thousands of federal layoffs, Axios' Alex Isenstadt reports. "I suspect this will be an albatross around the neck of every Republican candidate this year," said Virginia Republican Bill Bolling, a former lieutenant governor. 📊 By the numbers: A private poll done for the campaign of a statewide Republican candidate suggested that just 39% of voters had a favorable view of DOGE. Nearly half of voters surveyed said they knew of someone impacted by the DOGE cuts, according to results shared with Axios. The poll showed Republican Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears trailing former U.S. Rep. Abigail Spanberger (D) by single digits, outside the margin of error. 🔎 Between the lines: DOGE could especially hurt Earle-Sears' campaign for governor in Northern Virginia and Norfolk, sections of the state where huge segments of the population are federal workers or have jobs tied to the government. Those areas played a role in Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin's win in 2021. Read on.

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📨 Elon Musk's DOGE legacy

Photo illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios. Photo: Chesnot/Getty Image

Call it zombie management: Each week, federal workers inside a few agencies still dutifully email a report, detailing the five things they did in the previous seven days, Axios' Emily Peck and Marc Caputo write. Why it matters: The emails, born from an out-of-nowhere Elon Musk X post, show how hard it can be to undo even the smallest of changes once unleashed on the largest workforce in the U.S. The big picture: Musk's original directive blindsided the White House, including chief of staff Susie Wiles, two senior administration officials tell Axios. It was the first documented time that White House officials, publicly and privately, resisted Musk and chafed at his style of personnel management. "To use a phrase Susie might use, she was fit to be tied at Musk," one of the officials said. Some officials promptly told their staff to ignore it, starting with FBI director Kash Patel. Other appointees soon followed suit. The Office of Personnel Management pretty quickly said it was discretionary. 🔭 Zoom in: Like a zombie in a workplace horror movie, these emails live on, a sort of vestigial Muskian management tool. "We're told to send it every Monday before midnight," says a Social Security employee. "It takes a while," they said. "I have never gotten a response from anyone." Keep reading.

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DOGE firings

Even as the Department of Government Efficiency continues its campaign to shrink the federal workforce, agencies are rehiring and ordering back from leave a number of employees who were laid off. Some firings were stopped by the courts, while other reinstatements came at the request of lawmakers and the industries and groups they serve. Many federal workers were reinstated when the administration realized it needed their expertise and experience in areas such as the bird flu, mine safety and weather forecasting. Max Stier, CEO of the Partnership for Public Service, said the firing and reinstatement of workers “shows the mosaic of incompetence and a failure on the part of this administration to understand the critical value that the breadth of government expertise provides.” On Tuesday, a federal judge also blocked President Trump’s efforts to terminate the collective bargaining rights of more than 1 million federal employees.

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💼 DOGE cuts hit private sector

Data: Indeed; Chart: Axios Visuals The Trump administration's cuts to the federal workforce — spearheaded by Elon Musk's DOGE — are beginning to bleed into the private sector, Axios' Emily Peck reports. Job listings from the 25 largest federal contractors are down 15% since January, according to data from Indeed. Postings from all other employers fell by just 0.5%. ✂️ "There's been a pretty clear nose dive" among federal contractors, said Cory Stahle, an economist with the Indeed Hiring Lab.