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Federal technology staffers resign rather than help Musk and DOGE

Story by BRIAN SLODYSKO and BYRON TAU • 1h • 5 min readTopics mentioned in this articleUS Elections

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WASHINGTON (AP) — More than 20 civil service employees resigned Tuesday from billionaire Trump adviser Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency, saying they were refusing to use their technical expertise to “dismantle critical public services.”

“We swore to serve the American people and uphold our oath to the Constitution across presidential administrations,” the 21 staffers wrote in a joint resignation letter, a copy of which was obtained by The Associated Press. “However, it has become clear that we can no longer honor those commitments.”

The employees also warned that many of those enlisted by Musk to help him slash the size of the federal government under President Donald Trump's administration were political ideologues who did not have the necessary skills or experience for the task ahead of them.

The mass resignation of engineers, data scientists and product managers is a temporary setback for Musk and the Republican president's tech-driven purge of the federal workforce. It comes amid a flurry of court challenges that have sought to stall, stop or unwind their efforts to fire or coerce thousands of government workers out of jobs.

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment Tuesday morning.

The staffers who resigned worked for what was once known as the United States Digital Service, an office established during President Barack Obama's administration after the botched rollout of Healthcare.gov, the web portal that millions of Americans use to sign up for insurance plans through the Democrat's signature health care law.

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All had previously held senior roles at such tech companies as Google and Amazon and wrote in their resignation letter that they joined the government out of a sense of duty to public service.

Trump's empowerment of Musk upended that. The day after Trump's inauguration, the staffers wrote, they were called into a series of interviews that foreshadowed the secretive and disruptive work of Musk's' Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE.

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According to the staffers, people wearing White House visitors' badges, some of whom would not give their names, grilled the nonpartisan employees about their qualifications and politics. Some made statements that indicated they had a limited technical understanding. Many were young and seemed guided by ideology and fandom of Musk — not improving government technology.

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“Several of these interviewers refused to identify themselves, asked questions about political loyalty, attempted to pit colleagues against each other, and demonstrated limited technical ability,” the staffers wrote in their letter. “This process created significant security risks.”

Earlier this month, about 40 staffers in the office were laid off. The firings dealt a devastating blow to the government's ability to administer and safeguard its own technological footprint, they wrote.

“These highly skilled civil servants were working to modernize Social Security, veterans’ services, tax filing, health care, disaster relief, student aid, and other critical services,” the resignation letter states. “Their removal endangers millions of Americans who rely on these services every day. The sudden loss of their technology expertise makes critical systems and American’s data less safe.”

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Those who remained, about 65 staffers, were integrated into DOGE's government-slashing effort. About a third of them quit Tuesday.

"We will not use our skills as technologists to compromise core government systems, jeopardize Americans’ sensitive data, or dismantle critical public services," they wrote. “We will not lend our expertise to carry out or legitimize DOGE’s actions.”

The slash-and-burn effort Musk is leading diverges from what was initially outlined by Trump during the 2024 presidential campaign. DOGE, a nod to Musk's favorite cryptocurrency meme coin, was initially presented as a blue-ribbon commission that would exist outside government.

After the election, however, Musk hinted there was more to come, posting to his social media site, X, “Threat to democracy? Nope, threat to BUREAUCRACY!!!” He has leaned aggressively into the role since.

Last week he stood on stage at the Conservative Political Action Conference gathering outside Washington, where he boasted of his exploits and hoisted a blinged-out, Chinese-made chainsaw above his head that was gifted by Argentinian President Javier Milei.

"This is the chainsaw for bureaucracy,” Musk bellowed from the stage.

Still, Musk has tried to keep technical talent in place, with the bulk of the layoffs in the Digital Service office focused on people in roles like designers, product managers, human resources and contracting staff, according to interviews with current and former staff.

Of the 40 people let go earlier this month, only one was an engineer — an outspoken and politically active staffer name Jonathan Kamens, who said in an interview with the AP that he believes he was fired for publicly endorsing Vice President Kamala Harris, a Democrat, on his personal blog and being critical of Musk in chats with colleagues.

"I believe that Elon Musk is up to no good. And I believe that any data that he gains access to is going to be used for purposes that are inappropriate and harmful to Americans," Kamens said.

U.S. Digital Service veterans, who spoke on the condition of anonymity out of fear of reprisal, recalled experiencing a similar sort of shock about how government processes worked that Musk and his team are discovering. Over time, many developed an appreciation for why certain things in government had to be treated with more care than in the private sector.

“‘Move fast and break things’ may be acceptable to someone who owns a business and owns the risk. And if things don’t go well, the damage is compartmentalized. But when you break things in government, you’re breaking things that belong to people who didn’t sign up for that,” said Cordell Schachter, who until last month was the chief information officer at the U.S. Department of Transportation.

USDS was established over a decade ago to do things like improving services for veterans, and it helped create a free government-run portal so tax filers did not have to go through third parties like TurboTax. It also devised systems to improve the way the federal government purchased technology.

It has been embroiled in its fair share of bureaucracy fights and agency turf wars with chief information officers across government who resented interlopers treading in their agency’s systems. USDS’ power across government stemmed from the imprimatur of acting on behalf of the White House and its founding mission of improving service for the American people.

___

AP video journalist Rodrique Ngowi contributed from Boston.

Uninspiredcup was also adamant they flopped but ignored the multiple times he was asked to elaborate on how. lol

What were the projections or modeling predictions though, if any? I mean the Lacks Justifiable Sources method of perusing social media isn't the strongest gauge, and sometimes the hyperbole gets the best of people to drum beat their position(s), no? I found a couple week old article on PBS where even they said it was highly unlikely they would obtain power, but would field it's strongest support yet (which ended up being accurate).

I think your memory might be wrong, you asked twice something about how they were Nazis, I don't remember that.

Feel free to quote highlight it.

But, for the record, here and now, they did flop.

Much more was expected. Prev page it is explained.

Even with US government interference, it is a poultry number. And with the rising threat of Russia, and America deemed borderline hostile, it will go down, not up.

""Polling at around 21% ahead of Sunday's federal parliamentary election, the AfD still has pariah status among other major political parties in a country where far-right politics has long carried a stigma because of the Nazi past.

In a policy dubbed the "firewall", parties have a consensus not to team up with the AfD, which is under surveillance by the German domestic intelligence service. This pact shuts it out of any coalition government after the election.""

The world is not a static thing, Trump will go, maga will go, war could break out, Nato broken up etc.. etc.. etc..

It's potential biggest boost here was the US government itself, JD Vance, Elon, Trump giving them coverage on a scale unlike any before.

Still flopped. And more to the point, no one in their right mind should wish them to succeed.

I am getting rather old so I don't doubt my memory can be faulty at times. Or I may mixup the geographical locale where one resides since there's quite a few that take American politicians with fervor. Regardless,

It was the final question on each rather small paragraph, so not sure how it could have been conflated with the good ol Godwin's law stuff.

Okay, they were polling at 21% and right now they have ... 20.8%? Uh? Fascinating... Absolutely fascinating. Lmao

I can never understand how after many years of Russia funding (with money, personal and armament) a civil war in ukranian soil, and then the full scale invasion, not to mention the Crimeia situation, we end up with the delusional narrative of "NATO attacked Russia".

Fair enough.

There you go, answered. Moving on.

• In spite of the Tesla CEO’s best efforts, the AfD performed no better than had been expected when snap elections were called. While the AfD doubled its support—as predicted—it failed to surpass the conservative Christian Democrats as Musk had hoped. “Germany voted for suicide,” the AfD’s best-known Gen Z influencer wrote.

Germany’s far-right AfD doubled its share of the vote in Sunday’s federal election, hauling in over 20% to become the second largest party in parliament.

For their most famous campaigner, Elon Musk, it’s a bitter failure.

No matter how hard the Tesla CEO tried to boost its popularity and raise its profile on his X social media site, exit polls suggest the AfD could not pick up any additional votes as a result of his vocal backing. The party had been predicted to pull in that degree of support in November, when snap elections were first called, and it barely budged.

@uninspiredcup: Just to clarify here... your gauge of a flop is literally because Elon posted a tweet in support of the Afd? lol

I think you seem to be missing my posts now.

I said the US government, JD Vance, Elon and Trump.

Everyone of these attempted to boost them, Elon with 218 million followers, including rigging the algorithms.

So yes, considering this is likely the best push they will ever have, with only expected results, and still blocked out of power.

Yes. That is objectively, a failure.

@uninspiredcup: Best to walk away.

Uh, okay, so you have your own bar (separate from tangible observations where all the polling and modeling projected...) and that bar was met by (unknown) tweets from multiple Muricans' and a social media platform. I mean that's quite an objective fool-proof metric. In fact, it's so objective that the expected results, or bar, can easily be replicated and projected in a readily viewable metric. Lol

Aside from being a failure, it is very good for Europe.

As explained previously (and it's absolutely no coincidence Elon/Vance/Trump) tried to boost them, these sort of parties are exactly what Russia want, and most likely interfered with themselves via troll farms.

https://correctiv.org/en/latest-stories/2023/10/19/alternative-for-russia-how-the-afd-is-systematically-turning-towards-russia/

Instead we have a man who is intent on protecting us from the threat of Russia and the current America administration which is in the middle of making America degrade again.

This, as if it needs explained, is the correct outcome, the one that benefits Europe as whole.

It gets worse.

By Putin offering rare earth minerals to the US in the Donbas, if Trump accepts it means the US is participating in Putin’s territorial expansion into Ukraine.

https://www.eenews.net/articles/putin-offers-to-sell-minerals-to-trump-including-from-russian-occupied-ukraine/

Surely Trump wouldn't be this lo... uh, forget it.

@uninspiredcup: Specially bizarre since a few months ago there were news of huge rare mineral deposits ready to be worked on US. Seems like it's not America first after all.

@uninspiredcup: Yup, the fact of the matter is, the AfD was boosted HARD by certain interest groups. And despite this, they fell somewhat short of projects despite all that. Being projected at around 21-22% to ending up with 20.8%. Which was not terribly off the mark, but again. They had momentum.

And as I need to say again. It is HIGHLY unlikely anyone is willing to cooperate with them. Given all the wind and momentum they had behind their backs, this was ultimately a victory for those who arent on Team Putin. They will continue as they do in the past. Be there as background noise in the Bendestag. Their influence has grown, but they are still going to be very much contained.

And what did Elon Musk get from all this?

This plummet is in part attributed to his tanking reputation in Europe. Turns out that boosting a party with strong support for Russia, was not a good idea.

As for 2029. Its way too early to predict. However,

The demographic that voted primarily against the AfD are 70+. But at the same time, the forces that tried to bump them up... rallying for them and everything. Those forces are already at a decline. Either way, no one knows what will happen in the future.

I don't want to get involved in trying to analyse German political trends in depth, I'm nowhere near knowledgeable enough. The part which caught my eye, as an outsider, was the sudden surge in Left Party support among young voters. Now that's conceivably a response to public perceptions of the AfD, right? I'd find it pretty easy to believe Musk's interventions might have played some role in that stat too.

Eh, who really knows, outside some data analytics people.

Sorta yes.

But people were also quite disillusioned with the poor leadership under Olaf Scholz and are looking for another left wing party.

Point taken.

It's rich pickings for data analytics companies, that whole German smorgasbord of parties. Tons to digest I bet.

@sancho_panzer: Also should mention that people were not so enthusiastic about the Green Party either. As they failed to hold up to most of their promises.

edit - bit more info

https://www.ft.com/content/1890d104-1395-4393-a71d-d299aed448e6

Kyiv has agreed terms with Washington on a minerals deal that Ukrainian officials hope will improve relations with the Trump administration and pave the way for a long-term US security commitment. Ukrainian officials say Kyiv is now ready to sign the agreement on jointly developing its mineral resources, including oil and gas, after the US dropped demands for a right to $500bn in potential revenue from exploiting the resources. Although the text lacks explicit security guarantees, the officials argued that they had negotiated far more favourable terms and depicted the deal as a way of broadening the relationship with the US to shore up Ukraine’s prospects after three years of war. “The minerals agreement is only part of the picture. We have heard multiple times from the US administration that it’s part of a bigger picture,” Olha Stefanishyna, Ukraine’s deputy prime minister and justice minister who has led the negotiations, told the Financial Times on Tuesday. A Ukrainian official with knowledge of the matter said that Zelenskyy was planning to travel to Washington on Friday to see Trump and formalise the deal. On Tuesday, Trump appeared to confirm his Ukrainian counterpart’s visit, saying: “I hear that [Zelenskyy is] coming on Friday. Certainly it’s OK with me if he’d like to.” The original draft’s highly onerous terms — which President Donald Trump presented as a means of Ukraine repaying the US for military and financial aid since Russia’s 2022 full-scale invasion — provoked outrage in Kyiv and other European capitals. After President Volodymyr Zelenskyy rejected that initial text last week, Trump called him a “dictator” and appeared to blame Ukraine for starting the war. The final version of the agreement, dated February 24 and seen by the FT, would establish a fund into which Ukraine would contribute 50 per cent of proceeds from the “future monetisation” of state-owned mineral resources, including oil and gas, and associated logistics. The fund would invest in projects in Ukraine. It excludes mineral resources that already contribute to Ukrainian government coffers, meaning it would not cover the existing activities of Naftogaz or Ukrnafta, Ukraine’s largest gas and oil producers. However, the agreement omits any reference to US security guarantees which Kyiv had originally insisted on in return for agreeing to the deal. It also leaves crucial questions such as the size of the US stake in the fund and the terms of “joint ownership” deals to be hashed out in follow-up agreements. After three years in which the US was Kyiv’s primary military aid donor, Trump has overturned Washington’s policy by opening bilateral talks with Russia, without any European allies or Ukraine at the table. Ukrainian officials said the deal had been approved by the justice, economy and foreign ministers. The Trump administration’s initial sweeping proposal called for a reconstruction investment fund in which the US “maintains 100 per cent financial interest”. Ukraine would contribute 50 per cent of the fund’s revenues from mineral resource extraction, including oil and gas and associated infrastructure, up to a maximum of $500bn. Those terms, described as unacceptable by Ukrainian officials, have been removed from the final draft. The mandate for the fund to invest in Ukraine is a further change Kyiv had sought. The document states the US will back Ukraine’s economic development into the future. Ukrainian officials added that the deal was just a “framework agreement” and that no revenues would change hands until the fund was in place, allowing them time to iron out any potential disagreements. Among the outstanding issues is to agree the jurisdiction of the agreement. Zelenskyy’s government will also have to seek approval from Ukraine’s parliament, where opposition MPs have signalled they will at the very least have a heated debate before ratifying such a deal. Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, told reporters on Tuesday that it was “critical that this deal is signed”, though she did not provide an update on the talks. Additional reporting by James Politi and Felicia Schwartz in Washington"""

So it seems Ukraine got it altered, but it still seems very wishy washy on details.

I still would not trust US at all and go with the EU. And would not sign this until after "peice" is archived, it seems really premature to me.

For all we know, Trumps deal (and everything indicates it is), planning to give Putin everything. And what happens if they just say "na" and ignore this thus far, disastrous peace deal?

The only upside here, if that the mere presence of US people in Ukriane, would deter Russia. and the ridiculous 500b nonsense has been put to bed.

Still would not trust this administration as far as I could throw them, just seem like the scum of the earth.

Zel going to Washington to sit next to Trump, that should be fun. Wonder if Trump will manage to resist coming across as a giant bell end.

Ukraine has agreed a crucial minerals deal with the US after the Trump administration dropped key demands.

Kyiv hopes the deal - which will see a fund established between the two countries as they jointly develop Ukraine’s mineral resources, according to the Financial Times - will boost its faltering relationship with Washington.

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky plans to visit Washington on Friday to meet Mr Trump after the terms were agreed, according to Reuters.

The US dropped Donald Trump’s demand for $500 billion in potential revenue from Ukrainian resources, a condition which was rejected out-of-hand by Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky.

Included in the deal was a US commitment to back Ukraine’s economic development into the future. Deputy prime minister Olha Stefanishyna told the FT: “The minerals agreement is only part of the picture. We have heard multiple times from the US administration that it’s part of a bigger picture.”

But the deal, which Ukrainian officials made clear was only preliminary and does not yet involve any handover of funds, will not include the US security guarantees keenly sought after by Kyiv.

I get Ukraine is desperate but no one should expect Trump to honour a deal. His track record is pretty terrible in the regard.

I wouldn't say that actually.

I mean, the causalities are bad, for sure. And should American aid stop their ammo would last about till summer and lose vital resources.

But the actual lines, are largely frozen or extremely slow with Russian advance. At the current rate, unaltered, it would take Russia about 80 years to get the center Ukriane, at a rate of losing 1000+ men a day, astranomical casualties, sending men on crutches, using donkeys and horses.

The ratio of artillery has also changed. At the start, it was 7/1 in Russia' favor. Now they are at parity.

Similarly, vehicle use has largely depleted.

Now, to reiterate, not saying Ukraine are a wonderful and having a jolly time, merely saying they are still fighting and Russia itself has also become fatigued and heavily depleted. With Ukraine deliberately and effectively using drone warfare to do about 14 billion damage to Russia' oil and gas, ignoring other stuff.

Eventually Russia will burn out, as would Ukraine.

But, EU could have, and should have, given them more. People like to say they got lots of shit, but in reality, we could have done a tone more. Our toe was in the water. And still can, giving them billions right now, training, weapons, and other aid currently at about 20 billion thus far.

As mentioned like 3-4 times, Ukriane is now the strongest and best army in the EU, and the largest drone operator country in the world, out-stripping China.

So if they were willing, I think personally they should get beefed up to high hell, and continue, but this time with the equipment, training they should have had.

I think Trumps "peice" deal will be abysmal, probably rejected right away.

And even if they get a cease fire, Russia will just attack again, but thanks to Trump, time to recover, lift sanctions and trade with then. Resetting them back to 0, just to pull the same bullshit again.

In general, be super surprised if these blind men feeling around don't create a disaster or create something highly insulting to both UKR and EU.

Ukraine themselves have said this, over an over. They've had experience with Russia, Trump and his noob team and clueless, while Russia' have 20 years of experience.

Just my opinion, could be wrong, but I think ALL EU resources, should be directed at Ukraine buying all the best kit they can get, while Russia is weak and finishing the job.

The myth Russia is some might army, isn't trying, or Ukraine will top in 2 minutes, nope.

This peace-keeper idea seems kinda dumb as well to me. And I think also kind of insult?

Basically Trumps original plan, was to exploit the shit out of them, with no US boots on the ground, while we the British and others, protect his scam job?

Germany has caught on instantly, but I think people like KS and a few others are living in the past, deluded thinking it's the same old America and Donald Trump can be reasoned with.

Gonna have years of this shit. And America looks like it will implode in on itself as well the way things are going. US might be temp useful for Ukriane, but EU needs to become it's own power, with Ukriane at the forefront while we bolster up using our wealth.

I don't understand the offer. Can anyone explain?

What are the repayment limits? What happens to the fund? "Projects" sounds vague. How is this better than the original proposal? How do the Ukrainian people feel about this? What does the rest of Europe think? Shouldn't peace be negotiated before reconstruction and economic deals are made?

It all sounds back to front to me.

No security guarantee, no NATO. Personally I think he, and Ukraine, is being had.

Still alot of details missing but from what gouged

1. It says Zel tossed aside the 500b number, which itself was made up, presumably it would be 100, possibly 200

2. The original one was to take half of all resources, certain major ones vital to UKR like gas have been excluded

3. The "forever", appears to have been changed to a specific time-limit

4. Still no guarantee plan

Beyond that super wishy-washy-who-knows

@uninspiredcup: I'd want financial obligations and fund operating terms, ownership and applications clearly delineated before signing anything, given the intent of the original deal.

You're right, from the information we're given, this is way too vague.

@sancho_panzer: Ha for sure, they've tried to scam them twice basically attempting to make them US slaves for eternity.

Think to actual US citizens compared to EU, UKR is far away and they are (rightly) more interested in their own internal issues.

But I think history long run, looking back at how America has acted, these lot will be viewed as spunk stains best forgotten.

They could still technically take this though.

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/world/donald-trump-sidelined-as-eu-offers-own-win-win-deal-to-ukraine/ar-AA1zKHvg?

He's giving them the right to fight, and crediting himself for their success, because of course.

But I doubt they care about him fapping to himself.

So yea, the irrelevant Zelenskyy did have cards and must have read art of the deal.

So they get this, combined with jacked up EU packages.

What does Ukraine get for the mineral deal? Trump: 350 billion dollars, lots of military equipment, and the right to fight on Ukraine, they are very brave and good soldiers, but without the U.S. money and military equipment, this war would be over in a short period of time

@uninspiredcup: Normally, you'd think any redevelopment/repayment plans should be reviewed after Ukraine knows where it stands with its territory. The fact that this administration won't openly concede this was an invasion is a terrible foot to get off on. Everyone sees how this looks.

@sancho_panzer: Kinda laughing

Trump has went from

> War bad, must end it fast! Should have made a deal! Would NEVER HAVE HAPPENED UNDER ME!

to

> War good, would have been over without us. I GIVE THEM PERMISSION TO FIGHT, I WAS ACTUALLY ME WHO SEND JAVLINNES!

And MAGA will go along with it probably, without any critical thought, what so ever.

https://x.com/mtracey/status/1894532702772097087

Whatever, Ukriane gets what they want.

Also -

""No more "peace talks": Incoming German Chancellor Merz declared that Ukraine must defeat Russia. Germany will establish a €200B Emergency Defense Fund, 4x its current military budge""

Wondering if it was Macron, the threat of EU ripping apart, Republicans turning against him, the threat of the mineral deal going to EU, or all of the above.

But he seems almost self-aware now.

Almost.

I see my sarcasm went over like a 747, especially when you turn to the Lacking Justifiable Sources method. I really need to get that trademarked.

@uninspiredcup: Dude just give up, Steve is so convinced that he’s the smartest guy in the room that he will never admit to being at fault or being wrong about anything. Arguing with him is utterly pointless.

Yep.

To be fair, your last interaction with me went to "Oh I misread things" ... just like uninspiredcup went... "oh fair enough..."

I mean, I give credit where credit is due, at least you guys try. It is amusing to me. lol

@Pedro I see pedro, pedro, pedro (insert racoon) still upset over milk in bags and monstrous insects commentary. lol

This is demonstrably true.🤷🏽‍♂️

@uninspiredcup:

It can't not be self aware.

They're a mixed bunch, that crowd.