Musk's data access team raises national security alarms
Elon Musk's team working on DOGE should not have access to the sensitive personal data of millions of Americans. They easily obtain it because our security measures are lacking - admitted Donald Trump. According to Wired, one of Musk's employees was previously fired for stealing company data.
Trump made this remark in response to the media and opposition's outrage over Musk's associates gaining access to the Department of Treasury's payment systems, which contain sensitive personal data of nearly all U.S. citizens and federal employees. The President acknowledged that the young members of DOGE do not require such access, "but they get it very easily."
"Well, it doesn't, but they get it very easily, I mean we don't have very good security in our country," said Trump during a press conference following a meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba.
Intervention at the treasury
According to "The Washington Post," initially, Treasury Department employees did not want to grant access to Musk's team, but eventually relented after interventions by the billionaire himself.
Trump suggested that Musk's team operates at his behest, investigating, among other things, spending by the Pentagon and the Department of Education.
"They’re doing it at my insistence. It would be a lot easier not to do it, but we have to take some of these things apart to find the corruption and we’ve found tremendous corruption. They know what they’re doing. They’ll ask questions, and they’ll see immediately as somebody gets tongue-tied that they’re either crooked or don’t know what they’re doing. We have very smart people going," Trump recounted.
Trump on frauds at USAID
The President stated that Musk's team discovers many frauds and abuses, particularly at the USAID agency. Trump ordered the closure of this agency, which sparked controversy and was taken to court.
The activities of Musk's team have stirred controversy since Trump took office. On Friday, Wired reported that one of the DOGE employees, 19-year-old programmer Edward Coristine, was dismissed from his previous job for passing company data to competitors.
The day before, another of Musk's associates, 25-year-old Marko Elez, who had access to the Treasury's central payment system, resigned from his position due to openly racist posts uncovered by the "Wall Street Journal."
Elon Musk and Vice President JD Vance advocated for Elez, organizing a poll on his reinstatement. Trump supported the Vice President's stance, although he was not familiar with the details of the case.
