‘No longer’: Staff quit Elon Musk’s ‘DOGE’ in protest

Almost a third of staffers at the billionaire’s ‘government efficiency’ body tell the White House they can’t continue.

More than 20 staffers of Elon Musk’s government efficiency body have resigned in protest saying they would not use their expertise to “dismantle critical public services”.

Almost a third of staffers at the so-called Department of Government Efficiency – styled as DOGE by Mr Musk – quit on Tuesday local time and issued a letter to the White House.

“We swore to serve the American people and uphold our oath to the Constitution across presidential administrations,” 21 staffers wrote to White House chief of staff Susan Wiles.

“However, it has become clear that we can no longer honour those commitments.”

The staffers initially worked for the United States Digital Service (USDS), which was transformed into DOGE after Donald Trump took office and Mr Musk effectively took over the department.

Mr Musk is the political force behind DOGE, with a small group of employees faithful to the billionaire working toward gutting federal staffing and spending.

While Mr Musk is not the formal administrator of DOGE, the SpaceX and Tesla boss is nonetheless directing operations and will even attend Mr Trump’s first cabinet meeting on Wednesday.

Billionaire Elon Musk downplayed the resignations. Picture: Saul Loeb/AFP

The world’s wealthiest person and a top Trump donor, Mr Musk has no ministerial portfolio or formal decision-making authority but has status as a “special government employee” and “senior adviser to the president”.

He downplayed the significance of the departures, saying that the workers were “political holdovers” who worked remotely and refused to return to the office as ordered by Mr Trump.

“They would have been fired had they not resigned,” he added on X, the platform he owns.

The signatories describe a chaotic transition process that began on January 21 with hastily conducted interviews by unidentified individuals wearing White House visitor badges.

Members of US caucus have pledged to support initiatives "aimed at cutting waste” in government. Picture: Andrew Harnik/Getty Images/AFP

The interviewers questioned staff about political loyalty, attempted to create division among team members, and displayed “limited technical ability”.

Tensions escalated on February 14 when approximately one-third of USDS staff were abruptly terminated via anonymous email.

The dismissed employees had been working on modernizing critical government systems including Social Security, veterans’ services, tax filing, healthcare, and disaster relief platforms, the letter said.

The Department of Government Efficiency has proved highly controversial. Picture: Jim Watson/AFP

“Their removal endangers millions of Americans who rely on these services every day. The sudden loss of their technology expertise makes critical systems and Americans’ data less safe”, the letter stated.

The employees explicitly refused to participate in what they described as efforts to “compromise core government systems, jeopardize Americans’ sensitive data, or dismantle critical public services”.

The USDS was established in 2014 during Barack Obama’s administration and has operated as a nonpartisan technology unit tasked with improving government digital services.