What happened
Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency is seeking access to Social Security Administration and Internal Revenue Service databases with highly personal information about most Americans, including tax returns, bank records and Social Security numbers, The Washington Post and other newspapers reported over the weekend. Acting SSA Commissioner Michelle King stepped down on Sunday, becoming the latest agency head to resign rather than give DOGE engineers access to closely held data. The Trump administration also fired several thousand government workers over the weekend, including "scores of employees who work to bolster the nation's nuclear defense, only to realize its error and start reversing the firings,"
the Post said.
Who said what
The Trump administration said
Musk's engineers need access to the tightly guarded databases to "eliminate waste, fraud and abuse." But "White House officials, when asked, wouldn't specify why DOGE needed access to the sensitive taxpayer information to execute on its mission,"
The Wall Street Journal said.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox. From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox. It was unclear Monday if
DOGE operatives had successfully gained access yet, but the Social Security database "has our bank information, our earnings records, the names and ages of our children, and much more," said Nancy Altman, the president of the advocacy group Social Security Works. "There is no way to overstate how serious a breach this is." Someone with "an evil intent" could "erase your earnings record, making it impossible to collect the Social Security and Medicare benefits you have earned," she added. The "potential unlawful release of taxpayer records" could also be used to "maliciously target Americans, violate their privacy and create other ramifications,"
The Associated Press said. In his first term, the Post said, President Donald Trump "openly mused about sending IRS agents after
political opponents , leaving agency officials on edge about the IRS's independence."
What next?
Trump bypassed several higher-ranking officials to replace King with Leland Dudek, who oversaw the SSA's anti-fraud office. Dudek had praised Musk's team in a LinkedIn post, "saying he had been assisting its efforts," the Times said. He has now "deleted his account."
