Why Elon Musk and DOGE’s U.S. payment system access is raising alarm

Time magazine’s Friday cover depicts Elon Musk behind the Resolute Desk in the White House’s Oval Office, a seat typically reserved for the president, seeming to imply that the world’s wealthiest man holds greater power in Washington than even president Donald Trump.

Musk, who spent an estimated $288 million US to get Trump elected, has been granted a level of access into the U.S. government’s federal payment system that is unprecedented for a private citizen, and his actions have already sparked protests and lawsuits.

Musk has used his access to the system, responsible for the flow of over $6 trillion US in payments to American families and businesses each year, to largely dismantle the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), the foreign aid agency, and interfere with state agencies and organizations across the federal government.

A federal judge on Friday said he will temporarily block the Trump administration from placing 2,200 USAID employees on paid leave, however, siding with workers who argued the president lacks the authority to swiftly dismantle the six-decade-old aid agency enshrined in congressional legislation.

Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), which appears to include a team of a dozen young men previously unknown to the U.S. government, has raised concerns about Americans’ private information being compromised, while leaving many government workers unsure about their employment status. 

Musk’s own companies, which include SpaceX and Tesla, have been awarded billions of dollars worth of U.S. government contracts, raising further concerns about potential conflicts of interest.

Here are some of the questions raised about DOGE’s recent actions.

Privacy and security

Democratic lawmakers are seeking a Treasury Department investigation into the access Musk’s team was given to the government’s payment system, citing “threats to the economy and national security, and the potential violation of laws protecting Americans’ privacy and tax data.”

The payments system handles tax refunds, Social Security benefits and much more, raising questions about whether the DOGE review is legal. Any breakdown in the system could mean missed payments to people or even the sharing of sensitive personal data.

Nineteen Democratic attorneys general sued Trump on Friday to stop DOGE from accessing Treasury Department records that contain sensitive personal data. The case, filed in federal court in New York City, alleges the Trump administration allowed Musk’s team access to the department’s central payment system in violation of federal law. 

The Treasury Department has maintained that its review is merely about assessing the integrity of the system and that no changes to it are being made.

Secrecy

In a letter to the acting education secretary, a group of Democrats demanded details about DOGE’s work and vowed to fight any attempt to close the Education Department, which has been in turmoil as Trump sets out to abolish it. 

Dozens of employees have been placed on paid leave with little explanation, and workers from DOGE have begun scouring the department’s records as they look to slash spending.

The DOGE team already has gained access to a database housing personal information on millions of students and parents with federal student loans, according to two people with knowledge of the issue. A third person said DOGE would be given administrator access to the department’s website on Friday, allowing Musk’s workers to change the text on any page or take the site offline.

A federal lawsuit filed Friday seeks to block DOGE’s access to student financial aid systems, calling it an “enormous and unprecedented” invasion of privacy that violates the privacy rights of millions of federal student loan borrowers. It was filed by the advocacy group Student Defence on behalf of the University of California Student Association.

It says DOGE could now have access to Social Security numbers, driver’s licence numbers, dates of birth and contact information for student loan borrowers. 

The Education Department said DOGE is helping it return to in-person work, restoring accountability for employees and reforming the hiring process to focus on merit. It said there is “nothing inappropriate or nefarious going on.”

Conflict of interest

A group of labour unions sued to keep DOGE workers out of the U.S. Labor Department’s systems, which they say contain sensitive information about workers, including those who have filed safety complaints about their employers.

The Labor Department also has information about investigations into SpaceX and Tesla, and about competitors’ trade secrets, the unions said in their suit. The department is home to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, which has investigated and fined SpaceX and Tesla in connection with worker safety, the unions said in court documents.

A federal judge was considering Friday whether to block Musk’s team from accessing systems at the Labor Department, though the hearing ended without a ruling.

“At every step,” wrote labour union lawyers represented by the advocacy group Democracy Forward, “DOGE is violating multiple laws, from constitutional limits on executive power, to laws protecting civil servants from arbitrary threats and adverse action, to crucial protections for government data collected and stored on hundreds of millions of Americans.”

The Justice Department said the unions are just speculating, and haven’t shown DOGE employees would get access to the information they’re worried about.

Questions about employees

Gavin Kliger lists his job on LinkedIn as “Special Advisor to the Director” at the Office of Personnel Management, which has been spearheading Musk’s efforts to shrink the federal workforce.

In social media posts between October 2024 and January, the Berkeley-educated computer scientist voiced controversial views and reposted content from white supremacist Nick Fuentes and self-described misogynist Andrew Tate.

Kliger is one of about a dozen men identified by Reuters and other news outlets who have been recruited by Musk and his DOGE office.

Another DOGE staffer, Marko Elez, quit on Thursday amid questions from the Wall Street Journal about links to a deleted social media account that advocated for racism and eugenics.

Musk said Friday he would rehire Elez.

Reuters could not determine how Elez, Kliger or any of the individuals working with Musk to slash government and staffing were selected for their jobs.

A White House official told Reuters on Wednesday that Musk and his engineers have appropriate security clearances and are operating in “full compliance with federal law, appropriate security clearances, and as employees of the relevant agencies, not as outside advisors or entities.”