Here are all the agencies that Elon Musk and DOGE have been trying to dismantle so far
(Photo by Kenny Holston-Pool/Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON) — Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency group has made swift work of the billionaire’s goal to scale back or dismantle much of the federal government, end diversity policies and otherwise further President Donald Trump’s agenda.
DOGE employees, many of whom have no government experience, have been going through data systems, shutting down DEI programs and in some cases, whole agencies.
The White House and Republicans have claimed, without citing details, that DOGE is accountable to the president and will be kept away from conflicts of interest. Musk, though, according to lawmakers and attorneys representing federal workers, has violated laws, union agreements and civil service protections.
Trump has repeatedly backed Musk.
“Elon is doing a great job, he’s finding tremendous fraud and corruption and waste,” he told reporters Friday.
One DOGE member, Marko Elez, resigned on Feb. 6 amid reports linking him to an account that allegedly posted racist comments.
The next day Musk sent a poll to his X followers asking if the employee should be reinstated and later claimed he would return but did not provide further details. Musk and Vice President J.D. Vance also attacked the female Wall Street Journal reporter who discovered the posts.
Congressional Democrats have staged protests outside affected agencies, tried to enter them but were prevented from doing so by DOGE and Trump officials, and attempted to issue a congressional subpoena for Musk but were blocked by Republicans.
At the same time, opponents have had success fighting Musk’s and DOGE’s moves in the courts, with judges stopping some of DOGE’s orders.
Here is some of what’s known about the DOGE efforts since Trump was sworn in, although there has been little transparency about Musk’s efforts.
Federal government wide
On Jan. 8, the administration sent out buyout offers to over 2 million federal workers, including employees in the CIA.
On Feb. 5, U.S. District Judge George O’Toole Jr. temporarily blocked the offer and extended the deadline to Feb. 10 following lawsuit filed by federal workers’ unions.
NOAA
At least one member of DOGE entered the Department of Commerce — the agency that houses NOAA, the federal agency responsible for forecasting the weather, researching and analyzing climate and weather data and monitoring and tracking extreme weather events like hurricanes. That person was granted access to NOAA’s IT systems, Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., said on Feb. 5.
DOGE members accessed computer systems to search for staff and data related to diversity programs.
USAID
Musk announced on Feb. 2 that he was going to shut down the U.S. Agency for International Development, which is responsible for humanitarian efforts around the globe.
The agency’s website was shut down prior to his announcement, leaving many aid groups and American aid workers abroad in the dark about their programs and future.
A lawsuit was filed on Feb. 6 to prevent the move a day before USAID workers were forced to face being forced from their jobs. A day later Judge Carl J. Nichols, a Trump-nominated federal judge, said announced a temporary restraining order that prevents Trump and the DOGE from placing 2,200 employees on administrative leave.
FAA
The Department of Transportation and Musk announced on Feb. 5 that he had access to Federal Aviation Administration technologies to make “rapid safety upgrades,” the billionaire said on X.
Treasury
The Treasury Department gave Musk and DOGE access to the vast federal payment system responsible for handling trillions of dollars in government expenditures.
However, after three federal unions filed a lawsuit against the move, a federal judge ordered on Feb. 5 that read-only data be given to two DOGE employees.
One of those employees was Elez, who resigned from his post a day later.
On Feb. 8, a New York federal judge granted the states suing over DOGE a temporary restraining order that blocked DOGE from accessing taxpayer records, including the Social Security numbers and bank account information of millions of Americans.
Department of Education
DOGE gained access to the Department of Education, which Trump has vowed to dismantle despite such an action needing congressional approval, according to Democratic leaders.
Senate Democrats said Friday they launched an investigation into reports that DOGE gained access to federal student loan data.
(WASHINGTON) — Pete Hegseth, President-elect Donald Trump’s embattled pick for defense secretary, is facing senators on Tuesday for his confirmation hearing.
Hesgeth is expected to be grilled by the Armed Services Committee on allegations of misconduct and sexual impropriety he’s denied — as well as his position on military policy issues, including women in combat and diversity goals.
Hegseth defends comments about women in combat
Democratic Sen. Jeanne Shaheen grilled Hegseth on his past comments about women serving in the military, including his previous comments that women should not serve in some combat roles.
“Senator, I would like to clarify, when I’m talking about that issue, it’s not about the capabilities of men and women, it’s about standards,” Hegseth said. “And this committee has talked a lot about standards, standards that we unfortunately, over time, have seen eroded in certain duty positions, certain schools, certain places, which affects readiness, which is what I care about the most, readiness.”
During the exchange, Shaheen asked Hegseth for his message to the almost 400,000 women serving today who she said now may wonder whether they can rise to the highest ranks of the military.
“I would say I would be honored to have the opportunity to serve alongside you, shoulder to shoulder, men and women, Black, white, all backgrounds with a shared purpose,” Hegseth said. “Our differences are not what define us. Our unity and our shared purpose is what define us. And you will be treated fairly and with dignity, honor and respect, just like every man and woman in uniform.”
After a tense back and forth, Shaheen said to Hegseth: “I appreciate your eleventh-hour conversion.”
Hegseth says US has to modernize nuclear arsenal
Sen. Deb Fischer, a Nebraska Republican, questioned Hegseth about investing in the United States nuclear arsenal and whether he agreed with Trump’s posture during his first administration — that preventing attacks from adversaries was the “highest priority.”
“Yes, I do, because ultimately, our deterrence, our survival is reliant upon the capability, the perception and the reality of the capability of our nuclear triad,” Hegseth responded. “We have to invest in its modernization for the defense of our nation.”
Hegseth rails against media when asked to respond to allegations
Committee chairman Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Miss., in the first question of the hearing, asked Hegseth to respond to the allegations against him.
“Let’s get into this allegation about sexual assault, inappropriate workplace behavior, alcohol abuse and financial mismanagement during your time as a nonprofit executive,” Wicker said.
Hegseth, who has denied the accusations, railed against what he claimed was a “coordinated smear campaign” by the news media. “All they were out to do, Mr. Chairman, was to destroy me,” Hegseth said. “And why do they want to destroy me? Because I’m a change agent and a threat to them. Because Donald Trump was willing to choose me, to empower me to bring the Defense Department back to what it really should be, which is war fighting.”
Hegseth then turned personal, saying he’s not “perfect” but is now ready to lead the Pentagon.
“I’m not a perfect person, but redemption is real,” he said. “And God forged me in ways that I know I’m prepared for.”
Hegseth opening statement interrupted by outbursts
Hegseth is now speaking for the first time before the committee.
His opening statement is being interrupted by hecklers, who were then escorted out of the room.
Chairman Roger Wicker thanked authorities for their “swift reaction” to the first incident.
“Let me just say this, the Capitol Police are going to remove immediately individuals who are interrupting the hearing,” Wicker said.
Rep. Mike Waltz, Trump’s pick for national security adviser, endorses Hegseth
Trump’s pick for national security adviser, Rep. Mike Waltz, introduced and endorsed Hegseth.
Waltz was recognized by Sen. Roger Wicker, the chairman of the committee, who noted Waltz was still a member of Congress for several more days.
“He will bring the perspective of being the first secretary of defense to have served as a junior officer on the front lines, not in the headquarters on the front lines in the War on Terror, and recognizes the human costs, the financial costs and the policy drift that was discussed often in this very room that led us to decades and decades of war,” Waltz said of Hegseth.
Waltz is also a retired Army National Guard officer and war veteran.
Charged scene inside the room as confirmation hearing begins
Dozens of veterans — some wearing service badges — filled the hearing room in the Dirksen Building in support of Hegseth, wearing pins with the nominee’s name. A number of them are wearing black baseball caps with the nominee’s name and the bone frog logo associated with the Navy SEALs.
Spotted in the crowd were Sean Parnell, a former Army Ranger and conservative media personality, and Tim Kennedy, an ex-UFC fighter and former Green Beret.
The group, which was buzzing with excitement ahead of the hearing, appeared to cheer for Hegseth and shout “USA!” as the hearing got underway.
There are also a small group of Code Pink antiwar protestors in the room, with signs reading “No Hegseth No Crusade” and “No Hegseth No Christian Jihad.”
ABC News’ Benjamin Siegel, Lauren Peller, Arthur Jones and Olivia Rubin
Panel’s top Democrat to say Hegseth is not qualified for the job
Sen. Jack Reed will tell Hegseth in no uncertain terms that he does not believe he is qualified for the job of Secretary of Defense.
“I do not believe that you are qualified to meet the overwhelming demands of this job,” Reed will say, according to his opening statement.
Reed will also address the allegations against Hegseth, which Hegseth has denied.
“We must acknowledge the concerning public reports against you. A variety of sources — including your own writings — implicate you with disregarding laws of war, financial mismanagement, racist and sexist remarks about men and women in uniform, alcohol abuse, sexual assault, sexual harassment, and other troubling issues. I have reviewed many of these allegations, and find them extremely alarming,” Reed will say.
He also alleges that Hegseth’s comments suggest he will politicize the military.
“Indeed, the challenge of the Secretary of Defense is to remove partisan politics from the military. You propose to inject it. This would be an insult to the men and women who have sworn to uphold their own apolitical duty to the Constitution,” the statement says.
-ABC News’ Allison Pecorin
FBI didn’t interview woman who accused Hegseth of sexual assault in 2017
The FBI’s probe of Hegseth did not include an interview with a woman who accused him of sexual assault years ago, sources familiar with the situation told ABC News.
Top senators on the Armed Services Committee were briefed on the FBI’s background investigation last week but sources said investigators did not speak to the accuser. The circumstances around the lack of an interview with the woman are unclear.
A police report stated that a woman, identified only as Jane Doe, told investigators in 2017 she had encountered Hegseth at an event afterparty at a California hotel where both had been drinking and claimed that he sexually assaulted her. Hegseth had told authorities that the encounter was consensual.
No charges were filed, although Hegseth subsequently paid the woman as part of a settlement agreement, which Hegseth’s attorney said was only because he feared his career would suffer if her allegations were made public.
Read more about the police report and alleged altercation here.
-ABC News’ Rachel Scott, Katherine Faulders and Luke Barr
Trump reiterates support for Hegseth
In a post on his social media platform, Trump wrote Hegseth will make a GREAT Secretary of Defense.
“He has my Complete and Total support. Good luck today, Pete!” Trump wrote.
Plus, Trump senior adviser Jason Miller did a morning show blitz praising Hegseth.
“I think Pete Hegseth is going to kill them with kindness,” Miller said on CNN, previewing Hegseth’s strategy ahead of the hearing.
On Fox News, Miller said he believed Hegseth was the war hero the United States needs and highlighted support from veterans for his nomination.
“I don’t see it so much of a challenge. I think it’s an opportunity to talk about restoring that warrior ethos, that warrior spirit, back into the military,” Miller said as he avoided any concerns of Hegseth’s past.
-ABC News Oren Oppenheim and Kelsey Walsh
Hegseth to pitch himself as ‘change agent’
In his opening statement, obtained by ABC News, Hegseth does not mention the allegations against him but vows to be a “change agent” and bring a “warrior culture” back to the Defense Department.
“I want to thank President Trump for his faith in me, and his selfless leadership of our great Republic,” Hegseth will say, according to the prepared remarks. “The troops could have no better Commander-in-Chief than Donald Trump.”
“He, like me, wants a Pentagon laser-focused on warfighting, lethality, meritocracy, standards, and readiness,” Hegseth will say. “That’s it. That is my job.”
Hegseth will go on to address his lack of experience compared to previous Pentagon chiefs.
“It is true that I don’t have a similar biography to Defense Secretaries of the last 30 years. But, as President Trump also told me, we’ve repeatedly placed people atop the Pentagon with supposedly ‘the right credentials’ — whether they are retired generals, academics, or defense contractor executives — and where has it gotten us? He believes, and I humbly agree, that it’s time to give someone with dust on his boots the helm. A change agent. Someone with no vested interest in certain companies or specific programs or approved narratives,” the prepared statement reads.
-ABC News’ Rachel Scott
How Hegseth could overhaul the military
Hegseth, if confirmed, would be in charge of a massive organization of more than 1 million active-duty service members and nearly 1 million civilian workers.
Hegseth has previously discussed going after alleged “wokeness” in the military by firing certain generals, taking aim at DEI initiatives and other programs. He’s also said he is generally against women serving in certain combat roles unless they pass high standards men do.
Read more about the police report and alleged altercation here.
Hegseth’s rocky nomination
Hegseth, a former Fox News host who had served in Iraq and Afghanistan as an infantry officer in the U.S. Army Reserve and the National Guard, was nominated by Trump in mid-November.
He quickly faced scrutiny from some lawmakers over his lack of management experience. Then came reports of alleged sexual misconduct and financial mismanagement, which he’s denied.
At one point, ABC News reported Trump was looking at possible replacements to Hegseth.
But Hegseth’s spent many days on Capitol Hill looking to shore up support, vowing to fight and telling lawmakers he’s a “changed man.” It appeared he was gaining some Republican support back after his one-on-one meetings with lawmakers, and Trump has since doubled down on his support for his Pentagon pick.
Still, the Senate panel that will question him on Tuesday had quietly sought additional information on some of the allegations before the hearing.
Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images/Bloomberg via Getty Images
(WASHINGTON) — As Elon Musk continues to dismantle government agencies, threaten workers with layoffs and gain access to government data, congressional Republicans on Wednesday blocked Democratic efforts to compel him to answer for his actions under oath.
Musk, who has not made any public appearances since the inauguration, has publicly called for cutting down the federal government and through his non-government organization Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) has frozen funding for several agencies including USAID the international aid agency.
Designated a special government employee by the White House, Musk claims he has been in talks with President Donald Trump about his tactics.
“I went over it with him in detail, and he agreed that we should shut it down,” Musk said Monday on his effort to curtail USAID.
Rep. Gerald Connolly, the top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee, tore into Musk during a committee hearing on Wednesday as he moved to subpoena the controversial billionaire.
“It’s a puzzling role for many people, certainly on this side of the aisle, and I think for some on yours, who is this unelected billionaire that he can attempt to dismantle federal agencies, fire people, transfer them, offer them early retirement and have sweeping changes to agencies without any congressional review, oversight or concurrence,” he said.
Republicans on the committee pushed back and engaged in a shouting match with Democrats over Musk. When GOP chairman Rep. James Comer put the motion to a vote, it failed along party lines.
Democrat Rep. Ro Khanna of California, who has shown support for DOGE in the past, abstained from voting.
Comer and other Republicans came to Musk and DOGE’s defense contending, without evidence, that the federal government was wasting taxpayer dollars and those agencies needed to be reviewed and scaled back.
“Elon Musk trimmed the fat on X and we have the chance to do the same here,” Comer said about Musk deep cuts at the social media giant.
Musk’s $44 billion purchase of Twitter in 2022 has been seen by some business analysts as an unsuccessful investment as the company’s value has gone down sharply over the years with users and advertisers dropping the platform.
The mutual fund Fidelity marked down its estimate of X’s value by 78.7% as of the end of August, according to a financial disclosure.
Republicans have maintained that Musk is not in charge and answers to Trump.
When asked about Democrats’ concerns and anger over DOGE, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said President Donald Trump campaigned to make the government more efficient and defended Musk’s involvement in it.
While Musk won’t be taking questions from leaders anytime soon, he has spent a lot of time on his social media platform making his case for the cuts.
On Thursday he reposted a X post that had screenshot from a news article talking about DOGE aides looking at the Medicare payment system.
“Yeah, this is where the big money fraud is happening,” Musk wrote in his post without any further details or evidence to back his claim.
The Medicare system wasn’t the only government agency that was put on notice this week.
The Treasury Department said that officials connected to DOGE have been granted “read-only” access to the sensitive Treasury system that manages trillions of dollars in government payments.
Leavitt told reporters Wednesday that DOGE is not allowed to write new code.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the federal agency responsible for forecasting the weather, researching and analyzing climate and weather data and monitoring and tracking extreme weather events like hurricanes, is now being scrutinized by Musk’s team, several sources familiar with the matter told ABC News.
DOGE is looking for anything tied to DEI and that they removed anything DEI-related from bulletin boards, including posters and signs, the sources said. They also checked bathroom signs to ensure they complied with Trump’s executive orders.
A former NOAA employee told ABC News that he is concerned that representatives from DOGE will employ what he called the Musk’s strategy of breaking things now and fixing them later. He said he’s worried that NOAA’s irreplaceable climate and weather data could be damaged or lost and that DOGE may be following the Project 2025 playbook.
Trump has distanced himself from the plan. However, his nominee to head the Office of Management and Budget, Russell Vought, was one of the authors.
Project 2025 calls for breaking up NOAA and privatizing forecast operations. In the document, the authors wrote that NOAA is “one of the main drivers of the climate change alarm industry and, as such, is harmful to future U.S. prosperity.
As these moves take place, questions have been raised by leaders, critics and others about by how much and how exactly its operating.
Musk initially wanted an office in the West Wing but told people he thought it was too small, multiple people familiar with his comments told ABC News. Instead, he took an office inside the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, the sources said.
Musk moved beds into both the Eisenhower Executive Office Building and the United States Office of Personnel Management, according to sources. The move is intended to allow both Musk and his staff to sleep there if working late, the sources said.
It follows a familiar trend for tech companies in Silicon Valley.
Musk’s team is staffed largely by engineers and young people with little experience in government policy. At least one as young as 19 years old, according to sources.
Trump was asked Tuesday about Musk’s team including the younger members and their access to government data and facilities and said he thought it was a good move.
Democratic leadership on the Hill has repeatedly downplayed the power Musk claims for DOGE.
“It has no authority to make spending decisions, to shut down programs or ignore federal law. This is not debatable. This is an indisputable fact. No authority for spending decisions to shut down programs or ignore federal law,” Sen. Chuck Schumer said Tuesday.
ABC News’ Rachel Scott, Matthew Glasser, Will Steakin, Katherine Faulders and Max Zahn contributed to this report.
Newly sworn in Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem participates in an immigration enforcement operation in New York City, Jan. 28, 2025. (DHS)
(NEW YORK) — Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem joined an immigration enforcement operation in New York City on Tuesday.
Noem posted a brief video of an arrest to her social media account.
The secretary is witnessing both criminal and civil enforcement operations, according to sources familiar with the actions in New York.
The criminal case involves a member of a Venezuelan gang that took over an apartment complex in Aurora, Colorado, the sources said. One alleged gang member was arrested in the Bronx.
The New York division of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration said it was working with partners at the Justice Department and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives to assist the Department of Homeland Security with enforcement efforts.
Noem’s appearance for the operations came just days after she was confirmed by the Senate.
Noem, the former governor of South Dakota, will be charged with overseeing Trump’s immigration crackdown along with “border czar” Tom Homan.
“The Trump Administration will once-again empower our brave men and women in law enforcement to do their jobs and remove criminal aliens and illegal gangs from our country,” she said in a statement after her confirmation. “We will fully equip our intelligence and law enforcement to detect and prevent terror threats and will deliver rapid assistance and disaster relief to Americans in crisis.”
