Elon Musk, the world's richest man and close associate of President Trump, has been given control by US President Donald Trump of the U.S. Department of the Treasury's payment system, responsible for distributing trillions of dollars of federal funds.
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Treasury's payment system manages the flows of federal funds, including the $6 trillion set aside each year for pensions, the Medicare health insurance program, salaries and other expenses.
"Corruption and waste are eliminated in real time," claimed the world's richest man, whom Donald Trump appointed to head a "government efficiency" commission (DOGE).
The Treasury Department's Office of Financial Services payment system manages the flows of federal funds, including $6 trillion set aside each year for pensions, the Medicare health insurance program, federal employees' salaries and other essential expenses.
According to the Washington Post, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessed gave his blessing for this takeover of the payment system, which was not possible until after a high-ranking public official was placed on administrative holiday for refusing to give the keys to the system to Elon Musk's teams.
Trade unions and a human rights organization have taken legal action in Washington against this takeover.
Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren, a member of the Senate Banking Committee, called the situation "extremely dangerous" in a letter to Bessed.
"I am concerned that with one of your first steps as secretary of state, you appear to have given control of a very sensitive system responsible for the personal data of millions of Americans — and a key pillar of our government — to an unelected billionaire and an unspecified number of his unqualified lieutenants." he writes in the letter.
She said cutting off skilled staff "increases the risk that the country will not be able to repay its debt, which could trigger a global financial crisis."
The lawsuit asks a federal judge to declare it illegal that Musk or other DOGE members can receive personal information about taxpayers.
"Individuals who are required to share information with the federal government should not be required to share it with Elon Musk or his DOGE," the lawsuit said.
In X, the social network he owns, Musk wrote that "the only way to stop fraud and waste of taxpayer money is to be able to monitor payment flows and block suspicious transactions to examine them."
According to Wired, the Tesla, X and SpaceX boss put young people working for DOGE in key government positions. These groups now have unprecedented access to the payment system, hitherto reserved for non-partisan high-ranking public officials. Those people of Musk, aged between 19 and 24, according to the US press, were also appointed to the Bureau of Personnel Management, the human resources department of civil servants, which sent them an email last week offering to resign with nine months' salary compensation.
The US president hailed the work of Elon Musk, who knows how to "cut costs. Sometimes we don't agree and we won't go where he wants to go. But I think he's doing a really good job."
On X, Elon Musk promised "a guaranteed spectacle" in response to a post, saying DOGE would discover "fraud and corruption on an unprecedented scale across numerous government agencies."
