A former USDS employee called the repurposing of the Digital Service into DOGE an “A+ bureaucratic jiujitsu move.” It will give Musk and his associates access to unclassified data in every government agency.

As the first week of Trump’s second term gets underway, the not-quite-real Department of Government Efficiency is both struggling and expanding its remit.

Bait and Switch The fine print of a sweeping executive order seemingly grants Elon Musk, arguably the wealthiest and most powerful unelected figure in the world, and his associates at the somehow-still-real Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) access to all unclassified data held by US government agencies,