Elon Musk's team under fire for treasury data access concerns
Elon Musk's team members from DOGE should not have access to the sensitive personal data of millions of Americans. They acquire it easily because we lack strong security measures, admitted Donald Trump. According to Wired, one of Musk's employees was fired from a previous job for stealing company data.
Trump shared this view in response to the media and opposition's outrage over Musk's associates gaining access to Treasury Department payment systems that contain sensitive personal data of almost all US citizens and federal employees. The President acknowledged that young DOGE employees don't need such access, "but they get it very easily."
"Well, it doesn't, but they get it very easily, I mean we don't have very good security in our country," Trump stated during a press conference after a meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba.
Intervention at the Treasury Department
According to "The Washington Post," initially, Treasury Department employees were reluctant to grant access to Musk's team, but they eventually relented after interventions by the billionaire himself.
Trump suggested that Musk's team operates on his behalf, investigating various matters such as the expenditures of the Pentagon and the Department of Education.
"They’re doing it at my insistence. It would be a lot easier not to do it, but we have to take some of these things apart to find the corruption and we’ve found tremendous corruption. They know what they’re doing. They’ll ask questions, and they’ll see immediately as somebody gets tongue-tied that they’re either crooked or don’t know what they’re doing. We have very smart people going," Trump said.
Trump on fraud at USAID
The President stated that Musk's people are uncovering a lot of fraud and abuse, especially in the USAID agency. Trump ordered the closure of this agency, which led to controversy and a court challenge.
Musk's team's activities have sparked controversy since Trump took office. On Friday, Wired reported that one of the DOGE employees, 19-year-old programmer Edward Coristine, was fired from a previous job for passing company data to its competitors.
The day before, another Musk associate, 25-year-old Marko Elez, who had access to the central payment system of the Treasury Department, resigned. Elez stepped down due to openly racist posts uncovered by the "Wall Street Journal."
Elon Musk and Vice President JD Vance supported Elez, organizing a poll on his reinstatement. Trump backed the vice president's stance, although he did not know the details of the case.
