Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency lost over 20 federal servants on Tuesday due to their refusal to use their technical expertise as part of the administration's downsizing efforts, as The Daily Mail reported.
“We swore to serve the American people and uphold our oath to the Constitution across presidential administrations,” the 21 staffers wrote in a joint resignation letter.“However, it has become clear that we can no longer honor those commitments.”
Employees reported that Musk recruited political ideologues with insufficient skills and experience to reduce the federal government under President Donald Trump.
Musk and the Republican president's tech-driven purging of federal employees suffered a momentary setback with the departure of engineers, data scientists, designers, and product managers. This follows a series of legal challenges aimed at halting the firing or coercion of thousands of government workers.
Karoline Leavitt, the press secretary for the White House, issued a statement in which she dismissed the widespread resignations.
“Anyone who thinks protests, lawsuits, and lawfare will deter President Trump must have been sleeping under a rock for the past several years,” Leavitt said. “President Trump will not be deterred from delivering on the promises he made to make our federal government more efficient and more accountable to the hardworking American taxpayers.”
Musk posted about the issue on social media saying the story was “fake news” went on to say that the staffers were “Dem political holdovers” who “would have been fired had they not resigned.”
Staff who left the US Digital Service reported that their duties were being incorporated into DOGE. Obama created the USDS after the failed introduction of Healthcare.gov, the web gateway millions of Americans use to sign up for insurance plans under the Democrat's signature health care bill.
All those who resigned were senior executives at companies Google and Amazon and said in their resignation letters that they joined the government out of obligation to public service.
Trump's decision to allow Musk the power to make changes, seems to have amended that. Following Trump's inauguration, staffers reported being called into interviews that hinted at the covert and disruptive activities of Musk's Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).
Staff said White House guests, some of whom would not be named, questioned nonpartisan personnel about their qualifications and politics. Many young people were driven by ideology and Musk fandom, rather than enhancing government technology.
“Several of these interviewers refused to identify themselves, asked questions about political loyalty, attempted to pit colleagues against each other, and demonstrated limited technical ability,” the staffers wrote in their letter. “This process created significant security risks.”
About 40 office workers were laid off this month. They wrote that the firings crippled the government's technology management.
“These highly skilled civil servants were working to modernize Social Security, veterans’ services, tax filing, health care, disaster relief, student aid, and other critical services,” the resignation letter states. “Their removal endangers millions of Americans who rely on these services every day. The sudden loss of their technology expertise makes critical systems and American’s data less safe.”
Tuesday saw the resignation of about a third of the 65 USDS employees who had previously refused to take on additional responsibilities under DOGE.
