Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent granted Elon Musk access to the federal payment system on Jan. 31, provoking many citizens and 5C community members to wonder how Musk’s new influence over government funds could affect their lives.
On Jan. 20, President Donald Trump appointed Musk, CEO of Tesla and X, as leader of a new Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). Trump’s executive order created DOGE as a tool to reduce what he believes to be wasteful and fraudulent government spending. The Trump administration named Musk and Tom Krause, CEO of Cloud Software Group, as DOGE’s leaders.
On Feb. 8, U.S. District Judge Paul Engelmayer temporarily blocked Musk’s access to the federal payment system because of cybersecurity concerns. New York Attorney General Letitia James filed the lawsuit; she wrote, “Even before its inception, DOGE members sought sensitive data information about the Treasury Payment Systems.”
However, there’s still a possibility of James’ decision being overturned.
In a report released by the Congressional Research Service (CRS), the CRS noted that DOGE has access to classified records and reports.
“There are reports that Musk’s henchmen are getting access to classified intelligence information that is a direct danger to American national security,” John Pitney, a government professor at Claremont McKenna College, said.
According to the report released by the CRS, DOGE has made efforts to obtain access to Department of the Treasury payment systems that include information on millions of Americans.
“[The DOGE group] could affect what the administration sees as its enemies,” Caleb Rasor CMC ’28 said. “I really hope this doesn’t happen, but that would be quite the scary scenario to have the administration going after individuals.”
Rasor added that, while there’s a low chance of DOGE targeting individual people who are seen as “enemies,” the fact that there’s any chance at all is hugely problematic.
Although Rasor said that goals to cut government spending aren’t necessarily a negative thing, both he and Pitney expressed concern over the way the Trump administration and DOGE are doing it.
“The danger is, through sloppy handling of the information, it might get to people who use it for nefarious purposes,” Pitney said.
Musk’s role at DOGE also grants him the ability to stall or cut funding to governmental agencies. Musk started with the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).
USAID was established in the 1960s to offer humanitarian support to other countries. The agency employs 10,000 workers, provides food to famished people, uses data analysis to detect where food shortages are emerging and offers free vaccinations.
Musk confirmed DOGE’s efforts to dismantle the agency in a tweet on Feb. 2.
“USAID is a criminal organization,” he tweeted. “Time for it to die.”
Musk’s power over government funding and organizations left many 5C students and faculty questioning how his influence could affect their livelihoods and education, as well as democracy in the U.S.
DOGE did not stop the federal funding cuts with USAID. On Feb. 11, DOGE announced their plans to issue cuts for over $900 million to the Department of Education, most prevalently targeting the Education Innovation and Research grants.
Sumita Pahwa, an associate politics professor at Scripps, explained that this could be a wake-up call for many citizens.
“Americans think they invented democracy, that they’ve always been a democracy,” Pahwa said. “They haven’t had a real scare for a while because we think the institutions will hold and that somehow Americans would never let this happen to them.”
Rasor pointed out how the various presidents have expanded the president’s powers during their time in office. Americans are seeing a culmination of decades’ worth of increased power. Yet, Rasor disagrees with the way President Trump is attempting to smooth out a bureaucracy.
“Trump himself states how we need to get these bureaucrats out of government affairs and we need to democratize government affairs,” Rasor said. “Yet, [Trump] and his cohort of largely billionaires are now trying to run things themselves, which is the exact thing that he is protesting.”
Pahwa said that since DOGE granted access to the federal payment system, more citizens and politicians have been protesting the department.
“The Senate phone lines in D.C. were down because of a high volume of calls yesterday, a lot of people are calling their representatives,” Pahwa said.
Pahwa referenced political scientist Erica Chenoweth’s ideology for protesting and uprising, which outlines that just a small percentage of people participating in nonviolent protests can draw in more recognition and support for their cause.
“If 3.5 percent of the population rises up in nonviolent protests anywhere in the world, that’s basically what it takes,” Pahwa said. “You don’t need everybody, you need enough people to signal to others that, ‘Hey, we’re rising up,’ and for people to say, ‘Oh, there’s a problem,’ and realize that something is going on.”
Both Pahwa and Pitney emphasized the impact of each citizen’s voice and the importance of voting and being politically aware.
“People should care,” said Pitney. “People should vote.”
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