Musk has also come under criticism for trying to give people who have worked for his private companies, including Tesla, the Boring Company and xAI, roles in the federal government that include access to sensitive data, including social security numbers and bank account information for many Americans.
The secretaries specifically called into question Elon Musk’s so-called “department of government efficiency”, or Doge, and the appointees that Musk has installed within agencies, including the treasury department.
This has wreaked chaos in Washington, where federal employees were given offers of buyouts and warned that they could be at risk of layoffs, all federal grants and loans were frozen and Doge attempted to shut down USAid, the federal agency that is responsible for distributing global humanitarian aid.
A group of five former US treasury secretaries are warning that the Trump administration has put the country’s key payment systems “under siege” and is undermining the checks and balances of the federal government.
So far, many of Doge’s attempts at overhauling the federal government have been temporarily blocked by multiple federal judges, making the future viability of Musk’s plans unclear.
