Musk team given access to sensitive federal payment system - reports
By: President Donald Trump
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
54 minutes agoKayla Epstein
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The Trump administration has given billionaire Elon Musk's deputies access to the federal payments system that controls the flow of trillions of dollars in government funds every year, US media report.
Reports suggest incoming Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has granted access to members of the Department of Government Efficiency (Doge) - which is not a government department, but a team within the administration - to sensitive personal information of millions of Americans.
The division handles payments of nearly $6 trillion for programmes like Social Security, pays government salaries, and distributes money allotted by Congress.
The White House and the Treasury Department did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The access to the payment system was granted on Friday, the same day when a longtime Treasury official named David Lebryk was put on administrative leave and suddenly retired, the New York Times reported.
The newspaper said Mr Lebryk had strongly resisted allowing "Musk's lieutenants into the department's payment system, which sends out money on behalf of the entire federal government".
Musk, who is not officially a government employee, has been given extremely broad leeway by President Donald Trump to slash federal spending.
He helped set up Doge in order to carry out this effort, bringing allies from his private companies and Silicon Valley to assist the process.
Tom Krause, a Silicon Valley executive, is reported to be among the team working at Treasury.
Typically, only a handful of Treasury employees work on the payments system.
"To put it bluntly, these payment systems simply cannot fail, and any politically-motivated meddling in them risks severe damage to our country and the economy," US Senator Ron Wyden, a Democrat from Oregon, wrote in a letter to Bessent.
"I am concerned that mismanagement of these payment systems could threaten the full faith and credit of the United States," he wrote.
Meanwhile, the federal workforce has been grappling with the multiple executive orders signed by Trump since taking office.
Employees have received letters from the Office of Personnel Management asking them to report their colleagues who are attempting to "disguise" diversity efforts, as well as an offer to take paid resignations -- an offer many employees view with suspicion.
Agencies have scrambled to pull down references to diversity, equity and inclusion, as well as transgender and LGBT individuals from their websites in order to comply with the executive orders.
DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion) programmes aim to promote participation in workplaces by people from a range of backgrounds.
Their backers say they address historical or ongoing discrimination and underrepresentation of certain groups, including racial minorities, but critics argue such programmes can themselves be discriminatory.
On Saturday, the website for the United States Agency for International Development, which distributes billions in aid around the world, appeared to stop working.
Elon MuskDonald TrumpUS politicsUnited States
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I look forward to witnessing the wholesale maga carnage when the autocratic pendulum makes it's return trip ...
good riddance to bad garbage ...
How dare anyone think that can be improved on.
Very typical the BBC quotes the far left Senator Ron Wyden and not Elon Musk, the supposed subject of the story.
So, non-employees of the US government with no qualifications other than cronyism should have access to sensitive personal information of our citizens, in your opinion?
You believe Musk has no qualifications other than cronyism?
Do you think he has qualifications for this "job"?
Name them.
[✘] He's the CEO of multiple billion dollar companies.
You think he might have a little knowledge about streamlining operations and creating efficiencies within systems? Maybe?
The idea that Musk has no qualifications to do this is simply absurd.
He's the beneficiary of inherited wealth.
He's the beneficiary of government-funded operations.
He tanked Twitter stock.
Tesla stock has been volatile, thanks to numerous recalls.
You seem to think being rich confers qualifications to make financial policy. Have you conveniently forgotten Trump's multiple bankruptcies?
That is a lie, prove it
He provides a service, just like any other government contractor
Another bullshit comment, there is no twitter stock so how the fuck did he tank it.
Tesla stock is trading at a 385.00 which is more than double than it was on this date a year ago.
That is complete bullshit, nowhere does Sean say it has anything to do with being rich, CEO of multiple successful companies going back to Paypal, as well as many others
Deflection fail, exactly what does trumps bankruptcy's have to do with Musks abilities?
Thanks for spending the time to rebut that smorgasboard of bs.
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Putting qualifications aside, do you have any response to this part of it:
The @DOGE team discovered, among other things, that payment approval officers at Treasury were instructed always to approve payments, even to known fraudulent or terrorist groups.
Family wealth, then, unless you honestly think that none of his wealthy parents' wealth ever came his way.
That's still way more money than the average person will ever be able to access. It's a hell of a lot easier to make money when you can tap into the wallet of an entire nation. Kinda like now.
A bullshit attempt at refutation. His waffling over the purchase of Twitter caused its value to drop. And then its value dropped even farther after his acquisition. He bought it for 44 billion dollars. As of October of last year, it was worth 9.4 billion. Not exactly a stellar performance.
Which does not negate the fact that its value has been volatile. It dropped from a price of 352.26 on December 31, 2021 to 123.18 a year later.
Are the CEOs of successful (and a spectacularly unsuccessful) corporation generally poor, George? By the way, let's look at that Paypal stock, shall we?
Ouch! In July of 2021, it was trading at 308.53. It's now at 89.51. That's not terribly successful, is it?
It was an illustration of mistaking a "successful CEO" for being qualified to have the run of the US treasury. They've both had their failures over the years. But hey, it's just Granny's Social Security check on the line if they fuck this up.
What the DOGE team "discovered", and what actually happened, would need to be shown to resemble each other in any way before I'd respond.
Very good. I'll get back to you when the expenditures are made public.
He graduated from college with over 100,000 dollars of student loan debt, so i bout the family wealth aspect of your comment is accurate.
This is the one that made me laugh the loudest, how to say i have no fucking clue what i'm talking about without actually saying it.
Musk sold Paypal in 2002 so your complete bullshit point is lost. Started in 1999 and 3 years later sold for 1.5 billion.
His dad remembers it differently.
So, by the way, does Elon, depending on when he's being interviewed and which makes him look better.
So I'll take his words about his college debt with a grain of salt, considering he can't remember whether his father did or did not own a share in an emerald mine.
Of course, if we could have the same access to his personal information that he now has to ours, we could find out more, couldn't we?
Known to whom? How was this established? Audits? Convictions? Why not refer the matter to DoJ?
Orrrr… is that just unsubstantiated bullshit?
... the latter, obviously.
If what Musk posted on X is true, he and Trump should be reminded that they went on under Trumps first term.
I would rather have a IG assigned to investigate if the Musk statement is true, since Musk and his mini me Trump do have a tendency to lie…
We don’t need no Inspector General. Just take Musk’s word for it.
Hell, that’s right Tacos, what in the hell was I thinking.
VP Musk is just trying to figure out how to funnel all that money into his pocket.
[✘]
he's already shopping foreign data buyers ...
Oh look, an unelected Broligarch now has control of the federal payment system.
I read elsewhere that senior officials have been locked out of it (you know, the people who are actually supposed to have access).
Great job, Trump voters. Things just keep getting better and better.
Figures.
But hey, it's all good. Nobody's Social Security check is at risk, they swear. They just want to make sure Grandma isn't defrauding Trump. I mean, the US.
At least they'll be giving a good hard look at payments going to Musk's companies.
Oh, wait...
I've already got a short term grant program from maga republicans worked out if my check is delayed ...
Wait until MAGA don't get their SS payments or MAGA government employees don't get paid. And whoever is going to argue with about there are no MAGA government employess I will not so politely tell you to shut up. I know plenty of them
Maybe Musk can direct some payments to Tesla to cover the losses on the world’s ugliest truck.
And all those recalls.
This appears to be getting worse.
Locking out government officials who have a business reason to have the access? This is rather close to a high jacking, is it not?
And this..
So DOGE calls USAID a c riminal organization without offering proof. And allowing people without the proper security clearances to have access to classified data? WTF people?
This is dismaying, but not especially surprising.
And said it needs to die.
An unelected, unconfirmed billionaire with massive federal contracts going to his own companies – mostly SpaceX, but also a little for Tesla – says USAID needs to die.
Over the past 16 years, Musk's business deals with the government total nearly $20 billion, according to federal contracting data.
And that might be on top of the billions in grants he received to develop his rockets way back when.
If anything, Musk's fake "DOGE" department is the criminal organization.
What was that thing we used to have a name for that Republicans and Democrats alike were always so concerned about in days gone by... Pommes frites of bent wrist? Constricts of shminterest? Oh yeah, CONFLICTS OF INTEREST!
Guess that's not a thing anymore.
It can't be a thing. They'd have to care about the Emoluments Clause.
So true. R's just pretended it didn't exist in Trump's first term, and now again with the House GOP retreat being held at Doral.
Wow. If I didn’t know better I’d think that you just now realized that the administration that allowed this to happen is a tyrannical shitshow.
Sorry Dig, that was supposed to be directed to snuffy.
meh, anyone more intelligent than the vast majority of trumpsters picked up on it ...
I don't play partisan games and only blame one side of the equation. I would wish that more here would do the same thing but too many are locked into their partisan world view and refuse to see anything else.
I don't play partisan games
"WTF people?" Exactly , time to impeach that orange-faced POS and baseball bat the other POS all the way to Mars!
No, I disagree with that. A president looking to shut down an agency and restructure the government is not a reason for impeachment. I do have issue however with the people in DOGE that do not have the proper security clearances who now have access to classified material, that should be investigated. And I have a problem with Musk having access to the payment system and having view access to all the money being paid out to contractors including all of his competitors. That's a huge conflict of interest, is it not?
But impeachment over this?
You damn right ! Trump is attempting an end run around congress and using a civilian to do it ! Impeach one and arrest the other.
And it's just the beginning.
Because the USAID officials where upholding the law, Musk called USAID a criminal organization and said it should die. Welcome to the new reality, folks. We are now living in an Orwellian dystopia.
This will be fun when one of Musk's employees sells all that federal data to Russia.
Trump called it a ‘’criminal organization’’ Oh the fricking irony..Trump being the head of the biggest con show on earth….
Trump should know all about "criminal organizations", that's his bread and butter! Head clown of the most evil administration in the history of America! He's right on schedule following Putin's play book for regime change. Must be what the two secretly discussed in Helsinki.
anybody remember back when maga scum were so upset hilary's private server allegedly had classified info stored on it?