100 days later, US federal workers navigate post-Musk wreckage

100 days later, US federal workers navigate post-Musk wreckage
By Alex PIGMAN
Washington (AFP) Sept 15, 2025

Roughly 100 days after Elon Musk's dramatic departure from the Trump White House, federal workers are still grappling with the lasting damage from his Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).

The consequences of this unprecedented assault on the federal bureaucracy are expected to reverberate for years.

From his modest office in the executive building adjacent to the White House, Musk orchestrated an aggressive takeover of major government branches.

His strategy was surgical yet devastating: deploy small teams of tech experts to systematically dismantle and disrupt the nation's more than 2 million-strong civil service.

The shock-and-awe campaign succeeded beyond expectations.

According to the Partnership for Public Service, a nonpartisan Washington-based NGO, nearly 200,000 civil servants have left the federal workforce so far.

For many of these workers -- including numerous military veterans -- the experience proved profoundly traumatic, with decades-long careers abruptly terminated and their life's work dismissed as meaningless waste.

Following Musk's very public falling-out with President Trump this spring, DOGE has been largely dismantled.

"Not much" remains of the original operation, explained Max Stier, president and CEO of the Partnership for Public Service.

"It's a little bit like Godzilla having flattened the city and left," Stier told AFP. "Godzilla is gone, but there's still a flattened city."

- 'Unfixable' -

Musk himself now declares the US government "basically unfixable," having concluded that lawmakers from both parties will resist spending cuts that could alienate voters and donors.

Most of DOGE's leadership followed Musk's exit, including Steve Davis, Musk's trusted lieutenant who led the teams that infiltrated government offices and computer systems to implement budget cuts.

However, some operatives remain embedded throughout the federal government, working as regular employees while continuing to exert influence: making their activities harder to monitor.

"Don't misunderstand the lack of the loud face that was Elon Musk to think they have disappeared," warned one Pentagon worker, speaking anonymously to avoid retaliation. "DOGE is still alive and causing a ruckus."

Several prominent Musk allies maintain significant positions.

Joe Gebbia, Airbnb co-founder and Tesla board member, now oversees the redesign of government websites.

Aram Moghaddassi serves as chief information officer at the Social Security Administration, though a whistleblower has accused his team of uploading a critical database to a vulnerable cloud server, potentially exposing hundreds of millions of Americans' personal information to hackers.

Brad Smith, a health startup investor, initially left DOGE after implementing sweeping cuts at the Department of Health and Human Services (now led by Robert F. Kennedy Jr.), but has returned to oversee global health initiatives at the State Department.

Scott Kupor, former managing partner at venture capital giant Andreessen Horowitz, now heads the US Office of Personnel Management -- the federal government's massive human resources operation. His former boss, Marc Andreessen, remains highly influential within the White House.

Other Musk loyalists occupy more junior positions throughout the government.

In a bizarre development, Edward Coristine -- who gained media attention under the nickname "Big Balls" -- took a regular government job and helped trigger Trump's decision to deploy the National Guard to patrol Washington's streets after Coristine was assaulted in the capital.

- Who is DOGE? -

These changes have complicated DOGE's very definition. "The question of, how do you define DOGE? Who is DOGE? has gotten a lot more complicated," observed Faith Williams, director of the effective and accountable government program at the Project on Government Oversight.

Officially, Amy Gleeson, a health tech sector veteran, now leads the department as acting chief, but her White House influence is minimal. Federal workers report that DOGE's mission has effectively been transferred to Russell Vought, a fierce opponent of government who now controls the powerful Office of Management and Budget.

For civil liberties advocate Cindy Cohn, executive director of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, these developments are "extremely worrisome" because DOGE's work now operates "behind a curtain" and away from public scrutiny.

This hidden operation includes acts of incompetence and questionable decision-making, as reported by whistleblowers and disillusioned employees who have left government to expose wrongdoing.

"My bet is that for every whistleblower you see, there's some very large multiple of bad things that have happened, which we don't know about," Stier warned.

The federal workforce meanwhile must continue to navigate this transformed landscape, dealing with skeleton crews and knowledge gaps while what is left of DOGE operates largely out of public view.