Washington – More than 20 public service employees resigned Trump Elon Musk on Tuesday Government Department of EffectivenessSaying that they refused to use their technical expertise to “dismantle critical public services”.
“We have sworn to serve the American people and defend our oath to the Constitution through the presidential administrations,” wrote the 21 staff members in a joint resignation letter, a copy of which was obtained by the Associated Press. “However, it has become clear that we can no longer honor these commitments.”
Employees also warned that many of the people enlisted by Musk to help them reduce the size of the federal government under the president Donald Trump The administration was political ideologues who did not have the skills or experience necessary for the task awaiting them.
The massive resignation of engineers, data scientists and product managers is a temporary setback for Musk and the Republican President Technological purge of federal labor. This comes in the middle of a burst of legal challenges that sought to block, stop or relax their efforts to draw or force Thousands of officials Out of jobs.
In a press release, press secretary of the White House Karoline Leavitt was depressed from mass resignation.
“Whoever thinks that demonstrations, prosecution and lawyers will dissuade President Trump had to sleep under a rock in recent years,” said Leavitt. “President Trump will not be dissuaded to keep the promises he has made to make our federal government more efficient and more responsible for American taxpayers who work hard.”
Employees who resigned worked for what was formerly known as United States Digital ServiceAn office created during the administration of President Barack Obama after the sloppy deployment of Healthcare.gov, the web portal that millions of Americans use to register for insurance plans through the Care Act of the health of democrats.
All had previously held senior positions in technological societies such as Google and Amazon and wrote in their resignation letter that they joined the government by sense of duty towards the public service.
The empowerment of Musc Trump has turned this. The day after The inauguration of Trumpwrote the staff members, they were called in a series of interviews that prefigured the secret and disruptive work of the Department of Efficiency of the Musk Government, or Doge.
According to staff members, people carrying badges of visitors to the White House, some of which would not give their names, have toasted non -partisan employees of their qualifications and their policies. Some made statements which indicated that they had a limited technical understanding. A lot were young and seemed guided by the ideology And Musc Fandom – without improving government technology.
“Several of these interviewers have refused to identify themselves, asked questions about political loyalty, have tried to put colleagues against each other and have demonstrated limited technical capacities,” wrote staff in their letter . “This process has created significant security risks.”
Earlier this month, around forty members of the office were dismissed. The layoffs brought a devastating blow to the government’s ability to administer and protect its own technological footprint, they wrote.
“These highly qualified officials worked to modernize social security, veterans services, tax file, health care, help in the event of a disaster, assistance to students and other critical services,” said the letter resignation. “Their move endorses millions of Americans who count on these services every day. The sudden loss of their technological expertise makes critical systems and American data less safe. »»
Those who remained, around 65 staff members, were integrated into the Lavage of Doge’s government washing. About a third of them left on Tuesday.
“We will not use our skills as technologists to compromise basic government systems, compromise sensitive data from Americans or dismantle critical public services,” they wrote. “We will not lend our expertise to carry out or legitimize Doge’s actions.”
Slash-And-Brusing Musk’s effort leads to divergements of what was initially described by Trump during the 2024 presidential campaign. Doge, a nod to the memes of Musk’s favorite cryptocurrency, was initially presented as a Blue-Ribbon commission which would exist outside the government.
After the elections, however, Musk hinted that there was more to come, publishing on his social media site, X, “threat to Democracy? No, threat to bureaucracy !!! He has looked aggressively into the role since then.
Last week, he was held on stage during the conservative conference of the political action conference outside Washington, where he boasted of his exploits and hoisted a Blinded-out, Chinese manufacturing chainsaw Above his head which was offered by the Argentinian president Javier Milei.
“This is the bureaucracy chainsaw,” yelled Musk from the stage.
However, Musk has tried to maintain the technical talents in place, with most of the layoffs in the digital service office focused on people in roles such as designers, product managers, human resources and market staff, According to interviews with current and old staff.
Of the 40 people released earlier this month, only one was an engineer – a name for the frank and politically active staff Jonathan Kamens, who declared in an interview with the AP he thought that he had been dismissed for a vice-president publicly approving the vice-president Kamala HarrisA democrat, on his personal blog and musk criticism in discussions with colleagues.
“I believe that Elon Musk is doing nothing well. And I believe that any data in which he has access will be used for inappropriate and harmful purposes for the Americans,” said Kamens.
The veterans of the American digital service, who spoke under the guise of anonymity for fear of reprisals, remembers having suffered a similar shock as to the way government processes have worked that Musk and his team discover. Over time, many have developed an appreciation of the reason why certain things in the government had to be treated with more care than in the private sector.
“” Move quickly and break things “can be acceptable to someone who has a business and has the risk. And if things are not going well, the damage is compartmentalized. But when you break things in government, you break things that belong to people who have not signed up for this, “said Cordell Schachter, who last month was the news director of the US Ministry of the US Ministry Transport.
The USDS was created more than a decade ago to do things like improving services for veterans, and this helped create a portal managed by the free government so that tax declarants did not Not to go through third parties as turbotax. He also designed systems to improve how the federal government has bought technology.
He was involved in his fair share of bureaucracy fights and the Turf Wars agency with information directors through the government who wanted to introduce in their agency systems. The power of the USDs through the government came from the printer to play on behalf of the White House and its founding mission of improving service for the American people.
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Rodrical AP video journalist Ngowi contributed from Boston.
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Contact the AP global investigation team to Survey@ap.org Or https://www.ap.org/tips/.