President Donald Trump’s administration has described itself as the most transparent in U.S. history, but a non-profit journalism organization disagrees.
Investigative Reporters & Editors said Friday that Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency and the Department of Homeland Security, led by Kristi Noem, were each nominated for an award given to the most secretive governmental agency.
The other three finalists for the 2025 Golden Padlock Award are the office of the Democratic mayor of Columbus, Ohio, the administration of Democratic Gov. Ned Lamont of Connecticut, and Minnesota Judge Joy Bartscher.
A justification for DOGE’s nomination read: “The mass firings of federal employees and dramatic reshaping of government by the Department of Government Efficiency has unfolded with little of the transparency expected of federal agencies. The Trump administration contends DOGE is not subject to the Freedom of Information Act. The staff has used outside computer servers to conduct its work and an app that features disappearing messages to communicate.”
It added that a federal judge said in March that DOGE was operating with “unusual secrecy” and that DOGE’s dismantling of USAID included staff being ordered to “shred” documents and place the remains in burn bags labeled “SECRET.”
Also mentioned was the Trump administration’s mass scrubbing of 150,000 pages of information on federal agency websites, which the Internet Archive’s director called “unprecedented” in scope and scale.
Noem is giving Musk’s DOGE goons a run for their money.
The nonprofit described Homeland Security as having a “remarkable and ongoing lack of transparency around using the Alien Enemies Act to ship more than 238 Venezuelans accused of Tren de Aragua affiliation to a notorious El Salvador prison.”
It also accused DHS of refusing “judicial orders, citing vague and unverified national security concerns,” and firing “at least one lawyer who acknowledged government mistakes in court.”
The dreaded annual award winner will be announced on June 21 at the organization’s conference in New Orleans, Louisiana. DOGE and the Department of Homeland Security did not respond to a request for comment.
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