Current and former Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) staffers are growing increasingly concerned that the work they did slashing government programs and eliminating jobs will come back to haunt them with the possibility of criminal prosecutions.
Worse still is their growing belief that the billionaire Elon Musk, who recruited them, won’t step up to save them by appealing to Donald Trump on their behalf should things take a turn for the worse.
As Politico’s Sophia Cai and Daniel Lippmanis are reporting, in June, a handful of so-called DOGE “tech bros” packed up their possessions and departed the sixth-floor of the General Services Administration (GSA) building where they had been living to look for new lodgings.
That move came after Musk and Trump parted ways acrimoniously in a war of words and finger-pointing with the two still keeping their distance from each other till this day, outside of occasional social media sniping at each other.
Noting that the DOGE staffers have “lived with the ever-present threat of backlash — public scrutiny, upset Cabinet officials, even the prospect that someone might assert criminal charges against them,” the report notes there is a growing sense of dread that Musk will no longer champion them if they are subject to investigations.
“Musk had not been just their visionary leader. For them, he was their protector: the man who had a direct line to Trump, who they believed could pick up the phone and secure a presidential pardon if the worst came. Without his presence in Washington, they were suddenly exposed,” Politico is reporting before adding that a recent gathering, “a senior DOGE figure named Donald Park tried to reassure his colleagues that they were still ‘brothers in arms’ and that Musk would continue to protect them.That led to another protesting and advising, “Guys, seriously get your own lawyer if you need it. Elon’s great, but you need to watch your own back.”
Questions about the future of DOGE and its employees were immediately raised after the Trump/Musk split for a department that was always considered a “moving target,” particularly since Musk had been battling with other Trump administration officials, including a physical “scuffle” with Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent.
After Musk’s departure, fissures within DOGE widened amid power struggles and departures by some who claimed, “they were quitting out of exhaustion, drained by the drama at the top and disillusioned by the collapse of the political cover that once made their work possible.”
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