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The plan for his #DOGE was mapped out in a series of closely held meetings in Palm Beach, FL, & through early #intelligence-gathering efforts in Washington.

Without ceding control of his companies, the richest man in the world has embedded his engineers & aides inside the government’s critical #digital #infrastructure, moving with a swiftness that has stunned #CivilServants.

…#Musk held forth on the patio on a variety of topics: his visit to the US–Mexico border; the war in Ukraine; his frustrations w/govt #regulations hindering his rocket company, #SpaceX; & Ramaswamy’s highest priority, the dismantling of the #FederalBureaucracy.

Musk made clear that he saw the gutting of that bureaucracy as primarily a #technology challenge. He told the party of around 20 that when he overhauled Twitter,…the key was gaining access to the…servers.

Wouldn’t it be great, #Musk offered, if he had #access to the #computers of the #FederalGovernment?

Just give him the passwords, he said jocularly, & he would make the govt fit & trim.

What started as musings at a dinner party evolved into a #radical takeover of the #FederalBureaucracy. It was driven with a frenetic focus by Musk, who channeled his #libertarian impulses & resentment of #regulatory #oversight of his vast #business holdings into a singular position of #influence.

…The NYT has learned new details about how the operation came together after the election, mapped out in a series of closely held meetings in Palm Beach, FL, & through early intelligence-gathering efforts in Washington.
Seasoned *conservative* operatives like #StephenMiller & #RussVought helped educate #Musk about the workings of the bureaucracy. Soon, he stumbled on an opening. It was a little-known unit with reach across the government: the US Digital Service [#USDS]…

#Musk & his advisers — including Steve Davis, a cost cutter who worked w/him at X & other companies — did not want to create a commission, as past budget hawks had done. They wanted direct, insider #access to government systems. They realized they could use the #USDS office, whose staff had been focused on helping agencies fix #technology problems, to quickly penetrate the #FederalGovernment — & then decipher how to break it apart.

They would call it the US #DOGE Service, & they would not even have to change the initials.

They began their move on the #USDS earlier than has previously been reported, The NYT found, while Pres #Biden was STILL IN OFFICE — giving them the ability to operate on #Trump’s first day.

Around the time #Musk identified the #USDS as a key part of his strategy last year, the #Trump transition team gained a key ally on the inside. A USDS vet named #AmyGleason rejoined its staff as a snr adviser at the end of the #Biden admin, described to other employees as someone who would aid the transition. Gleason, who would later be named the acting administrator of #DOGE, recommended that the unit bring aboard several young engineers who would later become part of Musk’s team.

Allies of #Musk, …fanned out across the govt as part of the transition, extracting #intelligence about computer systems, contracts & personnel.

The team is now moving faster than many of the #legal efforts to stop it, making drastic changes that could be hard to unwind even if they are ultimately constrained by the courts. Musk’s associates have pushed out workers, ignored #CivilService protections, torn up contracts & effectively shuttered an entire agency established by Congress: the #USAID.

A month into #Trump’s second term, #Musk & his crew of >40 now have about all the passwords they could ever need.

His swift success has been fueled by the president, who handed him the hazy assignment of remaking the #FederalGovernment shortly after the #billionaire endorsed him last summer. Flattered that Musk wanted to work with him, Trump gave him broad leeway to design a strategy & execute it, showing little interest in the details.

At 3 pro-#Trump dinners organized by #Musk & the #billionaire investor #NelsonPeltz over the course of 2024, Musk touted the need for a smaller government but struggled to offer specific ideas.

At the time, he was infuriated by #Biden & what he saw as deliberate efforts by the admin to harm his businesses #Tesla & #SpaceX.

…In the months that followed, he would plow almost $300M into efforts to re-elect Trump.

But #Musk also quickly seeded the idea w/ #Trump that he could be more than just a campaign donor.

…By Sept 5, the [#DOGE] idea was announced as a central pillar of Trump’s economic proposals. In a speech at the Economic Club of NY, Trump …said he would create a government efficiency commission helmed by Musk. The effort, which Trump offered few details about at the time, would “save trillions of dollars,” he claimed.

…#Musk was elated by #Trump’s win, but he had done virtually no preparation for his new initiative. 2 days after the election, on Nov 7, Musk was…at Mar-a-Lago….He would spend much of the next 2 months there, staying at a $2,000-a-night cottage on the property.

In the days & weeks that followed, a tight circle began planning how to swiftly upend the bureaucracy, starting essentially from scratch.

The group included #Musk; #Ramaswamy, who was then #DOGE’s co-leader; the #billionaire #HowardLutnick, who was running #Trump’s transition & would become his #commerce secy; & a health care entrepreneur, Brad Smith, who had worked w/Trump’s son-in-law #JaredKushner…. [but more importantly] Smith was a close business associate of #AmyGleason, who had worked at one of his companies as a chief product officer.

#Musk had still not figured out the #legal structure for his effort or how it would work. He & #Ramaswamy …tried to answer fundamental questions, pressure-testing ideas w/prospective cabinet members & budget experts.

It was “spaghetti against the wall,” per 1 person in touch w/Musk at the time.

In the wk after the election, Smith gave Musk a presentation that amounted to a basic budget & civics lesson, explaining how #Congress appropriated funds & noting major items like defense & health care.

…In one early meeting, #Musk said Smith was being too careful & offering “classic consultant stuff.” In discussions, Musk expressed impatience w/Smith’s caution that the team would need a phalanx of lawyers to help w/ #ExecutiveOrders & #regulations. Musk wanted to tear down the government to the studs, & saw Smith’s approach as incremental.

The group at Mar-a-Lago brainstormed ways to terminate #FederalWorkers. One idea was to motivate them to quit, by forcing them to return to the office 5 days a week or, as #Ramaswamy suggested, moving #CivilServants to work on admin priorities like border security. Ramaswamy predicted to the team that many federal workers would not want to be part of an #immigration crackdown & would leave govt — a win-win situation.

They discussed the likelihood of #litigation & welcomed the idea that #Democrats would sue. They liked their chances with a #SCOTUS that #Trump had transformed in his first term, with a majority that now favored an expansive vision of #ExecutivePower.…

Trump had announced #DOGE on Nov 12 as an entity outside of govt, but #Musk quickly began to see problems with that — including the fact that it could be subject to #PublicRecord rules.

#Musk was also intent on getting access to federal #data & payment systems. He felt that if he could not, the whole endeavor would be a waste of his time.

Several people involved in the talks were familiar w/the #USDS, including Smith, who had worked w/the unit on a Covid database as a snr ofcl in the first #Trump admin…

Eventually, Musk’s team settled on a plan but kept it a secret for weeks, even blindsiding some people working w/him.

The operation would take over the #USDS, which had been housed within the #OMB [#RussVought], & would become a stand-alone entity in the executive office of the president. #Musk would NOT be named the #DOGE administrator, but rather an *adviser* to #Trump….

An advantage of this complicated structure was #secrecy. For all his talk about “#transparency,” Musk was obsessed w/confidentiality & fearful of #leaks.

If people filed lawsuits seeking #disclosure of his emails or the op’s records under #FOIA, the arrangement would set the admin up to argue that such docs were exempt. In contrast w/agencies like the #OMB, FOIA does not apply to a president’s WH advisers or to WH entities that advise him but wield no formal #power, like the #NSC.

As he developed his strategy, #Musk drew guidance on how the executive branch operates from #Trump’s senior adviser #StephenMiller & his wife, Katie.

@Nonilex@masto.ai Ah. Never mind. Already corrected.