[FRIAM] WIRED- Inside Musk coup

[Stephen Guerin]

On Mon, Mar 17, 2025, 7:43 AM glen <gepropella at gmail.com> wrote:

> It's behind a paywall for me.
>

Wired doesn't have gift links like Economist, NYT, WaPo or WSJ. Posting
this temporary fair-use equivalent (imho) for a month:
 https://guerin.acequia.io/Inside-Elon-Musks-Digital-Coup_WIRED.PDF


Chat summary:

Elon Musk’s *Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE)* executed what
insiders call a *“digital coup”*, embedding operatives across federal
agencies to seize control of government infrastructure. Under Trump’s
approval, DOGE *pushed out tens of thousands of civil servants*,
infiltrated agencies like Treasury, Social Security, and USAID, and *gained
access to massive troves of sensitive data*, from tax records to biometric
profiles. Musk’s team, a mix of Palantir alumni and libertarian tech
elites, *moved aggressively to rewrite government systems*, effectively
bypassing traditional oversight. Attempts to freeze agency funding and
force AI-driven automation *left federal operations in chaos*, with
lawsuits and whistleblowers exposing abuses. Critics warn that DOGE isn’t
just about slashing budgets—it’s an unprecedented *centralization of power
in private hands*, treating the government itself as a dataset to be
reengineered at Musk’s discretion.
____________________________________________
CEO Founder, Simtable.com
stephen.guerin at simtable.com

Harvard Visualization Research and Teaching Lab
stephenguerin at fas.harvard.edu

mobile: (505)577-5828
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