Vittoria Elliott

Human rights organizations say the cuts have undermined years of global democracy-building and free-speech initiatives and put the lives of their staff at risk.

Elon Musk's men at HUD come from the real estate sector. They have access to vast stores of personal and financial data—and control over who can access which HUD systems.

SpaceX engineers were said to be simply touring the Federal Aviation Administration on Monday. In fact, some were already being onboarded at the agency under a policy designed to increase “employment opportunities for people with disabilities.”

An email sent to workers at the US Treasury Department’s Bureau of the Fiscal Service said DOGE’s Tom Krause is “currently” the CEO of the Cloud Software Group. Critics believe this could be a massive conflict of interest.

At least three individuals associated with Palantir or its cofounder Peter Thiel were involved in an online recruiting effort for DOGE late last year, WIRED has learned.

An internal email reviewed by WIRED calls DOGE staff's access to federal payments systems “the single biggest insider threat risk the Bureau of the Fiscal Service has ever faced.”

The Bureau of the Fiscal Service is a sleepy part of the Treasury Department. It’s also where, sources say, a 25-year-old engineer tied to Elon Musk has admin privileges over the code that controls Social Security payments, tax returns, and more.

Engineers between 19 and 24, most linked to Musk’s companies, are playing a key role as he seizes control of federal infrastructure.

A growing number of US government websites have gone offline as of Saturday, including several related to USAID and others focused on youth programs, Africa, and more.

Cuts to diversity programs and other policy changes have frustrated some of Meta’s workers. One former employee calls it “a slow, painful death.”

Sources tell WIRED that the OPM’s top layers of management now include individuals linked to xAI, Neuralink, the Boring Company, and Palantir. One expert found the takeover reminiscent of Stalin.

A former USDS employee called the repurposing of the Digital Service into DOGE an “A+ bureaucratic jiujitsu move.” It will give Musk and his associates access to unclassified data in every government agency.

Menswear influencer Derek Guy is unimpressed by what tech barons and the MAGA rank and file wore this weekend. “To be frank,” he says, “many conservatives are often behind on fashion trends.”

Having established power over Republican politics in the US, the industrialist is now intervening in European politics—and is himself becoming a leader of the international far right.

According to Mark Zuckerberg, Meta trust and safety workers will be relocated to Texas to prevent them from “censoring” users. Experts point to other advantages.

Deepfakes were nothing like the political force in 2024 that many feared—but that doesn’t mean that generative AI didn’t profoundly affect elections all over the world.

The American public elected Donald Trump to run the federal government. His erratic patron seems to think the job is also his.

Riley Wenckus used TikTok to tell Elon Musk she paid “an Etsy witch” $7.99 to make his life “a living hell.” A new market has opened up for others looking to follow her lead.

Instagram has become a key avenue for Hindu nationalist “cow vigilantes” to share their violent exploits with a wider audience, and even raise money.

Putting Robert F. Kennedy Jr. in charge of the Department of Health and Human Services would fulfill Donald Trump’s promise to let him “go wild on health.”