In a hilarious and ironic turn of events, a full walkout of twenty-one civil service employees rocked the Department of Government Efficiency (D.O.G.E.) on Tuesday, as workers cited political interference, mass firings, and threats to federal integrity as reasons for their sudden departure.
The group, made up of engineers, product managers, and designers, submitted a joint resignation letter posted on WetheBuilders.org, saying that they refused to participate in the dismantling of essential public services.
The letter, addressed to White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, accused D.O.G.E. of “compromising core government systems”, removing technical experts without warning, and creating a hostile work environment under the leadership of Elon Musk.
“We swore to serve the American people and uphold our oath to the Constitution across presidential administrations,” the letter read. “However, it has become clear that we can no longer honor those commitments at the United States D.O.G.E. Service.”
A source familiar with the letter confirmed its authenticity to NBC News, though the employees who wrote it remained anonymous. Instead of names, they signed off with their job titles, signaling that the entire tech and operations backbone of D.O.G.E. had just walked out.
Musk’s takeover sparks backlash inside federal agencies
The resignation follows Musk’s controversial takeover of the U.S. Digital Service (USDS), the agency that was originally created under Barack Obama to modernize government tech. After Donald Trump’s executive order, USDS was rebranded as D.O.G.E., with Musk given free rein to slash government operations under the banner of efficiency.
The first signs of internal chaos appeared on January 21, just a day after Trump’s inauguration, when D.O.G.E. staff reported being questioned in 15-minute interviews by White House officials wearing visitor badges. According to the resignation letter, these mystery officials refused to identify themselves, grilled employees about their political views, and attempted to pit them against each other.
Less than a month later, on February 14, an anonymous email fired one-third of the agency overnight. These firings, the resigning employees wrote, removed experts working on Social Security, disaster relief, and tax filing systems, and jeopardized millions of Americans.
“DOGE seems to think ‘efficiency’ just means doing less, no matter how good the return is,” said a former employee who had worked under both Obama and Trump. Speaking to NBC News, they described the agency’s shift under Musk as “scorched earth”, saying it was forcing out people who actually knew how to fix government inefficiencies.
In response to the resignations, Musk took to X (formerly Twitter) and dismissed the departing workers as “Dem political holdovers.” He claimed they had refused to return to the office and would have been fired anyway.
“These were full remote workers who hung Trans flags from their workplaces,” D.O.G.E. employee Katie Miller posted on X, appearing to mock the resigning staff.
White House avoids questions as Republican lawmakers push back
Despite Musk’s public statements, officials inside the Trump administration have been unusually tight-lipped about who is actually in charge of D.O.G.E. During a press briefing on Tuesday, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt repeatedly refused to name the agency’s administrator. After days of speculation, a White House official confirmed to CNBC that the acting head of D.O.G.E. is Amy Gleason—a former U.S. Digital Service official who had worked in the Trump administration’s first term.
Even within Republican circles, there is concern that Musk’s aggressive purging of federal workers is being carried out too recklessly.
“We need to do this with a scalpel, not a sledgehammer,” Rep. Nicole Malliotakis told CNN, saying that while she supported efficiency, some of D.O.G.E.’s actions seemed too rash.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune said any downsizing should be done in a “respectful way,” warning that a chaotic purge could hurt essential services.
“I’m all for trimming the government,” said Rep. Rich McCormick, after angry constituents confronted him at a town hall over mass terminations. “But we need to allow people to adjust their lifestyle.”
However, Trump’s fundraising team made it clear they had no intention of slowing down. A campaign email sent Tuesday highlighted Musk’s new employee policy, which required all federal workers to submit five accomplishments each week. The email then posed a poll to supporters, asking:
“Should Elon Musk and I FIRE anybody that doesn’t respond? YES or NO?”
Trump’s executive order faces lawsuits over Musk’s role
The legal status of Musk’s role at D.O.G.E. is also now being challenged in multiple lawsuits. While Trump has publicly credited Musk with leading the agency’s overhaul, legal filings tell a different story.
In a sworn statement on February 17, Office of Administration Director Joshua Fisher said that Musk “is not an employee” of any government entity under D.O.G.E. and has “no actual or formal authority to make government decisions himself”.
This contradiction became central in a federal lawsuit challenging the legality of D.O.G.E.’s actions. During a hearing on Monday, a Trump administration lawyer was unable to answer a judge’s questions about Musk’s official relationship to the agency.
Despite this, D.O.G.E. continues to operate under Musk’s influence, scrapping government contracts, eliminating jobs, and attempting to shut down entire federal agencies.
For now, the twenty-one employees who resigned say they had no choice but to walk away.
“We signed up to make the government more effective,” their letter read. “Instead, we are watching it be dismantled.”
Meanwhile, more than one million federal employees responded to Elon Musk’s controversial directive requiring them to submit bullet points justifying their jobs and productivity, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt confirmed Tuesday.
“I can announce that we’ve had more than one million workers who have chosen to participate in this very simple task of, again, sending five bullet points to their direct supervisor or manager,” Leavitt told reporters.
Musk had set a deadline of midnight Monday, declaring that employees who failed to comply would be considered to have resigned. However, multiple federal agencies, including the Pentagon, the State Department, and the Department of Homeland Security, instructed their employees to ignore the directive.
With roughly 2.4 million civilian federal workers, Musk’s one million figure suggests that fewer than half responded.
White House walks back Musk’s threats
Despite Musk’s bold claim that non-compliant workers would be fired, White House guidance clarified that all hiring and firing decisions remain under agency control.
“For some of the agencies that you’ve seen who have said, ‘please don’t send these emails,’ it’s in their best interest for that specific agency, and the president supports that,” Leavitt explained.
Still, Musk doubled down Monday night, saying he would give workers a second chance to submit their justifications before facing termination.
Leavitt insisted that agency heads would set their own policies for handling responses to Musk’s directive.
Democrats target Musk over D.O.G.E’s CFPB shutdown
Democratic lawmakers, led by Sen. Elizabeth Warren, held a Tuesday forum blasting Musk and the Trump administration’s efforts to dismantle the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), an agency responsible for policing financial industry abuses.
Warren argued that Musk’s push to neutralize the CFPB is directly tied to his own business interests, particularly his plan to launch a digital payments system within X (formerly Twitter).
“By seizing control of the agency, Musk can now root through all of the CFPB’s confidential data on these potential competitors,” Warren said. “As Musk launches his new app, he faces oversight from the CFPB. His plan seems to be to eliminate the watchdog.”
Musk was invited to the hearing, but he did not attend.
D.O.G.E operatives took over CFPB before mass layoffs
The Department of Government Efficiency (D.O.G.E)—the Trump-created entity Musk oversees—gained access to CFPB systems earlier this month, just before the agency’s new leadership froze operations, shut down headquarters, and laid off nearly 200 employees.
According to a CFPB union lawsuit, acting CFPB Director Russell Vought has a plan to fire more than 95% of the agency’s staff.
Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) called out Musk directly during the forum, questioning why a billionaire with a growing financial empire should be allowed to dismantle the agency meant to regulate him.
“Elon, how do you justify shutting down the agency that’s going to be looking at your peer-to-peer payment plan?” Klobuchar asked. “How do you justify shutting down the agency that has jurisdiction and oversight over many of the other financial issues that you are going to make money from doing?”
During the hearing, former CFPB supervision director Lorelei Salas warned that the agency holds highly confidential trade secrets, including data from major payment services like PayPal, CashApp, and Zelle.
“We’ve been looking at a number of digital wallet companies and payments companies, and we have information on the technologies they’re using,” Salas said.
She also revealed that the CFPB has access to AI-driven credit models, which determine whether individuals get approved for loans.
Beyond corporate data, the CFPB also stores sensitive personal information from consumer complaints, including account numbers and private financial details, making its dismantling a major concern for privacy advocates.
A federal judge has temporarily halted Musk and Vought’s efforts to purge CFPB data or fire more employees.
“The CFPB has been sidelined, but it is not dead,” Warren said. “Only Congress can shut down the bureau. Advocates are in court right now, and I am confident they are going to win.”
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