‘Elon is my prophet’: how Musk’s Doge team took a wrecking ball to Washington
A Guardian report examines the work of young technology workers sent by the Department of Government Efficiency to disrupt US federal agencies. The report focuses on what happened when one worker resisted efforts involving immigrant data, while describing broader tensions over compliance within the federal workforce.
A Guardian report examines the actions of young technology workers sent to disrupt US federal agencies by the Department of Government Efficiency, known as Doge. The report describes the initiative as involving interventions across the US federal government.
The report focuses on an episode involving one worker who fought to protect immigrant data. The supplied material does not provide the worker’s name, agency, specific data involved or the outcome of the dispute.
The report says not everyone complied with the Doge team’s efforts. It presents the account as an examination of what happened inside federal agencies as the team sought to carry out its work.
The source excerpt also refers to an email sent to the entire US federal workforce in the early hours of Saturday 22 February 2025. The excerpt identifies the sender as HR at the Office of Personnel Management but does not provide the email’s contents.
THE QUESTIONS THIS EVENT LEAVES BEHIND
What authority did the Doge team have to direct work inside federal agencies?
What protections governed access to immigrant data during the reported intervention?
What consequences, if any, followed when a worker resisted the effort?
How did federal agencies assess the risks created by the team’s actions?
What oversight mechanisms were available to employees who disagreed with the team?
YOUR QUESTION
Does this story leave you with another question?
Send us the question the report did not answer. It may become the next question IAQ investigates.
GLOBAL CURIOSITY MAP · SEPTEMBER 2026