World's richest man's takeover of U.S. Treasury is a coup

[bigtree]

Lindsay Owens @owenslindsay1 3h
This is an excellent summary of Musk’s takeover of the Treasury from @NYMag’s @chasdanner, with quotes from WSJ, NYT, WaPo, and my op-ed from @MSNBC yesterday.

But this quote from @smotus is right on the money. This isn’t efficiency. It’s a coup.





from Intelligencer:

The world’s richest man may now have access to the confidential personal information of every taxpayer in the United States. According to the New York Times and Wall Street Journal, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on Friday granted Elon Musk and his minions at the faux-agency DOGE full access to the Treasury’s massive federal payment system. As with the rest of Musk’s wide-reaching project within the U.S. government under Donald Trump, it’s not at all clear what he plans to do with this unprecedented access.

Also on Friday, the top civil servant at the Treasury Department, David Lebryk, was apparently ousted after he refused to give Department of Government Efficiency officials access to the system — or rather, per the Times, he “was put on leave and then suddenly retired on Friday after the dispute, according to people familiar with his exit.”

Per a source who spoke with CNN:

According to one person familiar with the department, Trump-affiliated employees had previously asked about Treasury’s ability to stop payments. But Lebryk’s pushback was, “We don’t do that,” the person said. “They seem to want Treasury to be the chokepoint on payments, and that’s unprecedented,” the person added, emphasizing that it is not the bureau’s role to decide which payments to make — it is “just to make the f-ing payments.”

Adds the Washington Post:

Typically only a small number of career officials control Treasury’s payment systems. Run by the Bureau of the Fiscal Service, the sensitive systems control the flow of more than $6 trillion annually to households, businesses and more nationwide. Tens, if not hundreds, of millions of people across the country rely on the systems, which are responsible for distributing Social Security and Medicare benefits, salaries for federal personnel, payments to government contractors and grant recipients, and tax refunds, among tens of thousands of other functions.

And as the Journal highlights:

Any interruption in its operation could result in far-reaching economic disruption. During negotiations over raising the debt ceiling, concerns about the continued performance of the payment system are at the core of the anxiety on Wall Street and in Washington.

Lindsay Owens, notes some troubling possibilities in an MSNBC op-ed:

First, accessing the Treasury’s payment system could be a path to freezing government funding, as the administration attempted earlier this week. Musk could halt payments to programs like Medicaid, Meals on Wheels, Head Start and more, maneuvering around the courts. Musk has already directed his engineers to find ways to turn off the flow of money to programs he and President Donald Trump oppose. With the keys to the Treasury’s payment system, he can unilaterally cut off these funds right at the source.

Musk could also get his hands on the “Do Not Pay” system that lists individuals or contractors the government has blacklisted, theoretically granting him control over whom the government does business with. Government contracts have been central to Musk’s $400 billion net worth; his companies have signed billions of dollars’ worth of government contracts. He could easily place his rivals on the Do Not Pay list or turn the spigot back on for friends who have been blacklisted.

Political scientist Seth Masket is sounding the alarm, as well:

There are many disturbing aspects of this. But perhaps the most fundamental is that Elon Musk is not a federal employee, nor has he been appointed by the President nor approved by the Senate to have any leadership role in government. The “Department of Government Efficiency,” announced by Trump in a January 20th executive order, is not truly any sort of government department or agency, and even the executive order uses quotes in the title. It’s perfectly fine to have a marketing gimmick like this, but DOGE does not have power over established government agencies, and Musk has no role in government. It does not matter that he is an ally of the President. Musk is a private citizen taking control of established government offices. That is not efficiency; that is a coup.

[Irish_Dem]

1. A man who owns a car company just took over the entire US government.

And everybody let him do it.

[Nictuku]

2. I doubt he even took the Oath of Office

Every government agency requires the oath before they can do any work.

[yellow dahlia]

3. So if he is just a garden variety white collar criminal,

can we bring a class action lawsuit against him?

[Cirsium]

15. Sure

And maybe 20 years later some sort of settlement will be reached. Maybe. Best case scenario.

[dalton99a]

4. Kick

[enough]

5. Thank you bigtree -- a very useful informative post.

[stillcool]

6. so effed up. I would really like to wake up now.

[Figarosmom]

7. Its not only a coup of the Treasury Dept.

But of the bank accounts of every American citizen.

Maybe we should be removing iur assets from banks away from where musk could steal it from us.

He has our banking information.

[twodogsbarking]

8. Them that holds the gold makes the rules. Was ever thus.

[mymomwasright]

9. We wait impatiently for the one with fortitude to stop this madness!

[Baron2024]

10. A Prediction

The Dictator Musk and his criminal DOGE Agents will freeze all federal funding now that they have control over the payment system at the Treasury Department. No payments to Federal Workers, no payments to Social Security recipients, probably no payments to Democratic Members of the Congress (I believe that the Treasury Department cuts their checks). This is of course highly illegal and unconstitutional but Trump and Musk don't care about the law. They are Fascists and this is a fascist takeover of our government. I do not understand why the remaining FBI Agents do not go to a Judge and get an arrest warrant for Musk and his DOGE Agents. I believe that Obstruction of Government Operations is a Felony.

[Baron2024]

11. A Coup

Yes, all of the above journalists and experts have diagnosed the problem- Trump and Musk are Fascists and this is a fascist coup. The question is- what do we do to stop them? Why can't the remaining FBI Agents that may be loyal to the Constitution and not Trump go to a Federal Judge, get an arrest warrant, and arrest Musk and his criminal DOGE Agents? I believe that Obstruction of Government Operations is a Felony. Someone with some remaining authority and courage needs to step up and try to stop this coup before it becomes far too late.

[JoseBalow]

12. Musk is acting on drumpf's behalf. This is ALL drumpf's doing.

drumpf never gets his own hands dirty, he learned long ago from Roy Cohn to always maintain some form of plausible deniability. But let's please not call this a Musk coup, this is all about drumpf having Musk do his bidding. The moment things get too hot, Musk will get thrown under the bus, like all the many others that have come before him.

[erronis]

13. trump doesn't have the intelligence to put this scheme together, nor th focus to carry it out.

This is being orchestrated outside of the dotard's immediate realm - he is just a useful cardboard cutout to prop up for the subservient news media.

[JoseBalow]

16. drumpf is too dumb to tie his own shoes

Of course he hasn't an original idea in his head, all of his actions and "policies" originate with others. But he approves it all in advance, so he owns it.

[JCMach1]

14. Active sabotage of GOVERNANCE

Notice I didn't say government..They are dismantling the mechanisms of governance because of some masturbatory billionaire fascist libertarian fantasy.

The democratic ideal of the social contract is dead.

[emiami]

17. Arrest or Execute

At this point the military needs to step in. Any necessary action needs to be taken to stop Elon Musk and this unconstitutional assault on the citizens of this nation. NOW

[Karasu]

18. Seth Masket said it all for me.

[BadgerMom]

19. K & R