According to a report by National Public Radio (NPR) on Tuesday, 21 employees of the U.S. Department of Government Effectiveness (DOGE) have resigned, accounting for one-third of the department's employees. According to the report, the 21 employees who resigned were mainly composed of software engineers and product managers. They were members of the U.S. Digital Service (USDigital Service), which was later renamed the U.S. Department of Government Effectiveness, now DOGE.
The 21 employees who resigned were former members of the U.S. Digital Service. In their resignation letters, they stated that they refused to use their skills to help Musk "undermine critical public services." They emphasized that Musk only cares about seizing power and making his wealth richer. DOGE employees left en masse, casting a shadow over "Minister Ma's" reform cause.
In a joint letter to White House Chief of Staff Susan Wiles, 21 employees expressed their refusal to use their skills to put Americans' data at risk and believed that Musk's leadership would "undermine critical public services."
In their letter they emphasized:
The U.S. Digital Service has spent more than a decade making government work better for ordinary people, while Musk only cares about seizing power and enriching himself.
Since Trump took office, DOGE staff have entered multiple U.S. federal agencies to review excessive government spending. For example, some work by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) has been put on hold.
The DOGE department led by Musk has laid off thousands of jobs across the U.S. government in an effort to reduce the size of the government. Previously, the DOGE team claimed to have achieved an expenditure reduction of US$55 billion, but the specific data on its official website only showed about one-third of the amount.
The internal strife comes at a time when DOGE is pushing for radical reforms.
The department was revealed to be asking federal employees to submit weekly summaries of their work results, and Musk said on the social media site he owns, X, that failure to respond could result in unemployment.
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