Author: Penny, BlockBeats

On the morning of February 3, Washington time, the headquarters of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) was closed, and the once-bustling office area fell silent. Just the night before, officials from the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), led by Elon Musk, officially took over this international aid agency with over 60 years of history and announced plans for a complete shutdown. USAID employees received an email stating that all personnel, except for key positions, would transition to remote work. Meanwhile, the USAID official website was taken offline, official social media accounts were deleted, and the agency's operations came to a standstill.

Musk stated on social media that he had discussed the matter with President Trump and received full authorization to close USAID. He claimed that the agency was a "far-left criminal organization" that needed to be completely dismantled.

Musk collaborated with Trump to establish the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) to promote radical reforms under the guise of "streamlining the government." Its core objectives mainly include cutting government spending, digitizing the bureaucratic system, and replacing human decision-making with algorithms. This dramatic shutdown of USAID has also revealed the true nature of the previously mysterious DOGE group, and this may just be the beginning, as the power landscape of the U.S. federal government is being rapidly reshaped.

Team Composition: The "Tech Six" Averages 22 Years Old

The DOGE team consists of six tech elites aged 19 to 25, all without government experience but closely associated with Musk's companies (such as SpaceX and Neuralink) or Silicon Valley capital (like Peter Thiel).

Image source: Internet

Gavin Krieger (25): Krieger graduated from the University of California, Berkeley, with a degree in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. He previously worked as a senior software engineer at the U.S. AI data analytics company Databricks and is an expert in artificial intelligence and big data analysis. Krieger's task is to draft executive orders and ensure they can be quickly implemented within the government. The email sent to all USAID employees on Monday, stating they would not need to return to headquarters, was authored by him. He also directly drafted a funding review order for the U.S. Department of the Treasury, participated in the OPM's mass layoff plan, and was responsible for establishing "rehiring standards" for civil servants, requiring future government employees to be approved by DOGE before being hired.

Luke Farito (23): Farito dropped out of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and later worked for Nat Friedman, the Silicon Valley entrepreneur behind GitHub. He interned at SpaceX, writing software for pumps, valves, and other components that help fuel rockets. Farito is currently listed as an "executive engineer" in the Office of the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), personally overseeing the digital lockdown of USAID, with the next target aimed at the systems of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services responsible for contracts.

Edward Coristine (19): The youngest member, Coristine, just graduated from high school and is studying Mechanical Engineering and Physics at Northeastern University in Boston. He worked for three months last summer at Musk's brain-machine interface company Neuralink, but his specific responsibilities are not yet clear. Coristine once joined a call with employees of the U.S. General Services Administration using a non-government Google Gmail account, asking them to check the code he wrote and prove the validity of his work, which caused dissatisfaction among federal employees.

Akash Boba (21): Boba comes from the University of California, Berkeley, and was an investment engineering intern at Bridgewater Associates. He previously interned at Meta and Palantir, a U.S. software service provider founded by MAGA donor Peter Thiel, specializing in artificial intelligence, data analysis, and financial modeling. He is responsible for designing algorithms to monitor government funding flows, leading the "Real-Time Monitoring System for Fiscal Expenditures," which allows for the real-time freezing of federal "inefficient expenditures" without congressional review.

Ethan Shautlan (22): Shautlan is a senior computer science student at Harvard University and the only team member with experience in AI startups. His AI company, Energize AI, received a $100,000 grant from OpenAI and he was a runner-up in a hackathon hosted by Musk's AI company xAI. Shautlan is responsible for DOGE's AI government program, aiming to replace traditional human decision-making mechanisms in government with algorithms, automating most administrative approvals, budget assessments, and even congressional reports.

Gautier Cole Killian (24): Tasked with hacking the Treasury's security system to gain access to the payment network. Killian graduated from McGill University and has strong capabilities in financial data processing, having worked as an engineer at Jump Trading, a company specializing in high-frequency financial trading and algorithms. Killian's main task is to help the DOGE team breach the Treasury's security defenses, allowing them to access the government payment network and bypass security checks to directly read millions of transaction records. Killian is also one of the few young individuals granted senior access to the White House, earning Musk's high trust.

With the joint efforts of these six individuals, DOGE completed an administrative reorganization that had not been achieved by the U.S. government in decades in just two weeks. Their actions were extremely efficient, with each person responsible for multiple tasks, working day and night. Some team members worked 24/7, sleeping in the office when tired, conducting a comprehensive audit of the deep and opaque U.S. federal agencies. Musk has praised them highly, calling them "the future of the new government" on social media.

The White House Launches a "Silicon Valley Blitzkrieg"

Since Trump took office on January 20, the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) led by Musk has begun a series of swift reforms:

On January 20, the Chief Diversity Officer Executive Committee (CDOEC) was closed;

On February 3, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) was closed;

The Department of Education may be eliminated (the DOGE team has begun reviewing the Department of Education's contracts and financial data, planning to eliminate "non-essential expenditures," suggesting that the Department of Education may be the next target for elimination);

The Department of Labor and the Department of Health and Human Services are potential targets (the DOGE team has begun collecting their financial data, with possible further actions in the future).

The New York Times revealed that under Trump's direction, Musk's team is implementing a systematic takeover of U.S. federal agencies using unconventional means. The controversial shutdown of USAID is just the prelude to this deep transformation—indeed, there were already signs before the agency's closure. In the past month, over 70% of USAID's departments have been gradually eliminated, with more than a thousand formal employees and contractors forcibly dismissed or indefinitely suspended, its digital portal completely paralyzed, social media updates halted, and even the agency's headquarters signage quietly removed.

Image source: USAID official website, stating that all directly hired personnel of USAID will be on administrative leave as of 11:59 PM EST on February 7, Friday.

This systematic takeover is spreading at an astonishing speed. The DOGE team not only quickly took control of the operational hub of USAID but also simultaneously penetrated core departments such as the Treasury, the Office of Personnel Management (OPM), and the General Services Administration (GSA). Several chief security officers, chief financial officers, and executive officials from multiple key departments have been concentratedly dismissed, and many senior civil servants have been stripped of their powers. In stark contrast, hundreds of tech newcomers lacking government work experience but mysteriously connected to Musk are entering government positions through special channels, bypassing regular security checks to access confidential databases.

Particularly controversial is DOGE's penetration of the Treasury's payment hub. This financial lifeline, which manages Social Security disbursements, Medicaid, civil servant salaries, and corporate subsidies across the U.S., has traditionally been operated by career financial officials. However, the DOGE team has recently broken through traditional constraints, not only gaining real-time monitoring access to the Treasury's payment system but also establishing a "non-essential expenditure" screening mechanism, preparing to implement intelligent cuts to federal welfare programs.

Musk claimed on social media that a large amount of "illegal payments" exists in the federal government's daily expenditures, including foreign aid, social welfare, and academic research funding, and DOGE's goal is to cut $4 billion in spending daily. On February 6, DOGE announced the termination of 78 contracts in the categories of DEI, bad assets, media, and consulting, including a contract for "Groundwater Exploration and Assessment in the Islamic Republic of Mauritania." The total savings amount to approximately $110 million.

Of course, there are also some changes that are quite amusing, especially regarding gender issues that are generally hard for Chinese people to understand. On February 6, DOGE's official Twitter account stated, "The Social Security Administration has terminated the contract for the 'Gender X Initiative Mark' and removed all content related to gender ideology from public-facing applications. This saved over $1 million and complies with the President's executive order" (as shown in the image below).

The changes involve altering the URL of the Social Security online application page to "/sex" instead of "/gender." Although the wording of the application form itself has not changed, still asking "What is your sex?" and providing options for "male" and "female," the official terminology has shifted from "gender" to "sex," not recognizing psychological gender identity. This aligns with the executive order signed by Trump on January 20, 2025, titled "Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth in the Federal Government." This order defines gender as a binary of male and female, requiring federal agencies to use "sex" rather than "gender identity," halting funding for gender-affirming care, and prohibiting transgender individuals from using facilities corresponding to their gender identity in federally funded single-sex facilities.

Image source: NEW YORK POST, Trump stated that he only supports two genders: male and female.

As DOGE gradually penetrates the core of government agencies, the balance of power is increasingly tilting. In internal communications, civil servants have been told they must accept "government efficiency reforms," or they may face the risk of being fired or reassigned to marginal positions. Some employees at the Treasury even received warning emails suggesting that their positions might be eliminated. Meanwhile, Musk mocked government workers on social media, calling them "lazy" and encouraging them to resign voluntarily, implying that only those "willing to adapt to the new system" could remain.

Musk's plans go far beyond cutting spending and purging officials. His goal is to establish a completely new government model—a governance system led by tech entrepreneurs, with administrative decisions assisted by algorithms and artificial intelligence. He has assigned a team composed of former Tesla, xAI, and SpaceX employees to begin developing government management AI, so that in the future, budgets can be automatically reviewed, projects approved, and policy implementation analyzed.

In the next steps, DOGE is considering dissolving the U.S. Department of Education through administrative means. Relevant officials have begun discussions around an executive order that would revoke all functions of the Department of Education not explicitly listed in regulations or transfer certain functions to other departments. Notably, Trump mentioned in an interview with Musk last August that if he were re-elected as President, he would close the Department of Education.

A Power Crisis That Tears Apart American Politics?

As DOGE's influence sweeps through the political arena like a gale, the voices of opposition are also rising.

The sudden closure of USAID has not only stirred waves domestically but has also raised widespread concerns in the international community. This agency manages approximately $40 billion annually, involving over 100 countries globally and covering various fields such as humanitarian aid, development support, and health projects. Its abrupt shutdown has left many countries and aid organizations without assistance, and some emergency aid projects are even at risk of interruption.

Meanwhile, as soon as Treasury Secretary Scott Bentsen took office, he handed over access to payment system data to Musk and his DOGE team. This move has sparked widespread controversy, with critics pointing out that it could expose sensitive information of millions of citizens and businesses, jeopardizing the financial security of Americans and even threatening the stability of national infrastructure and personal privacy.

DOGE has taken control of the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) and the General Services Administration (GSA) without proper review or authorization, and the legitimacy and qualifications of its series of personnel appointments have quickly drawn external scrutiny and criticism. Generally, the formulation of federal policies requires multiple layers of approval within government agencies, ultimately decided by cabinet members and the president. However, Musk and his core team have bypassed this process, forming an informal decision-making group led by tech elites, entrepreneurs, and young engineers.

In response, Democratic Senator Chuck Schumer announced he would collaborate with House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries to propose legislation to counter DOGE's "illegal interventions." Meanwhile, multiple lawsuits against Musk have been filed in federal court, alleging that DOGE officials accessed confidential information without approval, violated government procurement regulations, and abused executive orders to cut federal spending.

Image source: TVBS NEWS, Democrats oppose Musk's reforms

On February 6, local time, the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) led by Musk faced a setback—Federal Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly issued a temporary injunction prohibiting the Treasury from providing data from its payment system to outside parties. As a result, Musk himself would be unable to review data retrieved from the payment system.

Misfortunes do not come alone; just hours after the judge's ruling, a 25-year-old DOGE programmer, Marko Elez, suddenly resigned after it was discovered that he had posted racist comments on his dormant social media account.

Behind Musk's aggressive actions is the strong support and trust of President Trump. In the White House, Musk not only has an independent office but also frequently attends meetings with senior officials, and Trump has publicly stated multiple times that he is "confident in Musk's decisions." In terms of government operations, Musk is attempting to discard the traditional bureaucratic system in favor of a more efficient model similar to Silicon Valley companies. Many senior government officials have expressed concerns that such reforms could lead to an excessive concentration of power in private capital, undermining government transparency and accountability mechanisms. However, under Trump's protection, despite facing some obstacles, Musk's reform efforts continue to advance rapidly.

Radical reforms are always a war without gunpowder, potentially establishing a disruptive global government management model or becoming a victim of power struggles. If the Democratic opposition grows stronger or a robust opposing force emerges within the judicial system, DOGE's reforms may slow down. However, based on current efficiency, Musk's actions are moving far faster than the unwieldy traditional administrative system, and a "corporate-style" government led by technology and prioritizing efficiency is being shaped. This adventure of Musk and six young individuals raises the question: is it genius innovation or a dangerous game? The answer can only be validated by time.

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