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BC historian calls Elon Musk’s accessing of U.S. private financial data a ‘coup’
Representatives from Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency gained access over the weekend to the federal payment system, which deals with $6 trillion each year.
Boston College history professor Heather Cox Richardson, who writes the Substack newsletter “Letters from an American,” described Elon Musk’s actions over the weekend involving the federal Treasury as a “coup,” and Sen. Elizabeth Warren called on Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent for answers.
Representatives from Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency gained access Friday to the federal payment system — what Cox Richardson described as the “checkbook for the United States.” Known for breaking down today’s politics with historical context, Cox Richardson explained the implications of Musk’s team having obtained such secure information in a 30-minute video on Facebook Live Sunday.
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The Office of Management and Budget uses that federal payment system to handle about $6 trillion annually, she said, and it includes sensitive information like social security numbers and tax returns for every taxpaying American.
“Think of what that means Elon Musk’s people have access to,” Cox Richardson said.
She called it “the largest data breach in human history.”
Acquiring the system could be another avenue for the Trump administration to restrict the disbursement of money, which has so far faced legal hurdles, the New York Times reported. The administration’s efforts to freeze federal funding were halted by two federal judges last week.
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Cox Richardson emphasized Musk is “not an elected member of the government.” Though he was appointed by Trump to lead DOGE, as it’s known, that is not an official government agency created by Congress.
Initially, Musk’s DOGE representatives were denied access to the system by USAID security officials John Voorhees and Brian McGill, who were then placed on leave. A top Treasury official, David Lebryk, was put on leave and then suddenly retired after similarly saying no to Musk’s representatives, the New York Times reported.
“He said no, not happening, this is absolutely secure information,” Cox Richardson said. “He gets forced out, and Musk gets permission from the new secretary of the Treasury, Scott Bessent.”
Warren sent a letter Monday to Bessent that demanded answers to a list of questions about what systems were made accessible, what DOGE would do with data, and what protections were in place for private information. In it, she described Musk as an “unelected billionaire” with “an unknown number of … unqualified flunkies.”
“The Musk team’s unprecedented demand for total access to the system reportedly caused serious concern at the Department,” Warren wrote. “Controlling the system could allow the Trump Administration … [to do so] based on political favoritism or the whims of Mr. Musk and those on his team who have worked their way inside.”
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Calling the action “astonishing mismanagement,” she gave Bessent a deadline of Friday to respond.
She said in a post on X Sunday that “we must do everything in our power to push back and protect people from harm.”
Mass GOP representatives did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the potential ramifications of Musk’s actions.
Nationwide, Cox Richardson outlined what Trump and Musk might cut, and what a lack of federal government funding could mean for places that rely on it.
“You’re looking at hospitals that don’t get grants, you’re looking at law enforcement that suddenly can’t make payroll,” she said. “All the places where the federal government has been active in the United States suddenly at the mercy of Elon Musk.”
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