• Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said Donald Trump is not done with tariffs.
• Trump's top trade official said additional tariffs are coming on April 2.
• Wall Street sank on Monday after Trump imposed new tariffs on Canada, Mexico, and China.

Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick on Tuesday said President Donald Trump's tariffs are just beginning.

"If you want to talk about trade policy, that starts April 2," Lutnick said on CNBC. "These countries have used and abused us, and that is going to change."

Trump has said that the next round of tariffs will include external agricultural products.

Trump's first round of 25% tariffs on Mexican and Canadian goods, and an additional 10% on Chinese imports roiled markets Monday afternoon.

Canada, Mexico, and China have all announced plans to impose retaliatory tariffs. China took action immediately, imposing tariffs of up to 15% on US farm products and other goods.

Lutnick said that the current tariffs are about Trump's continuing frustration with US opioid-related deaths. Last year, federal data showed a 12% decrease in overall-related overdose deaths. Researchers told The New York Times this was largely attributed to a drop in synthetic opioid-related deaths, which has been driven by fentanyl. Lutnick said too many Americans are still dying.

"Let's differentiate between today's tariffs, which are about saving American lives," Lutnick said. "China makes the opioid products, and then Mexico and Canada feed them into American and that's gotta end. They have done a nice job on the border, but they haven't stopped the flow of fentanyl."

Mexican, Canadian, and Chinese officials have disputed that they are not doing enough to stop the flow of fentanyl, one of the Trump administration's stated reasons for the tariffs. According to US Customs and Border Protection, most of the fentanyl coming into the US originates in Mexico. Since last September, less than 1% was seized along the US-Canadian border. China is the leading source of the chemical products used to create the deadly opioid.

The US has long chafed at Canadian restrictions on US agricultural products, especially dairy. Trump previously ordered a sweeping review of US trade deficits and other policies that most agencies must complete by April 1. He has said that he intends to then impose additional tariffs based on that review, though he will delay the action a day so as to not coincide with April Fool's Day.

The fentanyl-related tariffs are linked to a separate emergency Trump formally declared last month.

The USMCA left Canada's protectionist agriculture policies in place, which still allows it to impose high tariffs on US dairy, eggs, and poultry products to protect Canadian farmers despite broadly lowering borders to trade across North America.

• Donald Trump on Monday said tariffs on Mexican and Canadian goods are coming.
• The US previously worked out a pause with its neighbors but the time has run out, he said.
• The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 848 points and the S&P 500 was down more than 2%.

President Donald Trump said on Monday that the White House will forge ahead with imposing 25% tariffs on Mexico and Canada.

"No room left for Mexico or Canada," Trump told reporters during an unrelated White House event. "The tariffs are all set, they go into effect tomorrow."

Trump's comments deepened a sell-off in the stock market during Monday's trading session. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped as much as 848 points and the benchmark S&P 500 was down more than 2%. The Nasdaq Composite dropped 3%, with the tech-heavy index extending its decline after a sharp drop in Nvidia stock during the day.

Earlier in the day, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick had left the door open that the president might change his mind. Trump already paused the tariffs for a month based on both countries pledging to do more to stem illegal immigration.

Trump on Monday reiterated his view that the tariffs are punishment for Mexico and Canada for failing to do enough to prevent fentanyl from entering the US.

Both nations have already said how they would retaliate with their own tariffs. Canada published an extensive list of targeted American products, ranging from agricultural products to alcoholic beverages. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau previously called on his citizens to prepare to forgo American-made goods.

"It might mean checking the labels at the supermarket and picking Canadian-made products," Trudeau said last month. "It might mean opting for Canadian rye over Kentucky bourbon, or foregoing Florida orange juice altogether. It might mean changing your summer vacation plans to stay here in Canada."

The US imports a range of key goods from the two countries, including crude oil, car parts, and electronics, and trade policy experts previously told BI that new tariffs are likely to increase the prices of those goods.

Trump previously said that Americans would feel "some pain" with tariffs, but the price would be worth it in the end. Still, some companies have started to prepare for price increases caused by the tariffs. Real estate consultants previously told BI that Trump's 25% steel tariff will likely make rent and condo prices surge.

It's unclear how long these tariffs will last. Trump's initial executive order from February said that they would remain in effect until the affected countries cracked down on their drug and border policy.

• Elon Musk said he agreed that the US should leave NATO.
• Before he became Secretary of State, Marco Rubio made such a move harder.
• Congress passed a law requiring a vote to approve any US withdrawal.

Elon Musk wants the US to leave NATO. Before he joined President Donald Trump's Cabinet, Secretary of State Marco Rubio made such a historic move a lot more difficult.

"I agree," Musk wrote on X on Saturday night when a conservative political commentator suggested the US leave the United Nations and NATO.

Before he joined Trump's cabinet, Rubio co-led a congressional effort to handcuff any potential future president who wanted to leave NATO. Trump's name wasn't always mentioned, but it was clear his then-presidential candidacy worried enough lawmakers from both parties to move to rein him in.

Musk's comments come at a critical moment.

NATO members, led by the United Kingdom and France, are discussing how to continue to support Ukraine in its war against Russia. Talks between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy blew up last week. Zelenskyy has said he wants security guarantees as a backstop to any potential peace deal with Russia. The White House proposed a rare earth minerals deal but has been reluctant to lay out a defense plan if Russia violated a potential cease-fire.

Trump has repeatedly expressed skepticism over NATO, particularly the possibility that its mutual defense clause, Article 5, could lead the US into war if a nation like Montenegro was attacked. The president has also threatened to leave the alliance if European nations don't spend more on their own defense.

A White House spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment on whether Musk was speaking in his capacity as a senior advisor to the president. Musk is also the de facto leader of the White House DOGE office.

There could be a legal fight on the horizon.

Under the 2023 law championed by Rubio, any NATO withdrawal requires either the approval of 2/3rds of the US Senate or a separate act of Congress. Given that many GOP lawmakers remain staunch NATO backers, it's extremely unlikely Trump could muster such a large majority.

Legal scholars have said that might not be the last word. Trump could simply ignore the law. His White House has suggested that a different congressional restriction related to spending federal funds is unconstitutional.

In such an event, a legal fight could go up to the US Supreme Court. Historically, the judiciary is reticent to get involved in disputes between branches. There are also concerns about whether lawmakers would reach the threshold of standing, the legal ability to bring such a suit in the first place.

Absent a full US withdrawal, there are other ways to undermine NATO.

A recent wargame found that Trump could simply hollow out the alliance by curtailing US support, allowing NATO to wither.

The US holds a powerful perch at both NATO and the United Nations institutions.

It is the largest member of the NATO alliance, and the only country in its 80-year history to invoke its central defense cause, which came after the 9/11 terror attacks. The US is also one of the five permanent members of the powerful UN Security Council, the only UN group that can impose binding resolutions on all 193 member states.

• An ex-colleague described newly named DOGE acting administrator Amy Gleason as hard-working and apolitical.
• She was nicknamed "the green dot" for staying active on her work messaging system all hours of the day and night.
• One of Gleason's former health-tech employers was also subject to a critical audit and grand jury report.

Amy Gleason, the little-known federal data cruncher who was recently named the Department of Government Efficiency's acting administrator, has at least one thing in common with Elon Musk: a fanatical commitment to work.

Even before becoming a "special government employee" and DOGE's public face, Musk was known for flaunting his work ethos, even sleeping on the Tesla factory floor.

As a Florida-based healthcare executive, Gleason, 53, earned the nickname "the green dot" for being online on the work messaging system well past midnight, and then again at dawn, a former colleague told Business Insider.

"She is a nice, sweet person, but she's just a superhuman when it comes to work product," said Travis Bond, the former CEO of CareSync, a Tampa-area medical technology startup where Gleason worked as chief operating officer and chief strategy officer until it folded in 2018.

"I'm surprised, but I'm not surprised," Bond said of Gleason's new role, the latest in a career that has combined interests in nursing and technology over three decades.

"She very good at taking large, complex systems and pushing them to efficiency," he said.

Gleason did not respond to requests for comment on this story.

In 2015, the Obama administration named Gleason a "Champion of Change" for her work at CareSync, noting that she was inspired to help families "better coordinate care and improve health outcomes" after her daughter was diagnosed with a rare autoimmune disorder.

The company was previously the subject of controversy.

The cloud-based medical record firm launched in 2011 after officials in Hardee County, Florida awarded a $2.6 million job-development grant to its predecessor, LifeSync Technology.

Public records list Gleason as a witness on paperwork for the grant. LifeSync Technology later operated under the names Continuum Labs and then CareSync.

A 2013 Florida state auditor general report criticized the process through which the grant was awarded, finding that the company "had not been sufficiently determined to be financially responsible and fully capable of fulfilling its obligations under the grant."

"The 2.6 million dollars didn't bring any economic benefit to Hardee county," according to the report.

That year, a Hardee county grand jury report criticized local development officials as awarding the grant without sufficient review beforehand, or monitoring afterward. "There is much to be learned from the CareSync project and much incentive to not let this process repeat itself in the same way in the future," the report said.

No charges were filed.

In 2020, Gleason was named as a defendant in a creditor's action against CareSync brought in Hillsborough County, Florida.

She was not a major part of the creditor's suit. Court papers claim that she once broke her leg and drank beer while using a scooter in the office; Bond told BI the detail was bunk.

The company and its insurer ultimately paid $1.4 million to settle the case. Gleason, who was paid over $200,000 a year at CareSync, waived her claim to over $100,000 in severance as part of the deal, court papers show.

Attorneys for both sides did not return requests for comment left by email and phone.

Gleason graduated from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville in 1993, according to a review of her LinkedIn profile. She worked as a data cruncher for the United States Digital Service from October 2018 until December 2021.

Gleason was one of five federal specialists who marshaled the coronavirus data stream from labs and hospitals during 2020 and 2021, helping create reports and databases relied on by state officials and the public.

"I got to work beside her every day for almost a year," Gleason's then-boss, Dr. Deborah Birx, the former White House coronavirus response coordinator, recently told CNN.

Birx called Gleason a "really competent, hardworking, focused woman who understands the value of data."

After stints in the private sector, Gleason was working for United States Digital Service again, now rebranded the White House DOGE office, when she was tapped for the DOGE acting administrator job.

Gleason is apolitical and unflappable, and will hold up well in the high-pressure, controversial new job, Bond told BI, predicting that she would "crush it."

"She's extraordinarily calm under pressure," he said.

"She was right under Dr. Birx during COVID, and I think that's where she earned her battle stripes," making the slides that Birx presented to the public, he said.

"She's typically behind the scenes, but everybody goes to her."

• A US-Ukraine rare-earth-minerals deal is off for now.
• The White House said on Friday that the expected agreement remained unsigned.
• Volodymyr Zelenskyy's visit devolved into an Oval Office shouting match.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Friday abruptly left the White House without signing a rare-earth-minerals deal after negotiations blew up following an Oval Office clash.

"He disrespected the United States of America in its cherished Oval Office," President Donald Trump posted on Truth Social, his social media platform. "He can come back when he is ready for Peace."

In a tense scene in the Oval Office, Trump and Vice President JD Vance criticized Zelenskyy in front of reporters. Vance took exception to Zelenskyy's past media appearances and argued that the Ukrainian leader didn't express enough gratitude.

"I think it's disrespectful for you to come to the Oval Office to try to litigate this in front of the American media," Vance said, later adding, "In this entire meeting, have you said thank you?"

Zelenskyy said he was reluctant to trust Russian President Vladimir because of the Russian leader's previous disregard of international agreements.

Trump told Zelenskyy he was in no position to leverage the US.

"The problem is I've empowered you to be a tough guy," Trump said. "And I don't think you'd be a tough guy without the United States. And your people are very brave, but you're either going to make a deal or we're out. And if we're out, you'll fight it out."

A White House spokesperson confirmed that the agreement remained unsigned shortly after Zelenskyy left the grounds.

Later in the afternoon, Zelenskyy posted a message that contained "thank you" four times in three sentences. He also canceled a planned appearance at the Hudson Institute, a conservative think tank.

"Thank you America, thank you for your support, thank you for this visit," Zelenskyy wrote on X. "Thank you @POTUS, Congress, and the American people. Ukraine needs just and lasting peace, and we are working exactly for that."

Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, a Trump ally who has frequently visited Ukraine, said he wasn't sure the deal could be salvaged.

"I don't know what's going to happen next," Graham told Fox News. "I don't know if you can repair the damage."

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent had traveled to Ukraine to broker a deal that would give the US a financial stake in Ukraine's future. Trump has said he also wants to recoup the $174 billion Congress has appropriated for Ukraine since Russia's 2022 invasion.

Experts estimate that the US would most likely net far less than the $500 billion figure Trump has cited when discussing the deal. (Trump has also said the US has given Ukraine far more aid than it actually has, and most US aid to the country has been spent inside the US to replenish the nation's weapons stockpiles.)

Trump has sought to broker an end to the Russia-Ukraine war. Zelenskyy has pushed for US security guarantees to be part of any mineral deal, hoping to deter Putin from future aggression.

Watch the raw video here:

• House Republicans passed a budget plan that could include big cuts to Medicaid.
• Medicaid covers over 72 million Americans, with significant reliance in states like California.
• Mike Johnson said Republicans are focused on "rooting out fraud, waste, and abuse" within Medicaid.

Congressional Republicans are hotly debating their budget plans, and Medicaid cuts may be on the table. It could affect Americans across the country.

The committee that oversees Medicaid's budget aims to cut $880 billion over a decade as part of the House's narrowly passed budget outline. The math points to those cuts including Medicaid, since it and Medicare —which the Trump administration said it would not cut — make up the overwhelming majority of that committee's budget.

In states such as New Mexico, California, and New York, over a third of residents receive Medicaid, per a Business Insider analysis of Medicaid enrollment data from October 2024 and Census Bureau population estimates from July 2024. The analysis found that about 23.3% of all Americans receive Medicaid or the Children's Health Insurance Program, which is for children in families who make too much to qualify for Medicaid.

This map shows the percentage of each state's residents who received coverage for Medicaid or CHIP.

Areas with higher percentages of Medicaid recipients included the West, Southwest, and Northeast, while parts of the Midwest and South relied less on Medicaid. Utah was least reliant at 9.7%, followed by Wyoming at 10.8%.

As of October, Medicaid provides health and long-term care coverage to over 72 million Americans of all ages, predominantly those with low incomes and few other resources. Another 7.2 million children under age 18 receive payments from CHIP. Medicaid is financed by federal and state governments.

House Speaker Mike Johnson has argued that the budget plan doesn't explicitly call for Medicaid cuts.

Over the last few months, some Republican leaders have proposed per-capita caps on Medicaid, which would fix federal funding amounts per enrollee. A House Budget Committee proposal estimated this move could save up to $900 billion. Others have backed a proposal to install a Medicaid work requirement.

Tuesday's House vote is only the first step in a long process. Senate Republicans have competing plans, which, unlike the House's proposal, do not include an extension of Trump's 2017 tax law or new proposals like ending taxes on tips. Both sides will need to reconcile their blueprints before they can move forward.

Most states have expanded their Medicaid coverage for those making under a given income threshold — for individuals, about $21,600 a year — an expansion included in the 2010 Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare.

Before the vote, Johnson said Republicans are focused on "rooting out fraud, waste, and abuse" within Medicaid. On Tuesday, he declined to tell reporters that House Republicans would not cut the program, arguing that making sure "illegal aliens" are not receiving Medicaid and eliminating other unspecified fraud will help the GOP save money.

"Medicaid is hugely problematic because it has a lot of fraud, waste, and abuse," Johnson told reporters at the Capitol.

People in the US illegally are not eligible for Medicaid. Hospitals can be reimbursed for emergency care if a patient, regardless of their immigration status, is otherwise eligible for Medicaid. According to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, $27 billion total was spent on emergency Medicaid for non-citizens from fiscal year 2017 through 2023.

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• Elon Musk said on Wednesday that DOGE "accidentally" cut Ebola prevention funding.
• The apparent error occurred as DOGE implemented cuts to USAID.
• Musk said that DOGE "won't be perfect."

To make his point that the White House DOGE office wouldn't be perfect, Elon Musk said on Wednesday that that staffers briefly cut Ebola prevention funding while an outbreak raged in Uganda.

"I should say also, we will make mistakes. We won't be perfect," Musk told President Donald Trump's cabinet. "When we make mistakes, we'll fix it very quickly. So, for example, with USAID, one of the things we accidentally canceled very briefly was Ebola prevention."

Trump had asked Musk to speak about DOGE's efforts during the first cabinet meeting of his second term.

Musk said "there was no interruption" in Ebola prevention. He said DOGE needs to move "very quickly" to stay on track to achieve its goal of cutting at least $1 trillion.

"I think we all want Ebola prevention," he said.

This is not the first time Musk has said DOGE may make mistakes. During a previous appearance with Trump in the Oval Office, Musk said he "would not bat 1,000." DOGE has also edited or even removed examples from its "wall of receipts" of spending cuts after reports raised questions about its accuracy. In one instance, DOGE claimed to have canceled a contract worth $8 billion. The contract was actually for $8 million.

On Tuesday, the White House revealed that Amy Gleason, a US Digital Digital Service employee during Trump's first term, is leading DOGE on an interim basis. Musk remains closely linked to DOGE, as evident by Trump's decision to have him speak during a cabinet meeting.

There is an ongoing Ebola outbreak.

Uganda's health ministry official declared on January 29 that there was an Ebola outbreak linked to the Sudan virus. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued a travel notice earlier this month, restating that no US Ebola cases have been reported. The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) conducted a number of health-related programs around the world.

Musk previously said that USAID was put "through the wood chipper." It is now being reorganized under the State Department. A State Department spokesperson did not immediately respond to Business Insider's request for comment.

Rep. Don Beyer of Virginia, a Democrat, criticized Musk's apparent admittance of the oversight.

"An average person who did something as incompetent as 'accidentally cancelling Ebola prevention' wouldn't be applauded, they'd be fired," Beyer wrote on X. "Musk is failing up in this administration because he didn't earn his job, he bought it. It's corrupt, and risks Americans' health and safety."

• The White House released the name of the DOGE office's acting administrator.
• It's Amy Gleason, a former nurse who has spent decades in the medical records space.
• For weeks, it was unclear who, if anyone, occupied the position.

The White House on Tuesday named Amy Gleason as the acting administrator of the White House DOGE office following weeks of confusion over who was leading the agency.

A White House official confirmed Gleason's role to Business Insider. As of early Tuesday evening, Gleason hadn't publicly commented on the appointment, and her account on X was private. In her bio, she identified herself as formerly part of the "COVID response with US Digital Service."

Representatives for the White House, Elon Musk, DOGE, and Gleason didn't respond to requests for comment from BI.

Gleason worked in multiple roles at the United States Digital Service, the Obama-era agency that President Donald Trump rebranded as the US DOGE Service, according to her LinkedIn. She served as a digital services expert at the agency from October 2018 to December 2021 and as a senior advisor starting in January 2025, per the LinkedIn page.

Jonathan Kamens, a former USDS engineer who was fired on February 14, and a current USDS employee both told BI that Gleason rejoined the agency between the election and the inauguration.

"From our view, she has been as surprised by things coming out of DOGE as the rest of us," the current employee said. They said they didn't see her as "part of Musk's crew."

Kamens said he was told Gleason was there to help with the transition to the second Trump administration.

"I would not presume that just because Amy Gleason was named as the DOGE administrator, necessarily means she's been acting as the administrator this whole time," another former USDS employee told BI. "I also would not presume that she's the one who holds the real power over DOGE, just because she was officially named to this role."

Gleason's background stretches into the private sector, too, and even bumps up against the profiles of other White House DOGE office staffers, according to her LinkedIn profile. The page indicates that Gleason worked as the chief product officer at Russell Street Ventures between November 2021 and December 2024, a health industry investment firm founded by Brad Smith, whom BI previously identified as a DOGE employee. Kendall Lindemann, whom BI also identified as working for the DOGE effort, also worked at Russell Street Ventures.

Gleason's path has differed from some of the private sector titans and young engineers involved in the White House DOGE Office, though. She started out as a nurse, according to a 2022 podcast appearance with the company Syllable. Gleason also said on the podcast she previously cofounded a company to help patients with a chronic disease, sparked by the experience of coordinating care after her daughter was diagnosed with a rare illness.

"The rest of my career is mainly electronic medical records all the way back to starting as an ER nurse," Gleason said on the podcast.

Gleason's LinkedIn says she's worked in senior positions at a variety of healthcare companies since the late 1990s.

The Obama White House honored Gleason as a "Champion of Change" for her work in the medical records space.

Though Elon Musk is closely associated with the DOGE office, the White House previously said in a court filing that he isn't the group's leader and instead serves as a senior advisor to Trump. BI previously reported that Musk's title was written as "unlisted" in a White House record.

For weeks, the White House had declined to say whether there was a DOGE administrator — let alone name one. Trump created the position on Inauguration Day. He had previously said Musk would lead the DOGE office, though Musk was never named to the position.

On Tuesday, reporters repeatedly pressed the White House press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, onthe DOGE administrator's identity. After her briefing concluded, Semafor first reported Gleason's role.

Trump is set to hold his first formal cabinet meeting on Wednesday, where Leavitt said he'd be discussing the DOGE office's work.

Musk is expected to be in attendance. It's unclear whether Gleason will be too.

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Jack Newsham contributed to this report.

• A White House official told Business Insider Amy Gleason is the acting DOGE administrator.
• Donald Trump tapped Elon Musk to lead DOGE.
• White House officials have previously said Musk is not the DOGE administrator.

A White House official on Tuesday said that a former US Digital Service official is serving as the acting head of DOGE.

In a statement to Business Insider, a White House official said that Amy Gleason is the acting DOGE administrator, appearing to put to rest a question that has hung over the White House's DOGE office: Who is in charge?

President Donald Trump's Inauguration Day executive order created a DOGE administrator to lead the rebranded US Digital Service. Under penalty of perjury, a White House official recently said in a court filing that Elon Musk was not the administrator nor a DOGE employee. It remains unclear whether there is a DOGE administrator.

Earlier on Tuesday, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, refused to name the DOGE administrator during a back-and-forth with reporters. She also said Musk wasn't the administrator.

"No, Elon Musk is a special government employee," Leavitt said when pressed on the world's richest man's status.

"There are career officials at DOGE. There are political appointees at DOGE. I'm not going to reveal the name of that individual from this podium," she said. "I'm happy to follow up and provide that to you. But we have been incredibly transparent about the way DOGE has been working."

Leavitt also said Trump had "asked Elon Musk to oversee DOGE."

Business Insider followed up with the White House and a DOGE spokesperson. They did not immediately respond to our questions.

The White House has said Musk is a special government employee, a category of federal worker created to bring officials with expertise into the civil service part time. Musk is also a senior advisor to the president.

Trump and Musk have blurred the extent of Musk's power. BI previously reported that Musk's job title was "unlisted."

Musk recently hosted a DOGE update with members of Congress on X, the social media platform he also owns. Trump has told reporters he asked Musk which type of people DOGE had hired. In an appearance at the Conservative Political Action Conference last week, Musk wielded a chainsaw onstage. His talk was titled "DOGE update."

During the briefing, Leavitt told reporters that Musk would attend Trump's first Cabinet meeting on Wednesday.

"Elon will be in attendance tomorrow just to talk about DOGE's efforts and how all the Cabinet secretaries are identifying waste, fraud, and abuse at their respective agencies," Leavitt said.

It's not just journalists asking about the position. On Monday, US District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly asked a Justice Department attorney if there was a DOGE administrator.

"I don't know the answer to that," the counsel responded, according to Lawfare.

Trump's executive order dictates that the administrator answers to the White House chief of staff, Susie Wiles. Twenty-one civil service employees who resigned en masse on Tuesday addressed their letter to Wiles.

In a footnote, they wrote that they addressed their letter to Wiles because "no one has been identified internally as the official Administrator or leader of the United States DOGE Service."

February 25, 2025: This story has been updated to include Gleason's name.

• 21 employees from the agency rebranded the US DOGE Service resigned on Tuesday.
• The signatories said in a joint letter that they refuse to "jeopardize Americans' sensitive data."
• Elon Musk and a spokeswoman for the White House DOGE Office responded to the resignations on X.

Twenty-one civil service employees resigned from the agency that was rebranded the United States DOGE Service on Tuesday, protesting the White House DOGE office's actions.

"We will not use our skills as technologists to compromise core government systems, jeopardize Americans' sensitive data, or dismantle critical public services," the employees wrote in their public resignation letter directed to White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles. "We will not lend our expertise to carry out or legitimize DOGE's actions."

The letter, dated February 25, was taken down on Tuesday afternoon without an explanation, though the resignations were not publicly rescinded.

On Inauguration Day, President Donald Trump formally turned the Obama-era United States Digital Services into the White House DOGE office. Trump previously appointed Elon Musk to co-lead the effort, but a top White House official recently declared in a legal filing that Musk is not leading DOGE and is instead a senior advisor to Trump.

In their letter, the now-former employees had said that DOGE representatives "began integrating us into their efforts," which the signatories believe were inconsistent with their goals as civil servants.

Jonathan Kamens, a former USDS engineer who was fired on February 14, told BI that he thinks more federal employees are beginning to push back against the White House DOGE office's most recent efforts.

"We are seeing more resistance, we are seeing more overt resistance," he said the day before the group resignation.

Musk took notice of the employees' collective actions and responded on X, writing, "These were Dem political holdovers who refused to return to the office. They would have been fired had they not resigned."

Katie Miller, a spokesperson for the White House DOGE office, also took to X to respond: "These were full remote workers who hung Trans flags from their workplaces."

Harrison Fields, principal deputy press secretary at the White House, issued a statement to BI.

"DOGE has effectively become part of the USDS as a component of the White House, and any leftover career bureaucrats who don't align with the President or DOGE are neither advised nor welcomed to be a part of this never-before-seen mission to make the government more efficient," he said.

The group resignation comes one day after federal employees faced a deadline to list their productivity from the past week. Agencies offered conflicting guidelines on whether or how to respond to the request, and some employees told BI that the experience bred confusion and stress.

Representatives for Trump, Musk, and the White House DOGE office did not respond to BI's request for comment.

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• The Office of Personnel Management asked federal workers to email a list of their accomplishments over the past week.
• A number of federal agencies told their employees that they were not required to respond.
• Some agencies said a response is voluntary, while others said they would respond on employees' behalf.

Some federal agencies' response to Elon Musk's worker productivity email: thanks, but no thanks.

A growing number of agencies are telling their workers that they are not required to respond to the email sent from the Office of Personnel Management over the weekend asking for a list of accomplishments from the past week.

According to emails reviewed by Business Insider, some of the agencies told employees that they would respond to OPM on their behalf. Others said a response is voluntary, and failure to respond will not result in any penalties.

In a post on X on Saturday, Musk said that "failure to respond will be taken as a resignation," but the initial email didn't make the same claim. This comes after a tumultuous past few weeks for federal workers; a number of agencies terminated thousands of employees last week following directions from President Donald Trump and Musk's DOGE to slash government waste.

These are the federal agencies BI has verified that have so far told their workers that they do not need to respond to OPM's email ahead of the 11:59 p.m. Eastern time deadline on Monday night.

Department of Defense

The Department of Defense posted on X on Sunday that its employees should "pause any response" to the OPM's email.

"The Department of Defense is responsible for reviewing the performance of its personnel and it will conduct any review in accordance with its own procedures," the statement said.

Social Security Administration

On Sunday, the Social Security Administration sent an email to its employees telling them that the OPM email is "a legitimate assignment" and those who received it were required to respond.

However, the agency followed up on Monday afternoon telling employees that any response is "voluntary."

"Non-responses are not considered a resignation," the email said.

NASA

NASA emailed its employees on Monday afternoon saying, "You are not required to respond, and there is no impact on your employment with the agency if you choose not to respond."

The agency said it would respond on employees' behalf and that "employees should continue to feel empowered to report their activities and accomplishments" to their supervisors.

Department of Justice

Jolene Ann Lauria, acting assistant attorney general for administration at the DOJ, emailed employees on Monday: "Due to the confidential and sensitive nature of the Department's work, DOJ employees do not need to respond to the email from OPM."

Bloomberg Law reported that this was a reversal of Lauria's earlier guidance that instructed employees to respond to the email.

Department of Agriculture

The USDA told employees on Monday afternoon that responding to the email is "voluntary," and that "there is no penalty for not responding to the request."

The USDA guidance said that those who do choose to respond should refrain from submitting any sensitive or confidential information.

State Department

The State Department told employees that it would respond on behalf of the agency.

"No employee is obligated to report their activities outside of their Department chain of command," the department said.

Department of Energy

The Department of Energy emailed its employees on Sunday night, instructing them to "pause" any responses to the OPM email.

"The Department of Energy is responsible for reviewing the performance of its personnel and will conduct any review in accordance with its own procedures," the department said. "When and if required, the Department will provide a coordinated response to the OPM email."

Department of Health and Human Services

The Department of Health and Human Services told employees that based on discussions with OPM officials, they did not need to respond to the initial email.

"OPM has now rescinded that mandatory requirement," HHS said in an email. "There is no HHS expectation that HHS employees respond to OPM and there is no impact to your employment with the agency if you choose not to respond."

The email said that those who do respond should do so "at a high level of generality" and protect sensitive information. They should "assume that what you write will be read by malign foreign actors and tailor your response accordingly."

Are you a federal worker? Got a tip? Contact these reporters securely on Signal at the usernames asheffey.97 or alicetecotzky.05, or email them at [email protected] or [email protected].

• Donald Trump's political operation is cashing in on DOGE.
• Trump's group is selling official Trump DOGE membership cards.
• Some merchandise also features Elon Musk.

President Donald Trump's political operation is selling DOGE membership cards, part of an effort to capitalize on the popularity of the White House DOGE office and Elon Musk's role in it.

"Today, I'm announcing that YOU can become an OFFICIAL TRUMP DOGE MEMBER!" Trump's political operation wrote in an email to supporters Sunday night.

For a minimum $47 donation, supporters can get their name on a black metal card that says "Trump DOGE member." If that is too pricy, there are also Trump DOGE T-shirts. One shirt for $40 depicts Trump and Musk. Another for $28 shows Trump, Musk, and the Shiba Inu dog, which inspired the original doge meme.

The White House's efficiency initiative is one of the most visible parts of Trump's second term.

DOGE has been the subject of numerous lawsuits from federal workers, Democratic state attorneys general, and good government groups. Trump initially appointed Musk to co-lead the "Department of Government Efficiency," though a top White House official recently declared in a legal filing that Musk is not the DOGE administrator. Musk is a senior White House advisor and remains closely linked to DOGE.

Over the weekend, Musk upended federal agencies by claiming that employees would be fired if they did not respond to an email asking, "What did you do last week?" A number of departments have since told federal workers to pause potential responses ahead of the midnight deadline.

Musk spent over $290 million on the 2024 election to elect Trump. Trump and his allies have featured Musk prominently. Trump's emails to supporters often seize on the latest DOGE headline, including Democratic lawmakers' calls for Trump to rein in the world's richest man.

Trump is term-limited out of the White House, but his political operation has remained active. According to Axios, it plans on using the money to back candidates ahead of the 2026 midterm elections. Republicans hold narrow majorities in Congress. Historically, incumbent presidents have lost seats in both chambers, though the GOP currently has a much easier path to retaining control of the US Senate.

Trump could also use his war chest to remain active in the GOP once he leaves office in 2029.

• DOGE says it's saved $55 billion in total, documenting some of that on a "wall of receipts" on its website.
• On Tuesday, its website showed $16.5 billion in savings, much of that canceled contracts.
• By Thursday, it had lowered the contract savings amount saved to $7.2 billion, mainly due to an $8 billion error.

The White House Department of Government Efficiency office linked to Elon Musk has lowered its expected savings from canceled federal contracts by about $9.3 billion in the last two days.

A Business Insider review of the "wall of receipts" on doge.gov found that Elon Musk's team has lowered its claimed savings from $16.5 billion on Tuesday to $7.2 billion as of Thursday.

A few changed entries seem to account for nearly all of the difference. Most notably, DOGE initially claimed to have canceled a $8 billion contract with the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency. The contract was for $8 million. DOGE wrote in a post on X that "the agency contracting officer mistakenly" entered the wrong amount.

Additionally, DOGE initially claimed to save about $2 billion by canceling a trio of USAID deals worth $655 million each. Now, that contract only appears once — amounting to another $1.3 billion reduction.

According to a White House official, "DOGE reports both the 'ceiling value' and the 'savings value'" and calculates savings by subtracting already obligated funds from a contract's total award value. The official told BI this method is "actually conservative because DOGE does not take credit for recovered obligated funds" and "does not assume any administrative savings in its calculations."

Musk told reporters last week that sometimes he'll get things incorrect.

"Nobody's going to bat a thousand," Musk said during an appearance alongside Trump in the Oval Office. "We will make mistakes. But we'll act quickly to correct any mistakes."

DOGE's total estimated savings are $55 billion, according to the summary on its site, which it called a combination of "fraud detection/deletion, contract/lease cancellations, contract/lease renegotiations, asset sales, grant cancellations, workforce reductions, programmatic changes, and regulatory savings."

However, so far DOGE's website doesn't include any estimates for savings from anything except "contract/lease cancellations."

Musk told Fox News host Sean Hannity during a joint interview with the president that DOGE aims to cut at least $1 trillion from the federal deficit.

• Donald Trump told reporters that someone would "make sure" gold is still in Fort Knox.
• The Treasury Department already audits the stockpile every year.
• "All the gold is there," Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said.

President Donald Trump and Elon Musk want to know if the American people have been fooled about the amount of gold that remains at Fort Knox.

"We're going to go to Fort Knox, the fabled Fort Knox, to make sure the gold is there," Trump told reporters Wednesday while aboard Air Force One.

Musk wrote multiple posts on X earlier this week before Trump broached auditing the famed base, which houses the US Treasury's bullion reserves.

"It would be cool to do a live video walkthrough of Fort Knox!" Musk wrote in a reply to far-right radio host Alex Jones on February 17. Later that day, he again posted about the base.

"Who is confirming that gold wasn't stolen from Fort Knox?" Musk wrote. "Maybe it's there, maybe it's not."

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said that the department already audits the stockpile every year.

"I don't have any plans to go to Kentucky," Bessent told Bloomberg TV on Thursday. "I can tell the American people on camera right now, there was a report, September 30th, 2024, all the the gold is there. Any US senator who wants to come and visit it can arrange a visit through our office."

According to the US Mint, 147.3 million ounces, about half of the Treasury's reserves, are stored at Fort Knox. The website further states that there hasn't been a removal of large amounts of gold in years.

"The only gold removed has been very small quantities used to test the purity of gold during regularly scheduled audits," the site reads. "Except for these samples, no gold has been transferred to or from the Depository for many years."

It's unclear where Trump and Musk think the gold might have gone. Over the years, there have been various conspiracy theories that the gold reserves have been depleted.

When asked what may have happened to the gold, Trump didn't get into specifics.

"If the gold isn't there, we're going to be very upset," the president said.

Fort Knox's reserves are closed to the public. It remains to be seen if Musk's Department of Government Efficiency will get a peak.

It's unlikely such an examination would be broadcast.

"Only a few know the actual structure and content of the facility, and no one person knows all the procedures to open the vault," the US Mint site reads.

• President Donald Trump endorsed a House GOP budget plan Wednesday.
• Republicans' outline would likely lead to billions in cuts to Medicaid, which insures 70 million.
• In an interview alongside Elon Musk that aired Tuesday night, Trump said he wouldn't touch Medicaid.

President Donald Trump on Wednesday endorsed a House Republican budget plan that could cut billions from Medicaid, just hours after pledging that the healthcare program for millions of disabled and low-income Americans would not be touched.

Republican leaders have called for massive spending cuts to finance trillions in tax cuts and other provisions. House conservatives won a major concession last week, passing a budget blueprint that ties the size of the proposed tax cuts to the size of spending cuts. If Republicans don't cut enough spending, their outline would likely not allow for all of Trump's promises, including ending taxes on tips and overtime pay.

During an interview alongside his senior advisor Elon Musk, Trump said he would not touch Medicaid. He has pledged not to cut Social Security or Medicare, the largest federal government programs, though his administration has recently targeted Social Security over fraud suspicions.

"Medicare, Medicaid, none of that stuff is going to be touched," Trump told the Fox News host Sean Hannity in an interview that aired on Tuesday night.

Senate Democrats criticized Trump's embrace of the House GOP blueprint.

"Last night, the president said, 'I'm not touching Medicare, Medicaid, the VA," Sen. Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin told reporters at the Capitol. "By this morning, he endorsed the House budget resolution, which paves the way for massive cuts to Medicaid."

Trump previously said he would "love and cherish" Medicaid, which insures over 70 million Americans, according to October data. The federal government covers most of the cost of the program, which was created in the same 1965 law that birthed Medicare, a separate program for Americans 65 and older.

The White House said the Trump administration remains committed to Medicaid while pursuing changes that could alter the program.

"The Trump administration is committed to protecting Medicare and Medicaid while slashing the waste, fraud, and abuse within those programs — reforms that will increase efficiency and improve care for beneficiaries," White House spokesperson Kush Desai said in a statement on Wednesday.

Last week, the House Budget Committee released its budget draft, which outlined about $2 trillion in spending cuts. These included a proposed $880 billion in spending cuts from the House Energy and Commerce Committee, which would extend for a decade.

It's likely these cuts would target Medicaid. The program covers healthcare services for lower-income Americans of all ages, accounting for about $872 billion in spending in 2023.

Some GOP leaders have suggested implementing per-capita caps on Medicaid, which could save up to $900 billion, a House Budget Committee proposal said. Cuts to Medicaid would likely reduce services or prompt a search for other funding methods, which could affect millions of recipients.

Trump's statement comes as congressional Republicans tussle over how to best proceed with the special budget process that allows them to extend Trump's 2017 tax plan, fund stiffer immigration enforcement, and potentially pass a plan for no taxes on tips, all without requiring the support of a single Democratic lawmaker. Known as reconciliation, the process is likely Trump's best avenue to pass the bulk of his domestic agenda, given Republicans' thin majorities in Congress.

Senate Republicans have a competing plan, which does not include tax cuts. Under their proposal, the GOP would return to extending tax cuts and passing additional ones later this year. Senate Republicans were expected to move forward with their proposal before Trump posted Wednesday on Truth Social his praise of the House version of the bill in comparison with the Senate's.

• A recent White House court filing says Elon Musk lacks any "actual or formal authority."
• Musk isn't technically DOGE's leader, and his job title is "unlisted," as BI previously reported.
• A recent email sent to the newly rebranded DOGE agency didn't identify the leader.

Elon Musk is often called the leader of the Department of Government Efficiency. But a recent White House court filing said the assumed leader of DOGE had "no actual or formal authority to make government decisions himself."

"In his role as Senior Advisor to the President, Mr. Musk has no greater authority than other senior White House advisors," Joshua Fisher, the director of the Office of Administration, wrote in the filing. "Like other senior White House advisors, Mr. Musk has no actual or formal authority to make government decisions himself."

Fisher wrote that Musk's position was akin to the senior advisor Anita Dunn's role in President Joe Biden's White House.

Later Tuesday afternoon, Trump told reporters that Musk could be called "whatever you want."

"Elon is to me a patriot," Trump said after signing a series of executive orders at his Mar-a-Lago club in Florida. "You could call him an employee, you could call him a consultant, you could call him whatever you want."

Musk's job title, according to a White House record, is "unlisted," as Business Insider previously reported. When Trump created DOGE via executive order, he incorporated it into the White House by turning the US Digital Service into the US DOGE Service. The executive order said an "administrator" would lead DOGE but didn't identify the person in the role.

Monday's court filing leaves little up for debate about Musk's relationship to DOGE.

"He is not an employee of the US DOGE Service or US DOGE Service Temporary Organization," it said. "Mr. Musk is not the US DOGE Service Administrator."

A return-to-work email sent from an email account called "admin" to USDS employees didn't shed any light on who was leading the commission. The email, a copy of which BI reviewed, notified all staffers that they must begin working in person by April 15 but didn't specify who was leading the rebranded USDS. The "admin" email was signed "US DOGE Service."

Early this month, a White House spokesman told BI that Musk was a special government employee, a title that exempts him from the typical ethics and conflict-of-interest rules that federal workers face. He won't be paid and can't serve for more than 130 days in a year.

Official title — or lack thereof — aside, Musk and DOGE are sending shockwaves throughout the federal government, cutting entire agencies and terminating federal employees.

DOGE's organizational structure carries importance beyond just how Musk and its staffers do their business.

Katie Miller, a spokesperson for DOGE, has said on X that since the group is part of the Executive Office of the President, its records are subject to the Presidential Records Act. By making such a claim, the White House would effectively seal DOGE's records until at least five years after Trump leaves office in 2029.

DOGE is scheduled to complete its work by July 4, 2026, in time for the 250th anniversary of the US's independence.

Representatives for the White House, Musk, and DOGE did not respond to a request for comment from BI.

Jack Newsham contributed reporting.

Do you work at a federal agency? Have a tip about DOGE? Share your experience and thoughts with this reporter at [email protected] or via Signal at alicetecotzky.05.

• Thousands of federal workers have been fired across multiple federal agencies.
• The layoffs target probationary workers, who typically have been in a role for less than two years.
• It comes as the Trump administration targets spending in the federal government.

Mass layoffs swept through federal agencies on this week, as the Trump administration's efforts to shrink the federal workforce led to thousands of workers being terminated.

Agencies from the Office of Personnel Management to the US Forest Service notified probationary employees on Thursday of their termination, multiple sources inside each of those agencies told Business Insider.

Workers classified as "probationary" typically have less than two years of experience in their roles. The layoffs came one day after a federal judge ruled that the Trump administration's buyout offer could proceed.

David Rice, a probationary employee at the Department of Energy, received his termination notice — reviewed by BI — on Thursday night. He was hired in September after serving in the Army for 25 years, and he said that had he not checked his email before he was locked out of the system, he never would have known.

"I would have tried to log in on Tuesday morning and found out that I can't log in," Rice said. "I never would even been notified because no one's called me. No one's told me anything other than just sending me an email after hours."

Here's a look at which agencies have been affected.

Forest Service

About 3,400 probationary workers at Forest Service were fired on Thursday, Dennis Lapcewich, the vice president of the Forest Service Council of the National Federation of Federal Employees union, told BI.

The USFS employs about 35,000 people.

A USFS spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment.

"It's like watching the enemy advance and seeing that the next town over just got razed," a National Park Service employee told BI.

A USFS employee who has worked in the federal government for six years told BI that he's most worried about the long-term effects of the cuts on those who rely on the forest service's resources.

"I worry about myself personally, but I'm a public servant. I care about the public. I took an oath to the Constitution," he said. Though he's not a probationary employee and wasn't fired, he said he learned on a group video call on Thursday about the terminations and that some senior leadership in the Washington office would be immediately reassigned.

"These are the next generation of public servants. Obviously, with anything in life, you want to have some type of succession plan. We're missing out on building the succession plan," he told BI.

Office of Personnel Management (OPM)

OPM, which is essentially the US government's HR department and oversees the retirement accounts for about 2.8 million active federal workers, fired dozens of probationary employees on Thursday.

On the call, which took place around 2:40 PM ET, an OPM official announced that affected employees had until 3 PM ET —approximately 20 minutes — to gather their belongings before their access to the office and IT systems would be terminated. BI reviewed a recording of the call.

"Professionalism my ass," one probationary employee who was laid off told BI over text. "Definitely wasn't treated with dignity."

Department of Education and Small Business Administration

Termination notices were also sent to probationary workers at the Department of Education and Small Business Administration on Tuesday and Wednesday, according to letters that were viewed by BI.

A letter sent to one Department of Education employee whose identity was verified by Business Insider said the agency found that the worker did not demonstrate their employment would be "in the public interest."

At least 60 probationary employees with the Department of Education received the letters or received phone calls from management, union officials told BI.

An SBA spokesperson did not immediately respond to request for comment from BI. A representative from the Department of Education declined to comment to BI.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

A probationary employee at the CDC told BI that she and her colleagues spent much of Friday anxiously waiting to hear if they were being fired. At 4:00 p.m. ET that day, she joined a group video call, which BI reviewed an audio recording of. On the call, senior leadership said that around 750 probationary employees would be terminated that day. Employees were not allowed to ask questions.

The speaker said they learned of the terminations this morning and that those impacted would receive their termination notices from the Health and Human Services Department today. Some temporary appointment employees might also be laid off, the speaker said on the call. Senior leadership said they'd received a list of impacted workers and could flag any "errors" to HHS

"If an individual receives those notifications, their access to their government systems here at the agency as well as their badges — they're going to be turned off today once those notices go out," the speaker said on the video call.

As of 15 minutes after the call, neither the employee nor any of the colleagues they spoke to had received a termination notice, and their boss didn't know if they were on the list of impacted workers.

Veterans Affairs

The Department of Veterans Affairs announced the termination of 1,000 employees on Thursday.

The VA press release said that it dismissed "non-bargaining unit probationary employees" who had served two years or less in their appointments, and the agency estimated the terminations would save it more than $98 million per year.

"This was a tough decision, but ultimately it's the right call to better support the Veterans, families, caregivers, and survivors the department exists to serve," VA Secretary Doug Collins said in a statement.

"To be perfectly clear," Collins said, "these moves will not negatively impact VA healthcare, benefits, or beneficiaries. In the coming weeks and months, VA will be announcing plans to put these resources to work helping veterans, their families, caregivers, and survivors."

Consumer Financial Protection Bureau

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau terminated dozens of probationary employees on Tuesday, according to two sources familiar with the matter.

The termination notice, reviewed by BI, stated: "The Agency finds that you are not fit for continued employment because your ability, knowledge, and skills do not fit the Agency's current needs."

The agency also terminated temporary staff, known as term employees, who are on contracts that are set to last between two and four years, another source told BI.

An analyst on a two-year fellowship that began in June 2023 said she was informed of her firing in an email to her personal email address at around 7 pm on Thursday. By the time she got the termination letter, she'd already been locked out of her work email.

"I was at a party, and I found out through my coworkers first," she said.

The ex-employee's contract was set to end in June of this year, and she was exploring opportunities to stay at the agency. Now, she's most concerned with making sure she has health insurance.

"I have upcoming appointments, and I'm thinking, do I have to reschedule them? Do I have to schedule certain things earlier that aren't recommended by my doctor?" she said.

It's not clear how long terminated employees will be able to keep their health insurance.

The terminations follow CFPB's acting director, Russell Vought, directing all employees at the agency to stop working and obtain written permission to perform any of their duties.

Environmental Protection Agency

The Environmental Protection Agency on Friday said it had laid off roughly 400 federal employees.

"EPA has terminated 388 probationary employees after a thorough review of agency functions in accordance with President Trump's executive orders. EPA has followed standard protocols and procedures, ensuring impacted staff received notification of their status," the agency said in a statement. "President Trump was elected with a mandate to create a more effective and efficient federal government that serves all Americans, and we are doing just that."

The EPA employs roughly 15,000 people, according to its 2024 budget.

'Fork in the Road' offer in action

The mass layoff of probationary staff occurred one day after a federal judge allowed the administration to continue its deferred resignation program.

Known as the "Fork in the Road" offer, more than 2 million employees were given the choice in January to resign in exchange for pay and benefits until the end of September or remain in their roles without guarantee that they will keep their jobs. Over 75,000 employees took the buyout.

Multiple legal challenges have been raised in response to the flurry of executive orders from the Trump administration.

On February 7, a federal judge temporarily blocked the US Agency for International Development from placing 2,200 employees on paid leave. The block is set to end on Friday at midnight.

Lapcewich, the union representative for the US Forest Service, told BI that legal avenues are being explored in response to the latest layoff of probationary workers.

"All I can tell you is that legal issues are being pursued by union lawyers," he said.

Do you work at a federal agency? Share your experience and thoughts with these reporters at [email protected] and [email protected] or via Signal at alicetecotzky.05 and asheffey.97.

• Elon Musk appeared with President Donald Trump in the Oval Office on Tuesday.
• Musk defended the cuts being made by DOGE as "common sense."
• Musk said Americans are "going to get what they voted for."

Elon Musk appeared alongside President Donald Trump in the Oval Office on Tuesday to defend the cuts being made by the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE.

Musk, who leads DOGE, said the cuts being made by the agency were not "draconian" and that they represented "common sense" changes that would make government more efficient.

Trump and Musk addressed reporters shortly after the president signed an executive order to initiate "large-scale reductions" in the federal workforce and expand DOGE's power to oversee the hiring of career officials by federal agencies.

The executive order said agencies would be required to hire "no more than one employee for every four employees that depart," adding that the cuts and hiring ratio would not apply to roles related to "public safety, immigration enforcement, or law enforcement."

The order also said hiring decisions by agency heads should be made in partnership with a "DOGE Team Lead." It said no vacancies should be filled if the DOGE member decides it's unnecessary unless an agency head determines the position should be filled.

Musk, who was joined by his son X, reiterated his stance that Americans voted for the changes DOGE is making. "They're going to get what they voted for," he said.

"And if you have the rule of the bureaucrat, if the bureaucracy is actually in charge then what meaning does democracy actually have," Musk said. "If the people cannot vote and have their will decided by their elected representatives in the form of the president, and the Senate, and the House then we do not live in a democracy."

Trump questioned why federal judges would seek to block some of DOGE's efforts.

"Now, a judge who is an activist judge wants to try to stop us from doing this," Trump said. "Why would they try to do this? I campaigned on this."

Musk previously wrote on X that a federal judge should be impeached after a ruling temporarily blocked DOGE staff from accessing sensitive Treasury Department files. Vice President JD Vance and leading congressional Republicans have said judges are exceeding their authority by reining in DOGE workers, suggesting that Trump might just simply ignore their rulings.

Reporters in the Oval Office on Tuesday asked Musk repeatedly about DOGE's transparency and how the world's richest man is navigating potential conflicts of interest for his array of companies, which have collectively received billions in federal contracts over the years.

Musk said that DOGE is "as transparent as possible." He pointed to the updates the outfit posts on its official X account. He also said that DOGE posts about its activities on its official government site, though, as of Tuesday afternoon, DOGE.gov contains no new information.

"All of our actions are maximally transparent," Musk said.

A DOGE spokesperson recently declared that DOGE falls under the Presidential Records Act, meaning that Musk and his staff's work could remain private for years to come.

• Federal courts have already trimmed Donald Trump and Elon Musk's sails.
• But judges have surprisingly little recourse if Trump and Musk defy their rulings.
• If anyone is punished for such defiance, it likely won't be the president.

Federal judges keep ruling against President Trump, but they have no real power to enforce their decisions.

"The president has much more force at his disposal than do the courts," Cornell Law School professor Michael Dorf told Business Insider.

For instance, despite a federal court order Monday barring the administration's spending freeze, numerous Environmental Protection Agency programs remain inaccessible to their intended recipients. US District Judge John McConnell said state agencies have a "rightful concern" that they still couldn't access some programs.

Constitutional law experts warn that if a president chose to defy court orders, judges would have limited options. The consequences would likely fall on lower-level officials, not the president himself, said Michael J. Gerhardt, a constitutional law professor at the University of North Carolina School of Law in Chapel Hill.

"At the very least, you would have a possible contempt citation directed at a particular official who has refused to comply with a court order," Gerhardt told BI, "If they indicate they are defying it because of his order, then the court is going to include the president in the citation of contempt."

But enforcing even that would fall to the Justice Department — which answers to Trump.

Gerhardt pointed to recent examples of Trump testing limits: The president fired inspectors general without providing Congress the legally required notification and list of reasons for dismissal.

Some in Trump's orbit have previously said the president should actively confront the judiciary. Long before he was elected last November, Vice President JD Vance argued that Trump should forge ahead with bold actions and dare federal judges who try to stand in his way.

"I think that what Trump should, like, if I was giving him one piece of advice, fire every single mid-level bureaucrat, every civil servant in the administrative state," Vance said in 2021 on a podcast. "Replace them with our people. And when the courts — because you will get taken to court — and when the courts stop you, stand before the country like Andrew Jackson did and say, 'The chief justice has made his ruling. Now let him enforce it.'" (Many historians believe Andrew Jackson likely never said that.)

Presidents have expressed their displeasure with court rulings, but fundamentally ignoring a federal judge is another matter.

Michel Paradis, who teaches constitutional law at Columbia Law School, said that judges are likely to look unfavorably on any deliberate actions to defy their rulings.

"To the extent the administration's actions are viewed as improvisational, erratic, or deliberately pushing previously settled boundaries in a haphazard way, that would make any normal judge — regardless of personal politics — skeptical," Paradis told BI.

Behind the apparent disorder, Gerhardt sees a deliberate strategy.

"Part of Trump's strategy is to manifest that defiance in many ways, so it becomes very difficult to keep track of all of them," he said, "We're not just talking about one thing, it's many things. And I think one reason why there are many things is because it overwhelms the system."

• Elon Musk said the Department of Government Efficiency actions would be "very open and transparent."
• Many questions remain about the extent and details of DOGE's work.
• DOGE.gov contains no information about the group's actions.

Elon Musk said that his Department of Government Efficiency would provide "maximum transparency." If DOGE gets its way, it will be nearly a decade before any of Musk's or his staffers' emails will be publicly available.

On Wednesday evening, DOGE advisor Katie Miller wrote on X that Musk's group is protected by the Presidential Records Act. Under that act, DOGE records would remain sealed until 2034, five years after Trump leaves office and eight years after DOGE is set to disband.

Musk and DOGE likely won't have the last word

Jason R. Baron, Professor at the University of Maryland and former director of litigation at the National Archives and Records Administration, said the established precedence comes down not to a White House decision but to a legal test. If DOGE is found not to be only advising and assisting Trump, then it would fall under the Freedom of Information Act. In that instance, Musk's records could become public almost immediately.

Baron said that Musk's and DOGE's actions thus far, including his role in restructuring the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), show that DOGE will probably lose its fight to keep its work behind closed doors.

"They are acting more like an agency than an entity that solely advises and assists the president," he told Business Insider.

It's likely that a legal fight will soon ensue after pending FOIA requests, including those from BI, are denied.

Musk was once a staunch pro-transparency proponent

Miller's announcement contrasts Musk's previous statements that virtually all government information should be public, with only exceptions for extremely sensitive information.

"The strong bias with respect to government information is to make it available to the public," Musk said at an October 18 event in Pennslyvania.

"Let's be as fully transparent as possible," he added. "Unless it's like a massive risk to the country, we don't want to give like exact instructions on how to make a nuclear bomb or something like that, but unless there is a genuine risk to the country, all information in the government should be public."

At the same pre-election town hall, Musk said the federal government, in general, needed to be far more transparent about its actions. He cited the need for Freedom of Information Act requests. Journalists have complained that getting agencies to comply with such requests often requires the threat of, if not actual, legal action.

On November 3, Musk reiterated his view on X.

"There should be no need for FOIA requests," Musk wrote, quoting a video clip of his town hall comments. "All government data should be default public for maximum transparency."

Miller's statement means DOGE would not be subject to the very information act requests that Musk said should be unnecessary to begin with.

DOGE might face other problems now

Her statement could also create more problems for DOGE, Baron said. By applying the Presidential Records Act to itself, DOGE has now created an obligation to preserve all records and messages from Musk and others in the group.

"An irony here is that by DOGE declaring itself a presidential component of the EOP, this means that it has actually increased its record-keeping obligations under the law and has no discretion to delete or destroy any record it creates or receives related to government business," Baron told BI. "That is because all presidential records are considered permanent records of the US to be eventually transferred to NARA, and this would include all records created on Slack or other messaging systems its staff will use."

Before Trump took power, Musk outlined broad ambitions for DOGE. During an event on October 26, Musk said that DOGE would be "very transparent" about its work. He told Pennsylvanians at the event that DOGE would publicly detail the issues, if any, with how taxpayer money would be spent.

"Anytime the public thinks we are cutting something important or not cutting something wasteful, just let us know!" Musk wrote on X on November 12, replying to a list of suggestions for DOGE.

As of Thursday, DOGE's official website remains a landing page. Occasionally, the group has posted updates on its official X account, which are broad summaries of canceled contracts and leases. In the same November X post, Musk said there would be "a leaderboard for most insanely dumb spending of your tax dollars." No such leaderboard has been announced.

On its X account, DOGE has claimed credit for canceling consulting contracts with government agencies, terminating leases on "underutilized buildings," and cutting funding for diversity, equity, and inclusion operations across the federal government.

However, much of the information about DOGE has come from media leaks, or current or former federal workers who detail what Musk's team is up to via unofficial updates on subreddits.

Musk, however, has so far not fully followed through on applying that same type of transparency to DOGE.

Business Insider recently reported that some DOGE members aren't sharing their last names with federal workers. Scott Amey, the general counsel of the Project on Government Oversight, previously told Business Insider that transparency is about maintaining public trust.

"We can't have officials hiding in the dark and not being accountable for their work," Amey said.

The White House did not respond to Business Insider's request for comment. A DOGE advisor also did not respond to questions.