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Inside DOGE’s Plan to Invade the Treasury—and Throttle USAID

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Summary
Nutrition label

72% Informative

Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency ( DOGE ) had a plan to monitor USAID payments and was preparing to use US Treasury systems to halt them.

DOGE gained access to the most sensitive systems at the Treasury , including the Bureau of Fiscal Service (BFS) The bureau handles most federal payments, to the tune of more than $5 trillion a year .

Court documents shared by the government reveal Elez had access as of February 1 .

DOGE operatives, including Luke Farritor , had gained “super administrator” access to USAID ’s systems, ProPublica reports.

BFS was instructed to focus on flagging, quarantining, and sending several payments to State officials that fell under President Donald Trump 's foreign aid executive order.

The plan was vetted by Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent , who was “comfortable proceeding”.

In late February , USAID said it would cancel 90 percent of the agency’s contracts.

A federal judge said the dismantling of USAID “likely violated the United States Constitution in multiple ways” This week , Trump signed an executive order stating that all federal payments should be consolidated within the Treasury .

VR Score

67

Informative language

63

Neutral language

1

Article tone

formal

Language

English

Language complexity

65

Offensive language

not offensive

Hate speech

not hateful

Attention-grabbing headline

not detected

Known propaganda techniques

not detected

Time-value

short-lived

External references

15

https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/69627648/american-federation-of-teachers-v-scott-bessent/https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/5119996-david-lebryk-retirement-treasury-doge-musk/https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/01/reevaluating-and-realigning-united-states-foreign-aid/https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1886102414194835755https://home.treasury.gov/news/press-releases/sb0009https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/03/protecting-americas-bank-account-against-fraud-waste-and-abuse/https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/69607077/alliance-for-retired-americans-v-bessent/https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/03/us/politics/musk-federal-government.htmlhttps://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2025/02/24/musk-doge-usaid-cuts-dc/https://fiscal.treasury.gov/cars/https://apnews.com/article/trump-usaid-foreign-aid-cuts-6292f48f8d4025bed0bf5c3e9d623c16https://www.propublica.org/article/usaid-trump-musk-destruction-may-have-broken-law?utm_campaign=propublica-sprout&utm_content=1739267415&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebookhttps://techcrunch.com/2025/03/17/doge-staffer-violated-treasury-rules-by-emailing-unencrypted-personal-data/?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAAK23Pxh608UeVP6r6Cx0mJZSGoo9AtScm9diA1l43c3E6PKZQgwhotjFmXOnRoHjy4oMGQ8IH6pZT0DD_dhPKY-ct1A1fY4yxjJUGCUy-GgpqUDgDECFyuCW7WCXGWrB4EZVkCMT7u2M8PNCb4k0i13TdLbnpPIZy4a2v4sLzFUDhttps://www.wsj.com/tech/doge-staffer-resigns-over-racist-posts-d9f11a93https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/judge-dismantling-usaid-unconstitutional-orders-musk-restore-access/story?id=119923733

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