Elon Musk’s DOGE Wants Access to the Treasury’s Payment Systems

Senior Treasury Department official David A. Lebryk is expected to step down from his position as fiscal assistant secretary after more than three decades at the agency. According to The Washington Post, Lebryk’s departure was prompted by a clash with surrogates of billionaire Elon Musk over their attempts to gain access to sensitive department payment systems.

Musk, an unelected barnacle to President Donald Trump, has been installed as head of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) — a rebranded version of the United States Digital Service. Despite lacking congressional approval, DOGE has been tasked by the president with finding ways to slash government spending, bureaucracy, and regulations. DOGE has little legal authority to execute these cuts, and no mandate to meddle with the Treasury, but Musk has been leveraging his entanglement with the president to influence virtually every aspect of Trump’s early administration. 

According to the Post, since shortly after the election, Musk’s DOGE team has been requesting access to payment systems under the Bureau of the Fiscal Service that control the distribution of more than $6 trillion in annual funds. Some of the payments that run through the bureau include Social Security and Medicare benefits, tax refunds, and federal salaries. 

“This is a mechanical job — they pay Social Security benefits, they pay vendors, whatever. It’s not one where there’s a role for nonmechanical things, at least from the career standpoint. Your whole job is to pay the bills as they’re due,” former senior Treasury official Mark Mazur told the Post. “It’s never been used in a way to execute a partisan agenda,” he said, adding: “You have to really put bad intentions in place for that to be the case.”

Musk and DOGE’s reasoning for seeking access to the digital payment system is not clear. But the world’s richest man, who continues to run his companies while advising the president, has had a heavy hand in Trump’s hard-right takeover of the federal government. 

According to a Tuesday report from Wired, Musk has succeeded in placing close allies at the head of the Office of Personnel Management, which recently sent out emails to federal employees encouraging them to resign, offering them months of paid leave in a message similar to the resignation letter sent to Twitter employees after Musk bought the platform. As Rolling Stone reported today, while the administration is pitching the resignation offers as “a nice vacation,” the government could still force the employees to work.

It’s not yet clear why Musk and DOGE are seeking direct access to the Treasury Department’s payment system, but according to the Post, the resignation of Lebryk — a career employee long seen as a nonpartisan actor — is expected to send shockwaves through the department should he step down. 

If his social media posts are to be believed, Musk is getting a thrill out of exerting his newfound power over the government, but some of Trump’s inner circle are frustrated with what they see as abuses of his proximity to the president. 

According to a report from Politico last week, White House staffers were livid after Musk publicly bashed a $500 billion artificial intelligence investment announced by Trump earlier this month. 

“It’s clear he has abused the proximity to the president,” one Trump ally told Politico. “The problem is the president doesn’t have any leverage over him and Elon gives zero fucks.”

When asked about Musk’s criticism of the deal, the president dismissed it as a personal dispute between the Tesla billionaire and another investor, likely OpenAI’s CEO Sam Altman. 

“The government’s not putting up anything. [The investors are] putting up money. They’re very rich people, so I hope they do,” Trump said. “And, I mean, Elon doesn’t like one of those people.”

Is it a blatant conflict of interest to have the world richest man continue to profit off his investments while serving in a uniquely powerful and virtually unchecked role over U.S. policy, regulation, government spending, and investment? Yes. Will Republicans do anything to stop it? Don’t hold your breath.