There is a shocking possibility that Elon Musk could now have your social security number after a controversial move was made by a member of the Trump administration.
Yep, you read that right - the world’s richest man might now be able to access confidential information about every single taxpayer in the country.
This is according to The New York Times and the Wall Street Journal, who revealed that Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has granted Musk full access to the Treasury’s federal payment system.
Advert
This is because President Trump has appointed Musk as the head of the new Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).
While DOGE isn’t actually a governmental department, it has been said that it will act as an outside advisor on federal spending, with Musk claiming that he will make trillions of dollars worth of cuts.
According to The New York Times, David Lebryk, a top civil servant in the Treasury Department, was removed from his position after refusing to give DOGE access.
Advert
It is not yet known what Musk might do with this new power and he has already been making claims about the department on his own social media platform X, formerly Twitter.
The Tesla boss wrote: “The @DOGE team discovered, among other things, that payment approval officers at Treasury were instructed always to approve payments, even to known fraudulent or terrorist groups.
“They literally never denied a payment in their entire career.
“Not even once.”
Advert
Lindsay Owens, who is the executive director of economic think tank Groundwork Collaborative, shared her thoughts on the possible routes Musk could go down.
In an op-ed for MSNBC, she said: “Musk could also get his hands on the ‘Do Not Pay’ system that lists individuals or contractors the government has blacklisted, theoretically granting him control over whom the government does business with.
Advert
“Government contracts have been central to Musk’s $400 billion net worth; his companies have signed billions of dollars’ worth of government contracts.
“He could easily place his rivals on the Do Not Pay list or turn the spigot back on for friends who have been blacklisted.”
Writing for Tusk, political scientist Seth Masket warned: “There are many disturbing aspects of this. But perhaps the most fundamental is that Elon Musk is not a federal employee, nor has he been appointed by the President nor approved by the Senate to have any leadership role in government. The ‘Department of Government Efficiency,’ announced by Trump in a January 20th executive order, is not truly any sort of government department or agency, and even the executive order uses quotes in the title.
“It’s perfectly fine to have a marketing gimmick like this, but DOGE does not have power over established government agencies, and Musk has no role in government. It does not matter that he is an ally of the President. Musk is a private citizen taking control of established government offices. That is not efficiency; that is a coup.”