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'No One Should Have a Copyright on Vance Being Booed': Video From Olympics Blocked on X
The vice president attended the opening ceremony in Milan, where people also protested the presence of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents at the Winter Olympics.
Feb 06, 2026
US Vice President JD Vance was booed at the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games in Italy on Friday, but at least one widely shared video of it was swiftly scrubbed from X, the social media platform controlled by former Trump administration adviser Elon Musk.
Acyn Torabi, or @Acyn, "is an industrialized viral-video machine," the Washington Post explained last year, "grabbing the most eye-catching moments from press conferences and TV news panels, packaging them within seconds into quick highlights, and pushing them to his million followers across X and Bluesky dozens of times a day."
In this case, Torabi, who's now senior digital editor at MeidasTouch, reshared a video of the vice president and his wife, Usha Vance, being booed that was initially posted by filmmaker Mick Gzowski.
However, the video was shortly taken down and replaced with the text, "This media has been disabled in response to a report by the copyright owner."
Noting the development, Torabi, said: "No one should have a copyright on Vance being booed. It belongs to the world."
As of press time, the footage is still circulating online thanks to other X accounts and across other platforms—including a video shared on Bluesky by MeidasTouch editor in chief Ron Filipkowski.
JD Vance loudly booed at the Winter Olympics today.
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— Ron Filipkowski (@ronfilipkowski.bsky.social) February 6, 2026 at 4:25 PM
The Vances' unfriendly welcome came after a Friday protest in the streets of Milan over the presence of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents at the Winter Olympics, with some participants waving "FCK ICE" signs.
The Trump administration has said the ICE agents—whose agency is under fire for its treatment of people across the United States as part of the president's mass deportation agenda—are helping to provide security for the vice president and other US delegation members, including Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
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Calls for Legal Consequences Grow After Musk AI Bot Makes Suggestive Images of Children
"Musk is not cloaked in some federal immunity just because he's off-again/on-again buddies with Trump."
Jan 02, 2026
Elon Musk is facing calls for legal ramifications after Grok, the AI chatbot used on his X social media platform, produced sexually suggestive images of children.
Politico reported on Friday that the Paris prosecutor's office in France is opening an investigation into X after Grok, following prompts from users, created deepfake photographs of both adult women and underage girls that removed their clothes and replaced them with bikinis.
Politico added that the investigation into X over the images will "bolster" an ongoing investigation launched by French prosecutors last year into Grok's dissemination of Holocaust denial propaganda.
France is not the only government putting pressure on Musk, as TechCrunch reported on Friday that India's information technology ministry has given X 72 hours to restrict users' ability to generate content deemed "obscene, pornographic, vulgar, indecent, sexually explicit, pedophilic, or otherwise prohibited under law."
Failure to comply with this order, the ministry warned, could lead to the government ending X's legal immunity from being sued over user-generated content.
In an interview with Indian cable news network CNBC TV18, cybersecurity expert Ritesh Bhatia argued that legal liability for the images generated by Grok should not just lie with the users whose prompts generated them, but with the creators of the chatbot itself.
"When a platform like Grok even allows such prompts to be executed, the responsibility squarely lies with the intermediary," said Bhatia. "Technology is not neutral when it follows harmful commands. If a system can be instructed to violate dignity, the failure is not human behavior alone—it is design, governance, and ethical neglect. Creators of Grok need to take immediate action."
Corey Rayburn Yung, a professor at the University of Kansas School of Law, argued on Bluesky that it was "unprecedented" for a digital platform to give "users a tool to actively create" child sexual abuse material (CSAM).
"There are no other instances of a major company affirmatively facilitating the production of child pornography," Yung emphasized. "Treating this as the inevitable result of generative AI and social media is a harrowing mistake."
Andy Craig, a fellow at the Institute for Humane Studies, said that US states should use their powers to investigate X over Grok's generation of CSAM, given that it is unlikely the federal government under President Donald Trump will do so.
"Every state has its equivalent laws about this stuff," Craig explained. "Musk is not cloaked in some federal immunity just because he's off-again/on-again buddies with Trump."
Grok first gained the ability to generate sexual content this past summer when Musk introduced a new "spicy mode" for the chatbot that was immediately used to generate deepfake nude photos of celebrities.
Weeks before this, Grok began calling itself "MechaHitler" after Musk ordered his team to make tweaks to the chatbot to make it more "politically incorrect."
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Trump Energy Department Blasted for 'Unhinged' Pro-Coal X Post
"The Trump administration wants us all choking, sick, misinformed, and working ourselves to death so that a few from the luxury class can be ever more wealthy," said one science communicator.
Jul 31, 2025
The U.S. Department of Energy came under fire from scientists and other climate action advocates on Thursday for a social media post celebrating coal, as President Donald Trump works to boost the fossil fuel, despite its devastating impacts on public health and the planet.
On X—the platform owned by billionaire Elon Musk, who left the Trump administration earlier this year—the department shared an image of coal with the message, "She's an icon. She's a legend. And she is the moment."
The audio of television host Wendy Williams saying that, while speaking about rapper Lil' Kim, often has been repurposed by social media users. However, the DOE's use of the phrase to glamorize coal sparked swift and intense backlash.
Much of the response came on X, with critics calling the post "some weird shit" and "literally unhinged."
"POV: It's 1885 and you work for the Department of Energy," wrote Jonas Nahm, an associate professor at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies who served on the Council of Economic Advisers under former President Joe Biden.
Democratic members of the U.S. Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources replied: "She is inefficient. She is dirtier air. She is higher energy bills."
Multiple X users pointed to coal workers' pneumoconiosis, a condition that occurs when coal dust is inhaled—including California Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom's press office, which wrote, "She's black lung."
The national Democratic Party account said, "In April, Trump cut a program that gave free black lung screenings to coal miners."
After U.S. District Judge Irene Berger—appointed by former President Barack Obama in West Virginia—issued a preliminary injunction against firings at the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health's Coal Workers Health Surveillance Program, nearly 200 workers who screen coal miners for black lung were reinstated.
Since returning to office in January, Trump has taken various steps to attack the climate and benefit the fossil fuel industry, such as picking fracking CEO Chris Wright to lead DOE, signing coal-friendly executive orders in April and issuing proclamations that provide what the White House called "regulatory relief" for a range of facilities, including coal plants, earlier this month.
"Hard to fathom this coming from the DOE if there were any sane, reasonable, rational, or thoughtful government in control," Graham Lau, an astrobiologist and science communicator, said of the department's pro-coal X post. "The Trump administration wants us all choking, sick, misinformed, and working ourselves to death so that a few from the luxury class can be ever more wealthy. Coal is not the moment. Coal is not going to meet U.S. energy needs. Coal is not the way forward."
Climate and clean energy investor Ramez Naam wrote, "She is the past," and shared the graph below, which features data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration about coal consumption since 1960.
Ryan Katz-Rosene, an associate professor at Canada's University of Ottawa studying contentious climate debates, quipped, "Just the U.S. Department of Energy shilling for one of the most destructive industries known to humanity cool cool cool."
In the early 1900s, coal mining in the United States often killed more than 2,000 workers per year, according to the U.S. Department of Labor's Mine Safety and Health Administration. Over the past decade, it has killed roughly 10 people annually.
It's not just coal miners who are at risk. Research published in the journal Science two years ago found that "from 1999-2020, approximately 460,000 deaths in the Medicare population were attributable to coal electricity-generating emissions."
Genevieve Guenther, founding director of End Climate Silence, said Thursday: "The fact that they're coding coal as female is right in line with the fact that Trump is a rapist. They take everything they want, they think the planet is like a woman they can just exploit, and fuck whomever they hurt in the process."
Several women have accused the president of sexual assault, including journalist E. Jean Carroll, who said he raped her in a Manhattan department store dressing room in the 1990s. Although Trump has denied the allegations, in 2023, a New York City jury found him civilly liable for sexually abusing and defaming Carroll.
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Calling Bolsonaro Trial a 'Witch Hunt,' Trump Threatens Brazil With 50% Tariffs
"The reason why this is happening, not so subtly alluded to by Trump, is because Brazil actually held its right-wing coup leader accountable," said one critic.
Jul 09, 2025
After days of publicly railing against Brazil for the trial of its former leader, Jair Bolsonaro, U.S. President Donald Trump on Wednesday threatened the South American country with a 50% tariff "on any and all Brazilian products sent into the United States."
Far-right Bolsonaro, sometimes called the "Trump of the Tropics," lost Brazil's 2022 presidential election to leftist Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, the recipient of the Wednesday letter that the U.S. president posted on his Truth Social network.
Bolsonaro is now facing a trial for alleged crimes, including an attempted coup d'état, following his reelection loss. The Brazilian's effort to cling to power was called "straight from Donald Trump's playbook," with critics worldwide pointing to the U.S. leader inciting the January 6, 2021 insurrection after his own electoral loss the previous November.
"This is a disgrace, just old-fashioned imperialism. A 50% tariff because Brazil's legal system has defended democracy."
In Truth Social posts on Monday and Tuesday, Trump blasted the trial as a "WITCH HUNT" and an "attack on a Political Opponent" while praising Bolsonaro as a "strong Leader, who truly loved his Country" and a "very tough negotiator on TRADE."
Echoing those posts, Trump wrote to Lula: "The way Brazil has treated former President Bolsonaro, a Highly Respected Leader throughout the World during his Term, including by the United States, is an international disgrace. This Trial should not be taking place. It is a Witch Hunt that should end IMMEDIATELY!"
"Due in part to Brazil's insidious attacks on Free Elections, and the fundamental Free Speech Rights of Americans (as lately illustrated by the Brazilian Supreme Court, which has issued hundreds of SECRET and UNLAWFUL Censorship Orders to U.S. Social Media platforms, threatening them with Millions of Dollars in Fines and Eviction from the Brazilian Social Media market), starting on August 1, 2025, we will charge Brazil a Tariff of 50%," Trump continued.
Justice Alexandre de Moraes, the Brazilian Supreme Court justice overseeing Bolsonaro's case, was also involved in a legal battle that temporarily shut down the social media platform X in Brazil. The network, formerly known as Twitter, is owned by estranged Trump ally Elon Musk, the richest man on Earth. The weekslong suspension of X last year stemmed from the company's refusal to comply with an order to deactivate dozens of accounts accused of spreading disinformation.
Both Trump and Elon have used their power and platforms to go after Brazil. When Musk did it last year I spoke with some Brazilian media experts and journalists who explained that Brazil actually takes online disinformation and threats to their democracy seriously www.nbcnews.com/news/amp/rcn...
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— Kat Tenbarge (@kattenbarge.bsky.social) July 9, 2025 at 5:53 PM
Trump claimed in his letter to Lula that "these Tariffs are necessary to correct the many years of Brazil's Tariff, and Non-Tariff, Policies and Trade Barriers, causing these unsustainable Trade Deficits against the United States. However, The Guardian noted, "the U.S. runs a trade surplus with Brazil, thanks in part to a free-trade agreement expanded in 2020, during Trump's first term."
The newspaper pointed to data on Brazil from the website of United States Trade Representative Jamieson Greer:
U.S. total goods trade with Brazil were an estimated $92 billion in 2024. U.S. goods exports to Brazil in 2024 were $49.7 billion, up 11.3% ($5.0 billion) from 2023. U.S. goods imports from Brazil in 2024 totaled $42.3 billion, up 8.3% ($3.2 billion) from 2023. The U.S. goods trade surplus with Brazil was $7.4 billion in 2024, a 31.9% increase ($1.8 billion) over 2023.
Various journalists and other critics also highlighted the surplus. Michael Reid, a writer and visiting professor at the London School of Economics and Political Science, said on social media: "This is a disgrace, just old-fashioned imperialism. A 50% tariff because Brazil's legal system has defended democracy. And by the way, the U.S. has a trade surplus with Brazil."
Politico reported that "the overtly political tone of the letter is a break with more than a dozen other letters Trump has sent to foreign governments this week, threatening to impose new tariff rates on their exports to the U.S. beginning August 1."
While Trump's letter to Brazil has overtly political motivations, he also said during a Tuesday Cabinet meeting that he would target the entire BRICS economic group of emerging market nations, which began with Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa, and now also includes Egypt, Ethiopia, Indonesia, Iran, and the United Arab Emirates.
"If they're a member of BRICS, they are going to have to pay a 10% tariff, just for that one thing—and they won't be a member long," Trump said, according to CNN. "BRICS was set up to hurt us, BRICS was set up to degenerate our dollar and take our dollar, take it off as the standard."
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By Moving Communications to X, Trump and Musk Renew Attack on Social Security
After SSA’s retreat on phone services, advocates and members of Congress may have thought that their efforts could have been, at least for the moment, deployed somewhere else. Sadly, this is not the case.
Apr 12, 2025
No media outlet has done a better job on reporting on the havoc that special government employee Elon Musk and U.S. President Donald Trump have unleashed than Wired. Their outstanding reporting continued Friday as they scooped everyone by reporting that “the Social Security Administration will no longer be communicating with the media and the public through press releases and ‘dear colleague’ letters, as it shifts its public communication exclusively to X, sources tell WIRED. The news comes amid major staffing cuts at the agency.”
That’s right—all public information about Social Security will come via X. For example, in late March SSA announced that they updated their identification verification procedures via an announcement on their website. So in the future, SSA will have to put all of this into a 280-character post or SSA can go to 4,000 characters if they are willing to upgrade to Premium or Blue.
The first thing that came to mind with SSA’s announcement—wasn’t this a conflict of interest with Elon Musk’s role at X? Many other questions followed, such as the role of asking for feedback from Social Security stakeholders, members of Congress, and last but far from least in my mind—Social Security beneficiaries. I hope that congressional oversight or the press will be able to get some answers here.
According to Wired, SSA regional staff would be cut by 87%:
Today, the agency has 547 employees working in the nearly dozen regional offices (previously, the number was closer to 700, but many people have retired, a current employee with knowledge of the staffing numbers says). After the cuts, the number is expected to be closer to 70.
The Wired piece also raises what is a very ironic twist to this switch to X. SSA employees need to get special permission to access social media. Could the move to X make it harder for SSA employees to learn what their own agency was doing? Surely, this would hinder their ability to serve the public.
It looked like SSA was moving in a more positive direction this week as the agency retreated from its position of drastic cuts to the number of services beneficiaries could access over the phone. Had these changes gone into effect, they would have dramatically impact individuals’ ability to access their earned benefits. A deluge of phone calls from beneficiaries and heat from members of Congress forced SSA to change their course.
After SSA’s retreat on phone services, advocates and members of Congress may have thought that their efforts could have been, at least for the moment, deployed somewhere else. Sadly, this is not the case. The decision to move all public communications to X demonstrated that that Trump and Musk are focused on destroying Social Security. Supporters of Social Security cannot let up for one minute. They will need to fight every day for Social Security until January 20, 2029.
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'Welcome to the Oligarchy Era': Social Security Administration Switches Communications to Musk's X
"This flagrant conflict of interest stands to serve the interests of Elon Musk while the American people are robbed of fair access to THEIR Social Security Administration," said one former agency leader.
Apr 11, 2025
The Trump administration faced a fresh wave of criticism on Friday in response to reporting that the Social Security Administration is cutting its communications staff and will shift from using press releases to billionaire Elon Musk's social media platform X.
Musk, the richest person on Earth, is notably also the de facto leader of President Donald Trump's Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), which is leading the administration's effort to gut the federal bureaucracy—though the billionaire faces a rapidly approaching 130-day limit for how long he can serve as a "special government employee" under federal law.
"Elon Musk is forcing seniors onto X to learn about and get news about Social Security," Melanie D'Arrigo, executive director of the Campaign for New York Health, which advocates for universal healthcare, wrote on the platform Friday. "The only person this benefits is Elon Musk. Welcome to the oligarchy era."
Martin O'Malley, who led the agency during the Biden administration, also
responded to the reporting on X, saying, "This flagrant conflict of interest stands to serve the interests of Elon Musk while the American people are robbed of fair access to THEIR Social Security Administration and the benefits they worked so hard to earn."
During a Thursday call with employees, SSA Midwest-West (MWW) Regional Commissioner Linda Kerr-Davis said that instead of making announcements via press releases or "Dear Colleague" letters, "the agency will be using X to communicate to the press and the public—formerly known as Twitter," according to Federal News Network. "This will become our communication mechanism."
"If you're used to getting press releases and Dear Colleague letters, you might want to subscribe to the official SSA X account, so you can stay up to date with agency news," Kerr-Davis told agency workers. "I know this probably sounds very foreign to you—it did to me as well—and not what we are used to, but we are in different times now."
Federal News Network also detailed her comments on reassigning workers to minimize the need for layoffs at the agency:
The reassignments will lead to major staffing cuts to regional offices. Kerr-Davis said the MWW regional office has about 550 employees now, but will only have about 70 employees under the new "skinny regional office" model.
"Won't losing subject-matter experts lead directly to fraud, waste, and abuse? Yes," Kerr-Davis told employees. "Things are going to break, and they're going to break fast. We know that, but hopefully we'll be able to get some support."
Kerr-Davis added that the reassignments will be a "welcome addition" for understaffed field offices. But in many cases, reassigned employees will work in less senior positions.
"I can only imagine how this shift might make them feel, after years of dedicated service in their prior roles. They are used to being experts in their field, and we're asking them to take on new responsibilities," she said. "For some, it's going back to work they used to do a long time ago, which may look very different."
Kerr-Davis' comments were also reported Friday by Wired, which noted that she did not respond to a request for comment. However, Liz Huston, a White House spokesperson, said: "This reporting is misleading. The Social Security Administration is actively communicating with beneficiaries and stakeholders."
"There has not been a reduction in workforce," Huston told Wired. "Rather, to improve the delivery of services, staff are being reassigned from regional offices to front-line help—allocating finite resources where they are most needed. President Trump will continue to always protect Social Security."
HuffPost pointed out Friday that "in recent weeks, queries to the SSA press line have produced responses from White House spokespeople instead of Social Security spokespeople."
The SSA has not published a press release on its website since March 27, but has been sharing updates on its X account, @SocialSecurity, in recent weeks—the latest post, from Wednesday, addresses the rollback of a planned identity verification policy and related phone service cuts.
American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees president Lee Saunders said in a Friday statement that "retirees, disabled individuals, and the millions of beneficiaries who rely on Social Security should not need an X account to receive updates on the program."
"Moving all Social Security communications to Elon Musk's personal social media platform is a blatant effort to gain more users and pad X's profits," the union leader charged. "This move should ring alarm bells everywhere. Social Security belongs to the hardworking taxpayers who have paid into the program, not an unelected billionaire like Musk."
"This administration has made their desire to gut and then privatize Social Security clear. Shuttering the program's regional offices and moving all communications to a single, unaccountable, insecure, for-profit social media company is just the next step in their scheme to enrich billionaires with our tax dollars," he added. "This is exactly why we need to keep Musk and his DOGE cronies out of the Social Security Administration, and we're not going to give up this fight."
AFSCME, the American Federation of Teachers, and the Alliance for Retired Americans are fighting DOGE's access to sensitive personal data at the SSA in federal court.
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In 'Blatant Gift' to Musk's X Money Scheme, Republicans Move to Further Gut CFPB
"Elon Musk wants to cripple consumer protections for digital payment apps and the U.S. Senate is doing his bidding."
Mar 05, 2025
Republicans in the U.S. Senate are expected to vote Wednesday to rescind a Consumer Financial Protection Bureau rule aimed at safeguarding the public from scammers on digital payment apps, a move that would directly benefit billionaire Elon Musk's effort to transform his social media platform into a virtual wallet as well as Trump Media's foray into financial services.
"Musk wants to cripple consumer protections for digital payment apps and the U.S. Senate is doing his bidding," Emily Peterson-Cassin, corporate power director at Demand Progress, said in a statement ahead of the vote, which is expected late Wednesday afternoon.
"Not only does Musk want X, a platform swarming with bots and crypto scams, to be able to reach into your bank account, he also wants to defang and 'delete' the agency responsible for ensuring that X Money follows federal standards for data security and fraudulent payment disputes," Peterson-Cassin added. "Senators must side with American consumers, and not online scammers, by voting 'NO' on this dangerous bill."
The vote will come as Musk and President Donald Trump work to gut the CFPB by firing much of its staff and halting its work to protect consumers from corporate abuses.
On Tuesday, the CFPB—currently under the control of far-right ideologue and Project 2025 architect Russell Vought—dropped its lawsuit against the digital payment platform Zelle and major Wall Street banks, which were accused of "failing to protect consumers from widespread fraud."
Demand Progress said Wednesday that the vote on the GOP-led Congressional Review Act (CRA) resolution, which requires just a simple-majority vote to pass both chambers of Congress, is "the latest in a damning and telling chain of events benefiting Elon Musk."
The group laid out the timeline:
- November 21, 2024: The CFPB finalizes a rule enabling the agency to proactively supervise digital payment apps;
- November 27, 2024: Musk tweets 'Delete CFPB';
- January 28, 2025: X CEO announces that X Money will debut with a partnership with Visa;
- February 7, 2025: Musk's DOGE staffers enter the CFPB and kick off an effort to shut it down; and
- March 5, 2025: The Senate is set to vote on legislation to revoke the CFPB's digital payments rule.
"Every step of the way, Musk has gotten closer to launching X Money without a watchdog to ensure that the platform adheres to federal rules mandating data security standards, disputes for fraudulent payments, consumer protections against debanking, and more," said Demand Progress.
During floor debate on Senate Republicans' attempt to revoke the CFPB's digital payment rule, Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) said sardonically that he is "sure it has nothing to do with the fact that Elon Musk wants to start a payment app."
The New York Times noted last month that "at X, one of the most promising ways Mr. Musk can increase profits is through a payments business, which could charge fees for transactions."
"Building out that business would be easier without having to contend with a regulator like the consumer bureau, which has a recent track record of bringing cases against payment companies," the Times added.
Tony Carrk, executive director of the watchdog group Accountable.US, said in a statement Wednesday that the Republican push to rescind the CFPB rule "only serves Big Tech and the personal finances of Trump and Musk themselves."
"This is a blatant gift to industry donors and the wealthy, allowing companies like Apple, PayPal, and X Money to avoid federal laws designed to protect consumers from fraud and abuse," said Carrk. "Payment apps are no longer a novelty; these companies process over 13 billion transactions a year. Users deserve a safe and secure experience, but they won't get that if Republicans get their way. Today's vote is the latest, glaring example of Trump and Republicans undermining consumer protections all in service of making things easier for big corporations and worse for everyday Americans."
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DOGE Goon Given Access to Treasury Payment System Resigns After Racist Eugenics Remarks Revealed
One observer wrote: "Skull. Measuring. Freaks."
Feb 06, 2025
Marko Elez, a 25-year-old staffer with Elon Musk's so-called Department of Government Efficiency, has resigned from his role after The Wall Street Journal inquired over his ties to a social media account that advocated for a "eugenic immigration policy," among other racist views, the outlet reported Thursday.
Elez was stationed at the Treasury Department, where he reportedly had direct access to Treasury Department systems responsible for nearly all payments made by the U.S. government. Earlier Thursday a district court judge placed limits on Elez's and a fellow DOGE staffer's ability to share the sensitive Treasury data.
Elez also worked for Musk at SpaceX, Starlink, and X, according to the Journal.
The X account, which was deleted in December, used the handle @nullllptr—a misspelling of a keyword in the C++ programming language, the Journal reported. However, the account previously went by the username @marko_elez, according archived posts the outlet reviewed. The person using the @nullllptr account also described themselves as an employee at SpaceX and Starlink.
"Just for the record, I was racist before it was cool," @nullllptr posted over the summer, and in September: "You could not pay me to marry outside of my ethnicity." The account also called for a rollback of the Civil Rights Act.
In response to the Journal's reporting, journalist Edward Ongweso Jr. wrote on X: "Skull. Measuring. Freaks."
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Judge Temporarily Blocks Musk-Led 'Fork' Offer to Purge Federal Workers
"Proceed with caution," Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley urged federal workers. "Talk to your union reps. Know your rights."
Feb 06, 2025
A U.S. judge in Massachusetts on Thursday temporarily blocked President Donald Trump's widely decried deferred resignation program intended to help the Republican administration dramatically reduce the federal workforce—a move that came just hours away from a midnight application deadline for workers.
Boston-based District Judge George O'Toole Jr., an appointee of former President Bill Clinton, "did not express an opinion on the legality of the program," according to The Associated Press. "He scheduled a hearing for Monday at 2:00 pm EST and told the administration to extend the application deadline until after that."
The judge's intervention was prompted by labor unions, including the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), that filed suit on Tuesday, arguing the program is "an arbitrary, unlawful, short-fused ultimatum," and on Wednesday asked O'Toole to pause implementation and extend the deadline.
Despite warnings from unions and congressional Democrats not to trust the Trump administration's deal, multiple journalists reported Thursday at least 50,000 federal workers—or about 2% of the government's 2.3 million workforce—had taken it.
"Deferred resignation is designed to tempt you, but there are major reasons for concern."
The program was unveiled last month in a "Fork in the Road" email that the Office of Personnel Management (OPM), the government's human resources agency, sent federal workers. It resembles—including the verbatim wording of the subject line—an email that billionaire Elon Musk, chair of Trump's Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), sent Twitter employees in 2022, when he took over the social media platform.
In the email, OPM told federal workers that "we cannot give you full assurance regarding the certainty of your position or agency," and gave them until Thursday to decide whether to leave their jobs, claiming that "if you resign under this program, you will retain all pay and benefits regardless of your daily workload and will be exempted from all applicable in-person work requirements until September 30, 2025 (or earlier if you choose to accelerate your resignation for any reason)."
A subsequently published OPM webpage answering frequently asked questions claims that workers who take the deal are not expected to work during the deferred resignation period and encourages them to seek private sector employment in that time. It also states that the offer applies to all full-time federal employees except those in the military; U.S. Postal Service; positions related to immigration enforcement, national security, or public safety; and jobs specifically excluded by federal agencies.
Although the Internal Revenue Service does not appear on that list, Federal News Network reported Wednesday that some IRS employees who accepted the resignation offer "are now being told they must stay on the job through May 15, because the agency has deemed their work 'essential' to this year's tax filing season." Axios obtained the relevant email sent to IRS workers.
"Not only is this a clear case of bait-and-switch—they were originally told they would be paid to not work through September 30—but it proves that the terms of OPM's so-called offer are unreliable and cannot be trusted," said Doreen Greenwald, president of the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU), which represents IRS workers, in a statement to the media outlets.
"We do welcome the admission, however, that IRS employees are vital to the agency mission," she added. "By requiring IRS employees to stay on the job longer than promised, the administration is proving what NTEU has been saying all along: IRS employees are essential and without them, the jobs that the American people depend upon will not get done. In the case of the IRS, it's answering taxpayer questions during filing season, processing tax returns, and issuing refunds. But this holds true for frontline federal employees across government who safeguard the public health, promote economic growth, and secure the nation. If their jobs are arbitrarily eliminated, those services are in jeopardy."
NTEU and the AFGE have cautioned members against taking the offer. The latter union is circulating an FAQ sheet for federal workers, which notes that "it is unclear what recourse, if any, employees might have if the government fails to honor the terms of their deferred resignation."
Reuters spoke with multiple federal employees weighing what to do ahead of the deadline:
Employees at the General Services Administration, which manages federal properties, have been bracing for mass layoffs after officials said they plan to slash spending by half.
"It's just chaos, no one is able to do any real work now," said one employee, who spoke on condition of anonymity. Colleagues were deleting personal documents from their work computers, the person said.
Another worker at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, who also asked not to be named, said the mood inside the agency was one of fear and confusion. Staff believe they will likely lose their jobs whether or not they accept the offer, the person said.
An unnamed but defiant Department of Agriculture employee told the news agency: "I am scared about losing my job, but I am not going to give in. They need to push me out."
Rep. Don Beyer (D-Va.), whose congressional district is home to many members of the civilian workforce, wrote in an open letter to them on Thursday: "I am not a lawyer, financial planner, or career adviser, and cannot tell you what to do. But I can offer my empathy and perspective on the choice that faces you. As someone who grew up in a family of civil servants, pursued public service, and represents over 70,000 federal employees, I respect and value your service to the country."
"You can see what Elon Musk and Donald Trump are doing. The hiring freeze, Schedule F, the mass firings, the cancellation of work arrangements and collective bargaining agreements, and the emails and statements insulting you and your work—all are designed to demoralize you, fill your workplace with chaos and fear, and get you to quit," he continued. "Deferred resignation is designed to tempt you, but there are major reasons for concern."
"First, the administration says they can rescind this offer after it is accepted and stop paying you, which would leave you with little or no recourse. Next, the legality of these offers is dubious," Beyer stressed. "Finally, to accept this offer, you must trust that Elon Musk and Donald Trump will keep their word. They both have extensive track records of dishonesty."
"Only you know what is the best choice for you. If you are concerned about your job security and think taking this offer is the lesser evil, there is no shame in that," he concluded. "I will not stop fighting for you and for the federal employees who choose to serve the American people, and there are many others who will have your back. You are not alone, and America needs you more than ever."
Sharing resources for workers on social media Thursday, Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.) similarly said: "If you're a federal employee who received Trump's 'Fork in the Road' memo, proceed with caution. This is not a man who keeps his word to workers on anything. Talk to your union reps. Know your rights."
Former Twitter workers are also speaking out. After interviewing ex-employees and a lawyer who represents thousands of them who took legal action after Musk bought the platform, CNN reported Wednesday:
Within hours of acquiring Twitter, Musk had fired its top executives; within days, he'd laid off around 3,500 employees, around 50% of the company's total staff. Ultimately, he trimmed 80% of Twitter's workforce, demanded everyone return to the office, and often required employees to work far more than 40 hours a week.
Musk's DOGE, with its goal of cutting potentially trillions of dollars out of the federal budget, is making similar cuts throughout government: the United States Agency for International Development appears to be in the process of shutting down; two sources told CNN the Office of Personnel Management was directed to prepare to eventually cut as much as 70% of its workforce; and the General Services Administration was told to present proposals to cut 50% of business expenses, according to multiple sources with knowledge of the situation.
The network noted that Yao Yue, former principal software engineer at Twitter, recently wrote on X: "As someone who went through an eerily similar episode of hostile takeover that also played out in public in real time, I want to tell all the fed workers, 'I'm so sorry this is happening to you, I know how this feels.' And here are some of my learnings."
"Take care of each other... Record things, safely," she advised. "Stay calm and carry on. Don't comply without question, don't fold over in advance... You will survive if you band together with your trusted coworkers, family, and friends. You are not alone. Tell us what you need. We will get through this together."
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Musk Slammed for Claiming It's Unlawful to Publicly Identify DOGE Personnel
"It's illegal to publish the names of government workers? What???" remarked one Capitol Hill reporter.
Feb 04, 2025
Self-described " free speech absolutist" Elon Musk—the billionaire leading U.S. President Donald Trump's new Department of Government Efficiency—claimed this week that revealing the names of people working for DOGE is somehow illegal, provoking swift backlash from journalists and experts.
Responding to Musk's Tuesday morning post on X, the social media platform the billionaire bought in 2022, Washington Post reporter Jeff Stein challenged the claim that identifying individuals working for the government is unlawful and highlighted his hypocrisy.
"It's illegal to publish the names of government workers?" Stein wrote in part. "What???"
Trump announced DOGE and its leadership shortly after he won the November election, boosted by over a quarter-billion dollars from Musk, the richest person on Earth. After the president returned to the White House for a second term last month, the Musk-led presidential advisory commission quickly got to work on its agenda of cutting spending and regulations, amid a flurry of lawsuits.
The legal battles continue. On Monday, the Alliance for Retired Americans, the American Federation of Government Employees, and the Service Employees International Union sued to revoke Musk and DOGE's access to a key government payment system, provided by Trump's treasury secretary. Wired reported Tuesday that two federal employees "are seeking a temporary restraining order as part of a class action lawsuit accusing a group of Elon Musk's associates of allegedly operating an illegally connected server from the fifth floor of the U.S. Office of Personnel Management's (OPM) headquarters."
Wired on Sunday also "identified six young men—all apparently between the ages of 19 and 24, according to public databases, their online presences, and other records—who have little to no government experience and are now playing critical roles" in DOGE. The reporting named the following individuals: Akash Bobba, Edward Coristine, Luke Farritor, Gautier Cole Killian, Gavin Kliger, and Ethan Shaotran.
"The six men are one part of the broader project of Musk allies assuming key government positions," the outlet continued, explaining that "Musk's lackeys—including more senior staff from xAI, Tesla, and the Boring Company—have taken control of" the General Services Administration (GSA), OPM, and the Treasury payment system.
After a now-suspended X user shared those six names on the platform—describing them as "techies on the ground helping Musk gaining and using access to the U.S. Treasury payment system," and suggesting that fired FBI agents may want to "dox them and maybe pay them a visit"—Musk responded early Monday, saying, "You have committed a crime."
Cliff Lampe, professor of information and associate dean for the School of Information at the University of Michigan, told Forbes on Tuesday that "doxxing has a broad definition, but is typically described as releasing private details about an individual into the public, specifically with the purpose of harming that person, where harm can range from embarrassment to promoting violent action against the individual."
"Typically, government employees have less privacy protections than do private citizens. Listing individuals who are working on behalf of the government would not fall into previous definitions of doxxing, though of course definitions can always change over time," Lampe said. "Whether doxxing is a crime has traditionally been related to the type of information that has been released and how that information was acquired."
Late Monday morning, Ed Martin, U.S. attorney in the District of Columbia, posted on X a letter to Musk that says in part: "I ask that you utilize me and my staff to assist in protecting the DOGE work and the DOGE workers. Any threats, confrontations, or other actions in any way that impact their work may break numerous laws."
Forbes noted that one legal expert said he couldn't understand "what on Earth Musk or the U.S. attorney" thinks was violated.
Less than 10 minutes after Martin's post, Musk said on X Monday morning: "Time to confess: Media reports saying that DOGE has some of world's best software engineers are in fact true."
However, as the Daily Beast detailed Monday, "he was wrong—not all the group are even 'software engineers.' Three do not even have degrees. And one who does is trying to cash in on his new job by charging people to read his Substack entry which boasts, 'Why DOGE: Why I gave up a seven-figure salary to save America.'"
In a Monday evening statement on the official X account for Martin's office, the U.S. attorney signaled that legal action may be coming.
"Our initial review of the evidence presented to us indicates that certain individuals and/or groups have committed acts that appear to violate the law in targeting DOGE employees," Martin said. "We are in contact with the FBI and other law enforcement partners to proceed rapidly. We also have our prosecutors preparing."
Musk then returned to his claim of illegal behavior. After businessman and software engineer Marc Andreessen said on X late Monday, "I'm so old, I remember when doxxing and threatening federal employees was considered bad," the DOGE leader replied Tuesday, "It is against the law."
Stein wasn't alone in calling out Musk's Tuesday morning post. White House speechwriter-turned-podcaster Jon Favreau said: "Threatening anyone: very bad, possibly against the law depending on the threat. Knowing the names of the people who work for us, the American taxpayers, is an entirely legal and appropriate expectation. This isn't one of your companies. This is our government. Understand?"
Chris Anderson, chair of the Democratic Party in Ohio's Mahoning County,
responded: "Imagine being in charge of auditing the government and knowing so little about the government that you don't know that salaries of federal employees, what department they work for, and yes, their names, are all public record. And not only that, THERE'S AN ENTIRE WEBSITE FOR IT."
In fact, there are multiple: the Library of Congress has a
webpage that details sources for federal employee data and there are some nongovernment sites that compile it, such as FederalPay.org, GovSalaries.com, and OpenPayrolls.com.
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