the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Washington DC, the Office of Personnel Management (OPM), the U.S. government’s human resources agency, is at the center of a sweeping federal workforce transformation led by Elon Musk and his newly appointed team. According to insiders, Musk’s aides have locked career civil servants out of key data systems, raising serious concerns about cybersecurity, transparency, and congressional oversight.
Trump and Musk’s Federal Workforce Overhaul
Since taking office 11 days ago, President Donald Trump has initiated an aggressive plan to downsize the federal government, removing and sidelining hundreds of civil servants. With 2.2 million federal employees under review, Musk—tasked with reducing government bureaucracy—has acted quickly to install his own team at OPM, effectively taking control of critical personnel data systems.
Federal Employee Data Locked Away
Two senior OPM officials, speaking anonymously to Reuters, revealed that some senior career employees have lost access to major departmental systems.
🔒 Enterprise Human Resources Integration (EHRI) – A database containing:
- Social Security numbers
- Birthdates & home addresses
- Pay grades & length of service
- Employee performance appraisals
“We have no visibility into what they are doing with the computer and data systems. There is no oversight. It creates real cybersecurity and hacking implications,” one official warned.
Affected employees can still access email, but their restricted access to workforce data raises red flags about potential misuse, security breaches, and lack of transparency.
Musk’s Influence Over the Government
Musk’s team officially took control of OPM on January 20, the day Trump was inaugurated. Their presence at the agency is already transforming operations in unprecedented ways:
🏢 Sofa Beds Installed for 24/7 Operations – Musk’s appointees have reportedly brought in sofa beds, mirroring Musk’s previous leadership tactics at Tesla and X (formerly Twitter).
🚪 High-Level Leadership Changes – The agency’s Chief Management Officer, Katie Malague, was relocated to a different floor as Musk’s allies took over executive offices.
📜 Secretive Memos & Buyout Offers – The new leadership has issued unannounced memos, including an offer for federal employees to resign with eight months of pay and a directive to identify probationary employees—raising speculation about mass layoffs.
Who’s Running OPM Under Musk?
Musk’s appointees include engineers and HR executives from his companies, bringing a tech-industry style management approach to federal governance:
🔹 Brian Bjelde – Former VP of Human Resources at SpaceX, now a senior adviser at OPM.
🔹 Riccardo Biasini – Former Tesla engineer and The Boring Company director, now a senior adviser.
🔹 Amanda Scales – Ex-Musk employee, now serving as OPM’s Chief of Staff.
🔹 Charles Ezell – Acting head of OPM, responsible for sending out controversial buyout memos to federal employees.
Congressional Oversight & Cybersecurity Concerns
Experts and lawmakers are already questioning the legality and oversight of Musk’s control over government HR operations.
🔍 Don Moynihan, a professor at the University of Michigan, warned:
“This makes it much harder for anyone outside Musk’s inner circle at OPM to know what’s going on.”
Meanwhile, Musk’s influence is expanding beyond OPM. Reports indicate his allies at the U.S. Treasury Department recently clashed with leadership over access to government payment systems.
What’s Next?
With Trump’s administration pushing for rapid downsizing, federal employees face job uncertainty, data security risks, and an unprecedented shift in government HR management.
Key Takeaways:
✅ Federal workers locked out of HR systems with sensitive personal data.
✅ Musk’s team takes control of OPM, implementing aggressive restructuring.
✅ Congressional oversight concerns over cybersecurity & transparency.
✅ Potential mass layoffs or buyouts as memos circulate encouraging resignations.
As Trump and Musk continue to reshape the U.S. government workforce, expect ongoing scrutiny over their methods, legal authority, and long-term impact on federal employment.
🔔 Stay updated for further developments on this unprecedented government overhaul.
What a fine job you’re doing Musk. (Sarcasm). The people elected Trump as president and not you. Makes you wonder who’s really in charge of this country? We’re on dangerous ground right now.
The people elected (allegedly) Biden too, and he wasn’t in charge either, obviously.
It’s unbelievable the irony here. Do you really think Biden was in charge? He didn’t even know what was going on, let alone in charge.
They’re moving too fast, they need to think things through. You can’t keep on signing off on things and then back peddling
Why do Elon Musk’s DOGE aides now have access to sensitive taxpayer info ( Medicare info, social security info, etc)? What do they plan to do with it? Sounds like the fox just got permission to enter the hen house. Something nefarious and unnerving about this. Why do they have access to this info? The American people have a right to know.
Have Musk’s aides been vetted? If not, why not? Why did he have federal employees literally locked out of their offices? Appears someone is looking to take over every aspect of American lives. Hmmmm…. what does that sound like?God only knows what’s next. Closure of religious entities, schools, who knows. Is State tv and radio next? Is freedom of speech, the right to vote, women’s rights, Congress and the Constitution going to be eliminated? Time will tell. We should all be concerned and wake up to what’s going on in this country. We’ve swung so far from the left to the extreme right.
All Presidents of the modern era have had very influential unelected advisors and counsel to guide them. Despite Musk’s wealth, he doesn’t use it to influence politics, unlike George Soros who funds the campaigns of activist judges and politicians.
Really? They’re both equally bad. Even Musk uses his wealth to influence politics and politicians. He helped Trump get elected and is leaning on members of Congress who don’t see eye to eye with Trump. And what are he and his cronies going to do with our personal info? Let’s get our heads of out of the sand and really pay attention to what’s going on. We’re like deer blinded by headlights.
he was voted in to do a job and he is doing it , no surprises here at all, the surprise maybe is that he is actually doing it
DC had been a cesspool of corruption for many years. Trump is draining that swamp. Have you ever wondered how salaried politicians accumulate so much wealth?
They are ALL corrupt, but we must not forget—- they are above the law.
It’s still a cesspool, but with different players.
Pandora’s box has been opened.
Government should implement DEI. Not what you’re thinking…. DEI (diplomacy, empathy and integrity). Just a pipe dream. Will never happen.