Former employees of Twitter, now known as X, have chimed in on Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency’s (DOGE) disruption of the federal government.
DOGE was announced after President Donald Trump won the 2024 presidential election and was touted as a jackhammer agency that will take a Javier Milei-style chainsaw to the federal government. The department has already recommended serious changes involving slashing programs, regulations, and other unnecessary government initiatives.
Some have suggested Musk’s bull-in-a-China shop approach is reminiscent of when he first took over X. A number of former employees discussed the matter with CNN, with some offering advice for federal workers who are now dealing with Musk.
The report recounts the “Fork in the Road” email that was sent to federal employees, offering to buy them out if they chose to resign. It was similar to an email with the same subject heading sent to Twitter employees when Musk first acquired the company.
A former senior employee at the social media company told CNN that Musk “[B]asically, questions every requirement, assume that every requirement that anybody ever gives you is dumb. Question it, eliminate it wherever possible.”
The individual further recalled Musk saying, “If you’re not adding things back afterwards, then you weren’t cutting hard enough to start with.”
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 fo (sic) the situation.
Shannon Liss-Riordan, a lawyer who represented many former Twitter employees who sued after they were laid off by Musk, said the billionaire “seems to think that he’s bought the federal government now, and he’s playing out the same series of events” that he did at Twitter.
She further advised federal workers to “decide what’s in your best interests, and there’s no way to predict exactly how this is going to come out.”
In the “Fork in the Road” email, employees were asked to work hard and be “loyal” and “trustworthy.” However, if they wished to resign, they would be paid out up to September. It is unclear whether such a move is possible – or even legal. Some groups might have issues with paying government employees when they are not working, so the initative could face legal challenges.
Nevertheless, Musk appears determined to make cuts similar to what he did with Twitter. Another former senior employee told CNN that Musk “thinks that all that stuff [laws and regulations] is frankly, just bulls**t, and it’s just there to be a harassment.”
Yao Yue, another former Twitter employee, wrote a post on X offering some words of wisdom to federal workers. “I’m so sorry this is happening to you, I know how this feels,” she wrote.
She recommended that the workers “Use Signal or other secure chats to build trusted groups and talk to each other” and “Record things safely. Take notes. Take voice memos. Take pictures of your screen, emails, or documents using your own device and stash them away in a safe location.”
“Fork In the Road”—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:
— Yao Yue 岳峣 (@thinkingfish) January 29, 2025
Of course, this entire report is aimed at making Musk appear to be a Bond villain, a favorite tactic of establishment media outlets as of late. Ever since he took over Twitter, the press just can’t get enough of the billionaire. It seems almost every day, they publish a new hit piece intended to cast him as a Nazi or other such evil.
Yet, reading the report, I didn’t find anything I considered to be objectionable. Perhaps questioning requirements, rules, and regulations is precisely what is needed at this point. Indeed, if people had done this in the past, perhaps Americans wouldn’t be dealing with hundreds of thousands of regulations that stifle innovation and efficiency.
The bottom line is that the China shop that is the administrative state has become far too bloated and powerful. It is clear that an angry bull is exactly what is needed to address this problem, regardless of how the bureaucrats feel about it.
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