In the United States, a third of the personnel of the mission piloted by Musk present their collective resignation

"We will not use our technical skills to weaken" the state apparatus: some twenty American civil servants integrated into the workforce led by Elon Musk , tasked with slashing public spending and the federal administration, presented their collective resignation on Tuesday, February 25 in a letter addressed to the White House. Their group departure represents a reduction of almost a third of the staff of the Doge, the now famous commission for government efficiency supervised by the multi-billionaire who has become inseparable from Donald Trump, to which the Republican president gave substance on the day of his inauguration, January 20.

"We swore an oath to serve the American people and uphold our oath throughout each administration. However, it has become clear that we can no longer honor those commitments," wrote 21 federal officials in a letter seen by AFP, addressed to White House chief of staff Susie Wiles. "We will not use our technical expertise to undermine critical government IT systems, compromise Americans' sensitive data, or dismantle essential public services," they insist.

Before the Doge's irruption, these resigned agents worked for a pre-existing department of the federal administration, the United States Digital Service (USDS), which was absorbed by the new commission. Since then, they have been associated with the brutal offensive against the federal administration presented as anti-bureaucratic and intended to save the American taxpayer's money, supervised by the multi-billionaire.

In their letter, the 21 resigning members describe the chaotic transition of Donald Trump's return to power in three key dates.

January 21. They recount “15-minute interviews with individuals wearing White House visitor badges” the day after the New York billionaire’s inauguration. “Several refused to identify themselves, questioned us about political loyalties, tried to pit us against each other, and demonstrated their limited technical skills,” they list.

February 14. "A third of our colleagues were dismissed at their discretion by an anonymous email," they lament.

February 16. “Doge’s representatives have begun to integrate us into their operations,” they date. “Doge’s actions—firing technical experts, mishandling sensitive data, breaking major computer systems—are at odds with his stated mission to ‘modernize federal technology and software and maximize government efficiency and productivity,’ ” they denounce. “These actions are not consistent with the mission for which we joined the USDS: to provide better services to the American people.”

"If they hadn't resigned, they would have been fired," Elon Musk said on his social network X to minimize the impact of their group departure.