Donald Trump hasn't been sworn into office yet, but his ally Elon Musk is already getting started working for a government agency that hasn't yet been created.
The Wall Street Journal reported Friday that the "Department of Government Efficiency" co-director is tweeting out the names and personal details of federal employees, leading to some of his more than 205 million followers to "launch blistering critiques of ordinary" workers.
Ashley Thomas, a little-known director of "climate diversity" at the U.S. International Development Financial Corp., was targeted by the billionaire, who called her job "fake." The tweet received 32 million views and spawned a flood of memes making fun of her and telling her that her job would be over soon, the report stated.
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Musk was put in charge of the soon-to-be-created Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE. Biotech company founder Vivek Ramaswamy will be his co-chair. It's tasked with findings massive cuts in government spending.
Thus far, Ramaswamy hasn't targeted individuals. Instead, he's talked about his slashing of the federal workforce broadly, saying that he would fire people at random — suggesting it could be done based on Social Security number.
In his estimation, he could slash 75 percent of the workforce by choosing people whose Social Security numbers start or end with odd numbers.
Using X as a tool to attack people is nothing new, the report said.
"After taking over Twitter in 2022, Musk targeted Yoel Roth, the platform’s former head of trust and safety, who had recently left. Musk tweeted, incorrectly, that it looked like Roth had argued 'in favor of children being able to access adult Internet services,'" the Journal recalled. "Some of the platform’s users interpreted it as Musk calling Roth a pedophile, and they posted calls for Roth’s death. Roth moved out of his house temporarily because of threats."
“These tactics are aimed at sowing terror and fear at federal employees,” said Everett Kelley, president of the American Federation of Government Employees. It represents about 800,000 members of the 2.3 million federal employees.
“It’s intended to make them fearful that they will become afraid to speak up," said Kelley.
“We are a comparative steal, and we want to help clean it up too,” said Kelley, a former Army sergeant. “The people I represent have been called names like deep state, but they are working people just like you and I.”