The unglamorous but key federal office that sent out a mass "deferred resignation" offer to federal employees on Tuesday has reportedly been taken over by people with ties to Elon Musk, the world's richest man and a close confidant of U.S. President Donald Trump.
Citing unnamed sources, Wired reported Tuesday that "the highest ranks of the Office of Personnel Management (OPM)—essentially the human resources function for the entire federal government—are now controlled by people with connections to Musk and to the tech industry." Musk reportedly visited OPM headquarters late last week.
Wired, which described the individuals as "Musk lackeys," declined to name some of the newly installed OPM officials because of their ages. One of the officials "was set to start college last fall," and another "is a 21-year-old whose online résumé touts his work for Palantir, the government contractor and analytics firm co-founded by billionaire Peter Thiel."
Among the officials the outlet names are Riccardo Biasini, a former Tesla engineer who is now a senior adviser to the OPM director, and Amanda Scales, who previously worked at xAI, Musk's artificial intelligence company. Scales is now chief of staff at OPM, which is currently led by Acting Director Charles Ezell.
A since-deleted Reddit post purportedly authored by an OPM employee describes Ezell as "the friendliest 'yes man' you'll ever meet."
"I've been an OPM employee for nearly a decade and a federal employee for almost 20 years. I've never witnessed anything even remotely close to what's happening right now. In short, there's a hostile takeover of the federal civil service," the post stated. "It's clear they pushed aside all the high-level nonpolitical civil servants who refused to do Donald Trump's bidding, until they found Chuck [Ezell]."
"The 'Fork in the Road' email had the same title as one that Elon Musk sent to Twitter when he took over there, informing workers to be 'extremely hardcore' or take the resignation offer."
The heavy presence of Musk allies and associates at OPM further entrenches the influence of the mega-billionaire inside the Trump administration, which has moved swiftly—and unlawfully—to purge the federal workforce and exert control over funding approved by Congress.
The American Prospect's David Dayen noted Wednesday that the email OPM sent to federal employees earlier this week offering full pay and benefits through September for all workers who opt to resign was "an Elon Musk operation, through and through."
"In fact, the 'Fork in the Road' email had the same title as one that Elon Musk sent to Twitter when he took over there, informing workers to be 'extremely hardcore' or take the resignation offer," Dayen wrote. "The Twitter emails even included the same ask of workers to reply with their decision."
"This is alternately questionably legal, potentially a bait and switch, dubiously effective as a budget-reducer, maybe even a budget-buster, and definitively harrowing for two million workers being subjected to a misery-inducing campaign for the sport of the world's richest man," Dayen added.