Court Filings Expose Damage from Trump Administration's DOGE Program

Financial and Workforce Impact of DOGE

• 💰 The DOGE program is estimated to have cost taxpayers $10 billion in back pay and paid leave for federal workers who were pushed out or improperly removed.
• 📉 This represents approximately 7% of the federal workforce being paid with zero productivity, a situation described as profoundly wasteful and illegal by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER).
• 📊 Even the Cato Institute acknowledged that DOGE reduced the federal workforce, though it did not reduce spending.

Data Misuse and Privacy Risks

• ⚠️ Digital rights experts, including the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), warned of increased risks of data abuse, misuse, and theft due to consolidating government data into fewer hands.
• 🔒 Sensitive systems like Social Security and tax records were accessed by non-career personnel, creating dangerous surveillance and exploitation risks, particularly for marginalized groups.
• ⚖️ The EFF's concerns led to a lawsuit and a preliminary injunction halting the sharing of data.

Social Security Data Access and Political Misuse

• 🚨 In a federal court filing, the Trump administration admitted that DOGE personnel had broader access to Social Security data than previously disclosed.
• 🚫 Controls were insufficient, oversight was lacking, and access permissions were far broader than necessary, granting an unaccountable team access to sensitive databases.
• 🗳️ A DOGE team member signed a voter data agreement with a political advocacy group seeking to analyze state voter roles to find evidence of voter fraud and overturn election results.

Broader Consequences and Criticisms

• 📉 The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) is reported to have mismanaged $21.7 billion in contracts and personnel, causing approximately $135 billion in economic damage.
• 🏥 The program left critical government departments broken, triggered lawsuits, and contributed to significant worldwide deaths through US aid cuts.
• 🎯 The program is criticized for failing to reduce spending or improve efficiency, instead misusing sensitive data for political purposes like election conspiracies and immigration crackdowns.