The DOGE story gets weirder by the day.
Elon Musk has boasted of saving $65 billion thus far (nowhere near his $2 trillion goal), but various critics have complained that he has produced no evidence of such savings. Mostly, Musk has used a hacksaw to force people into retirement or fire them without cause. In only a month, he has demoralized the federal workforce and shattered federal workplaces without knowing the significance of those he pushed out.
Just yesterday, DOGE sent out emails to federal employees asking them what they accomplished in the past week, listing five specific tasks. Employees believed that failure to respond would lead to their termination, but unions are advising their members not to respond.
Trump is very pleased with Musk’s aggressive firings and urged him to do more of it.
Musk’s team of mostly inexperienced computer whizzes have taken charge of almost every agency, canceled contracts without knowing their importance, and fired veteran civil servants while being completely ignorant of their expertise.
Attention has focused on the youngest of the DOGE team, Edward Coristine, because of his age and curious background. Young Coristine calls himself “Big Balls” online. According to Brian Krebs, a technology blogger, Coristine was fired by a computer security firm for leaking secrets to a competitor and had some association with a gang of cybercriminals.
Now comes the shocker: according to Jacob Silverman, who writes about spies, Edward Coristine is the grandson of Valery Martynov, a Soviet spy turned double agent, who was lured back to Moscow and executed by the Soviets.
Coristine is now a “senior advisor” at the State Department and also a “senior advisor” at the Department of Homeland Security. He also participated in the snap review of FEMA, the Office of Personnel Management, and other departments.
Our government is in chaos, proving the adage: Where Trump goes, chaos follows.