By removing certain ethical requirements for civil servants, appointing billionaire Elon Musk as a “special government employee,” and granting DOGE unprecedented access to sensitive government data, Trump has created multiple avenues for Musk and his team to exploit their political positions for their own personal gain.
There is no evidence of Musk filing ethics forms or addressing any potential conflicts of interest since his appointment as a civil servant. Trump said that Musk will identify his own conflicts, which is in and of itself a conflict.
Musk and DOGE team members—who are working in government despite having clear private sector interests—now have unprecedented access to nonpublic data that is highly valued in the burgeoning data broker industry. Even if their data access yielded just 10% of the market insights provided by that data broker industry, it would be worth $43.4 billion.
If Musk leveraged his access and influence to double the value of federal contracts awarded to his companies, he would capture $23.6 billion in federal spending.
Musk and DOGE’s unrestrained and careless access to sensitive data like Social Security numbers will no doubt exacerbate the problem of identity theft in the United States. If current victimization rates doubled, identity theft would affect 50 million people and cost them $39.4 billion annually.
Lambert here: This is a long report. I’m quoting the abstract, but adding tags for the whole report. But merciful heavens, I have to quote this:
Musk’s company SpaceX is currently proposing to the Pentagon the construction of the “Golden Dome” missile system “as a ‘subscription service’ in which the government would pay for access to the technology, rather than own the system outright” (Stone and Taylor 2025).
IOW, a protection racket.
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