At least 21 technology workers at a United States government agency have quit en masse in the wake of their organisation being folded into Elon Musk’s DOGE, whose controversial actions they say do not align with the goals of public servants.

DOGE — short for the Department of Government Efficiency, and also a reference to a cryptocurrency memecoin — is an entity partly led by Musk which was created to "provide advice and guidance from outside of government”.

The group has been central to decisions to cut US government spending since Donald Trump returned as US president in January, with thousands of government employees fired or removed on buyouts, and Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) programs rolled back.

The resigning tech workers were engineers, product managers, designers, data scientists, and IT and operations specialists who worked for the United States Digital Service (USDS), which was renamed DOGE under an executive order signed by Trump last month.

Some of the workers had reportedly left senior roles with companies such as Google and Amazon before joining the USDS.

They said they could no longer honour commitments they had made to the American people because DOGE was “firing technical experts, mishandling sensitive data, and breaking critical systems”.

“We will not use our skills as technologists to compromise core government systems, jeopardise Americans’ sensitive data, or dismantle critical public services,” the resigning workers wrote in a joint letter on Tuesday.

“We will not lend our expertise to carry out or legitimise DOGE’s actions.”

The workers said they had been “asked questions about political loyalty” and had seen dozens of colleagues “indiscriminately terminated by an anonymous email” in the time since Trump’s inauguration for a second non-consecutive term.

“Their removal endangers millions of Americans who rely on [government] services every day,” they wrote.

“The sudden loss of their technology expertise makes critical systems and Americans’ data less safe.”

Around two-thirds of USDS staffers reportedly remained at the agency and would take on new roles under DOGE.

Musk alleges ‘fake news’, cites death threats

Musk wrote on his social media platform X that the workers’ resignations were “fake news”.

However, he added “they would have been fired had they not resigned” and suggested they were Democrats “who refused to return to the office”.

DOGE spokesperson Katie Miller wrote on X, “These were full remote workers who hung Trans flags from their workplaces."

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt also dismissed the resignations in a statement to the Associated Press.

“Anyone who thinks protests, lawsuits, and lawfare will deter President Trump must have been sleeping under a rock for the past several years,” she said.

Musk attended Trump’s first cabinet meeting under his new administration on Wednesday, where he told cabinet members he had received death threats over DOGE’s work.

DOGE’s official website was hacked earlier this month, only days after it was launched.

Musk told the cabinet meeting that DOGE would make mistakes, and “won’t be perfect”.

“But when we make mistakes, we’ll fix it very quickly,” he said.


Elon Musk responded to some questions from journalists during Donald Trump's cabinet meeting on Wednesday. Image: The White House / YouTube

Concerns over DOGE’s alleged use of AI

DOGE has faced criticism for reportedly using technologies such as artificial intelligence to inform its decisions and the advice it provides to the US government.

NBC News reported DOGE was expected to use an AI Large Language Model (LLM) to assess responses from federal workers who were sent emails from the group demanding they detail the work they completed in the past week, or face being fired.

Musk told Wednesday’s cabinet meeting that Trump had told him to “be more aggressive” in his work at DOGE before those emails were sent out.

He said workers whose jobs were no longer needed, or were not being done well, faced being sacked.

Wired also reported DOGE appeared to be editing a piece of software called AutoRIF (Automated Reduction in Force), which had been designed by the US Defense Department and “could assist in mass firings of federal workers”.

'Important ethical questions' raised

Dr Emmanuelle Walkowiak, a senior research fellow at RMIT University who studies technology and the future of work, said DOGE’s actions had raised “important ethical questions” around the deployment of AI and attacks on diversity and inclusion.

The use of AI to analyse personal data could potentially infringe on individuals’ privacy rights and could “amplify existing biases and reinforce discriminatory practices”, she told Information Age.

“When it comes to tech workers in the US, we need to keep in mind that work is not just about producing, it’s not just about productivity.

“It’s also about responsibility — the meaningfulness of your work, the agency and the autonomy people have to complete their work and their mission.

“What we observe right now … is a kind of institutionalisation of bullying practices.”

While DOGE had presented AI as a tool to increase productivity, it could also be used to “reduce the autonomy and agency of workers, and erode trust in the workplace”, she said.

“The signal sent [by the resigning workers] is really clear — what these people are trying to do is to engage their responsibility in the design of AI and AI deployment in the US.”