DOGE" efficiency office

Elon Musk has full access to the US payment system

Elon Musk, the richest person in the world, became Donald Trump's most important supporter during the election campaign.(Bild: AP/PennLive/The Patriot-News)

Billionaire and Tesla boss Elon Musk and his team for the White House's newly created Department of Government Efficiency have been given access to the US Treasury's payment system.

This was reported by the New York Times. The system holds the personal data of millions of Americans who receive Social Security payments, tax refunds and other funds from the government.

Democratic senator expresses horror
Democratic US Senator Ron Wyden stated on the online platform Bluesky that, according to his information, the newly appointed US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent had granted Musk's department full access to the payment system. "Social Security and Medicare benefits, grants, payments to government contractors, including those that compete directly with Musk's own companies. Everything," wrote the ranking Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee.

The Department of Government Efficiency is not a federal agency, but a unit set up by President Donald Trump's executive order that operates out of the White House. Musk wrote on his Platform X that Treasury Department officials had been instructed to authorize payments to "known fraudulent or terrorist groups." Musk did not provide any evidence of this.