Takeover of USAid agency by Doge operatives seen as a pilot for a large-scale overhaul of the federal government

USAid security personnel were defending a secure room holding sensitive and classified data in a standoff with “department of government efficiency” employees when a message was said to come directly from Elon Musk: give the Doge kids whatever they want.

Since Donald Trump’s inauguration last month, a posse of cocksure young engineers answering to Musk have stormed through Washington DC, gaining access to government computer systems as part of what Senator Chuck Schumer has called “an unelected shadow government … conducting a hostile takeover of the federal government”.