Boston College history professor Heather Cox Richardson — a longtime commentator putting current political events in historical perspective — summarized actions taken by political appointee Elon Musk over the weekend as a “coup,” as well as “the largest data breach in human history.”
In a 30-minute video on Facebook Live Sunday, Cox Richardson provided an explainer on how Musk’s government-inspection teams gained access both to nationally secure State Department information as well as sensitive financial information for every taxpaying American.
“Now I want to be clear,” Cox Richardson said. “Elon Musk is not an elected member of the government. He is running the Department of Governmental Efficiency. … It is not a government agency. It has never been created by Congress. It has no legal authority.”
Cox Richardson’s Substack newsletter, “Letters from an American,” has more than 2 million followers.
The Associated Press reported Sunday that the Trump administration placed two top security chiefs at the U.S. Agency for International Development on leave after they refused to turn over classified material in restricted areas to Elon Musk’s government-inspection teams.
Members of Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, known as DOGE, eventually gained access Saturday to the aid agency’s classified information, which includes intelligence reports, a former U.S. official told the Associated Press.
“The extraordinary breaches here of American law and of the Constitution and of American national security are what I characterized this morning on social media as a coup,” Cox Richardson said.
Musk’s DOGE crew lacked high enough security clearance to access that information, so the two USAID security officials — John Voorhees and deputy Brian McGill — believed themselves legally obligated to deny access.
The current and former U.S. officials had knowledge of the incident and spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to share the information.
Musk on Sunday responded to an X post about the news by saying, “USAID is a criminal organization. Time for it to die.” He followed with multiple additional posts on X about the aid agency.
Kate Miller, who serves on an advisory board for DOGE, said in a separate post that no classified material was accessed “without proper security clearances.”
It comes a day after DOGE carried out a similar operation at the Treasury Department, gaining access to sensitive information, including the Social Security and Medicare customer payment systems. The Washington Post reported that a senior Treasury official had resigned over Musk’s team accessing sensitive information.
Musk formed DOGE in cooperation with the Trump administration with the stated goal of finding ways to fire federal workers, cut programs and slash federal regulations.
USAID, whose website vanished Saturday without explanation, has been one of the federal agencies most targeted by the Trump administration in an escalating crackdown on the federal government and many of its programs.
“It’s been run by a bunch of radical lunatics. And we’re getting them out,” Trump said to reporters about USAID on Sunday night.
The Trump administration and Secretary of State Marco Rubio have imposed an unprecedented freeze on foreign assistance that has shut down much of USAID’s humanitarian, development and security programs worldwide — compelling thousands of layoffs by aid organizations — and ordered furloughs and leaves that have gutted the agency’s leadership and staff in Washington.
The U.S. is, by far, the world’s largest donor of humanitarian aid, with USAID administering billions of dollars in humanitarian, development and security assistance in more than 100 countries.
Peter Marocco, a returning political appointee from Trump’s first term, was a leader in enforcing the shutdown. USAID staffers say they believe that agency outsiders with visitor badges asking questions of employees inside the Washington headquarters are members of Musk’s DOGE team.
Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren said in a post on Sunday that Trump was allowing Musk to access people’s personal information and shut down government funding.
“We must do everything in our power to push back and protect people from harm,” the Massachusetts senator said, without giving details.
At the end of her video, Cox Richardson urged people to tell others, regardless of their political views, that “Elon Musk has just walked away with the computers that control our treasury … and potentially our national security computers. And that’s terrifying.”
