"We hide in the basement, there could be wiretaps anywhere." That's how Elon Musk tries to silence officials who study him to the media

— We are public servants, not Elon's servants," said 1 of the Food and Drug Administration employees, who, like all those interviewed for this story, speaks anonymously. “The public deserves to know how dysfunctional, destructive and deceptive all this was and inactive is,” he added.

— The sources of leaks are patriots, said 1 of the employees of the United States Department of Agriculture. USDA's worker added that helping media study problems or concerns inside the agency is motivated by a desire for greater transparency — the same nonsubjective that Muska believes is at the heart of his own work at DOGE.

— If the Biden or Obama administration had acted this way, no 1 would have tolerated it. Trump’s administration is not allowed to do so,” added the employee.

Musko's comments may not have caused a crucial change in the way national workers perceive sharing information with reporters, said 1 of the national workers in the wellness agency, citing group chats with another employees.

Hunting for Officials

But even before Musko's comments this week, the atmosphere in many national agencies — caused by the constant threats of dismissal and employees' accusations of being public enemies and throwing them out for following orders from erstwhile administrations — made him officials felt vulnerable, increasingly angry and worried about their physical security.

These safety concerns concern law enforcement authorities "hunting" the sources of leaks, as well as utmost right-wing extremists attacking people who form a national workforce.

Many national government employees who have spoken to POLITICO over the past 8 weeks have said that they have never had contact with journalists before. And if it had not been for Musko's approach to "walk fast and smash" to reduce staff and access to delicate government data, it would most likely inactive not have changed for almost all of them.

“He IS THE origin OF TRANSIT,” wrote about Musk in a message on the Signal communicator 1 of the high-ranking officials of the national Aviation Administration. "When you plug hard drives into data systems in government agencies, you make the biggest safety breach we have seen in years. possibly ever," explained the official.

At the same time, even national workers who have not spoken to the media are terrified of suspicions or accusations of leaking information to journalists.

“We control phones to plane mode or go down to the basement”

Federal agency staff are besides afraid that they are being secretly watched — either by software installed on company devices or by cameras in offices. It is unclear whether these allegations are justified, but they have caused deep concern among the workers even before Musk's last threats.

said an worker of the National Institutes of wellness (NIH, National wellness Institutes).

A lot of people talk to journalists only with a communicator Signal or akin messaging applications that offer comprehensive encryption to prevent listening to calls. “If individual refuses to usage an application like Signal and does not talk, I do not trust him immediately,” said NIH.

Anxiety exacerbates the cognition of how Musk previously coded interior messages in his electrical car manufacturing company Tesla with clear information, utilizing solutions specified as ‘one or 2 spaces between sentences’ to identify leaks. any fear that he could go even further and sow easy in part of the agency.

— I am much more closely checking the information I hear before talking to the media," said NIH. “All Musk says is swinging a sword to silence government workers. And unfortunately, it works,” he commented.

Elon Musk is not the only 1 threatening officials.

Musk is not the first high-ranking associate of Trump's administration to endanger to limit leaks to the press. Last week's X post U.S. intelligence manager Tulsi Gabbard committed to “aggressive” prosecution of what she thought was an unauthorized disclosure of information to the media by officials working in national spy agencies.

"Politicly motivated leaks undermine our national safety and American trust and will not be tolerated," said Gabbard, who, as a associate of Congress, expressed sympathy for erstwhile National safety Agency contractor Edward Snowden, who shared many classified information with the press. Gabbard mentioned respective examples of what she thought was unauthorized media leaks, citing a number of media including the "Washington Post" and NBC.

In a press release from last week, the Office of the manager of National Intelligence stated that Gabbard had set up a hotline for signalers straight to her office for intelligence officials who wanted to rise concerns about the possibly unauthorized actions of their colleagues.

One of the staff of the Department of Homeland safety said that most of the staff talking to the media agree on the importance of not disclosing information that could jeopardise national security, even if they exercise the right to disclose little delicate information that they consider crucial to the public.

"The safeguarding of freedom of expression and freedom of the press is crucial to maintaining transparency and accountability in the current climate of instability supported by this administration," said DHS agency official. “The expression of fear is part of our right to open speech. It is crucial that each administration creates an environment where workers feel heard, respected and able to make a constructive contribution alternatively of being silenced and ridiculed."