Something pretty unusual is happening in Washington, D.C., and it has people talking. A group of tech insiders, many of whom have strong ties to billionaire Elon Musk, is quietly taking charge of an important federal agency—one that oversees human resources for the entire federal government.
According to WIRED Magazine, this shift is raising some serious eyebrows. One expert even compared it to something out of a totalitarian playbook! So, what’s going on?
The agency in question is the Office of Personnel Management (OPM). Imagine it as the HR department for the entire U.S. government. And now, people with connections to Musk and the tech world are sitting at the top. Among them is a person who, incredibly, was supposed to be starting college just last year. Scott Kupor, a managing partner at Andreessen Horowitz (a major investment firm), is even being considered for a top spot at OPM, though he hasn’t officially taken office yet.
But there’s more: Inside sources reveal that Musk loyalists are already in key positions. For example, Amanda Scales, the OPM chief of staff, previously worked at Musk’s company, xAI. Riccardo Biasini, a senior adviser, helped run Musk’s ambitious underground Tesla tunnel project, the “Vegas Loop.” And to top it off, there are a couple of very young tech engineers who’ve worked for Musk’s brain-implant company Neuralink and Palantir, a data firm tied to Musk’s close associate, Peter Thiel.
So, what’s all this about? Experts are concerned that Musk’s influence could reshape the federal workforce in a major way. Don Moynihan, a professor at the University of Michigan, warned that the tech talent now embedded in OPM could be used to push forward some controversial changes, like reclassifying federal workers to strip away their job protections. The fear is that AI could be used to scan through job descriptions to find people who might be vulnerable to these changes.
Though Musk has no official government role, he’s heavily involved in Trump’s “Department of Government Efficiency,” a task force aiming to cut federal programs. Musk’s efforts to gain an office in the West Wing were reportedly blocked, but his influence seems to be growing behind the scenes. And to make things even more dramatic, he recently faced criticism for a gesture at a rally that some people have compared to a Nazi salute—though Musk denied it was intentional.
It’s clear that something big is happening, and many are still trying to figure out what it all means for the future of the government and the workforce.
