By Alexandra Alper
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The federal human-resources agency leading efforts by billionaire White House adviser Elon Musk to slash the federal workforce has decided to hire its first new career employee since President Donald Trump took office, according to emails seen by Reuters.
The position is a new driver to ferry around leaders of that agency, the Office of Personnel Management, the emails indicate.
OPM’s acting director, Chuck Ezell, last week authorized an exemption to a government-wide hiring freeze to replace one of two drivers for agency leadership after one retired in mid-March, according to the messages.
The decision, not previously reported, shows that Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, which is directing the cuts, is not making the government more effective, said Kathleen Clark, a professor of ethics at Washington University in St. Louis.
“It is becoming increasingly obvious that Musk’s & DOGE’s mission has absolutely nothing to do with efficiency, and instead is aimed at enabling Musk to use – and abuse – power within the federal government,” she said.
“Authorizing a Musk-controlled agency like OPM to hire a driver while slashing essential federal workers who actually help Americans in need is a good example.”
The White House, DOGE, Musk and Ezell did not respond to requests for comment. An OPM spokesperson said in a statement that the agency “has ongoing security concerns” requiring a driver, without providing further detail. Ezell said he has received death threats in the role in an interview last month with byFaith, which describes itself as the Magazine of the Presbyterian Church in America.
One of Trump’s first acts as president was to create DOGE, to root out waste, fraud and abuse, slash government spending and purge the federal workforce of low-performing, disloyal and unnecessary workers.
Trump has said he is “very proud” of what he describes as a vital initiative to turn off the spigot of wasteful spending.
In practice, some say DOGE has mostly pursued long-time Republican policy objectives, shuttering agencies such as USAID and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which provide a lifeline to the world’s needy and protect Americans from unscrupulous lender respectively.
It has also announced drastic cuts at departments that provide critical social services including the Department of Veterans Affairs, which administers healthcare for veterans, and the Social Security Administration, which sends out checks to retired, disabled and widowed Americans.
OPM, which has led the charge on federal government firings, has laid off more than 200 of its own employees and allowed over 400 to opt in to voluntary exit programs since Trump took office, two people familiar with the matter said.
(Reporting by Alexandra Alper in Washington; Editing by Chris Sanders and Matthew Lewis)
