Much like the man himself, Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency is never far from the news these days. After finding himself a cushy position alongside President Donald Trump as a ‘special government employee’, the world’s richest man has been tasked with slashing $2 trillion from the government spend.
With Musk axing thousands of jobs, cutting whole departments, and sending out emails asking others to justify their jobs in bullet point form, the tech billionaire has irked millions. This has overflowed into his net worth taking a hit, Musk being sent death threats, and scenes of violence at Tesla dealerships.
There have already been questions about the young age of Musk’s DOGE staffers and the fact they’re being granted access to high levels of government security. In an embarrassing week that’s already seen the US’ war plans leaked via a Signal chat, a damning report from Reuters claims that one DOGE employee known as ‘Big Balls’ provided services to a gang that cyberstalked an FBI agent two years ago.
Musk’s DOGE staffers are now in the spotlight (Andrew Harnik / Staff / Getty)
19-year-old Edward Coristine is a prominent member of the DOGE team and has access to critical computers as part of his position trying to assist in trimming the governmental waste.
Musk himself has championed Coristine’s work, previously saying, “Big Balls is awesome” on X. According to Reuters’ investigation, Coristine ran a company called DiamondCDN, which provided network services to others. Among the DiamondCDN users was a group of cybercriminals that operated under “EGodly” between October 2022 and June 2023.
Attempting to access the EGodly website would apparently greet you with a DiamondCDN ‘security check’.
In February 2023, EGodly thanked DiamondCDN for its help and wrote: “We extend our gratitude to our valued partners DiamondCDN for generously providing us with their amazing DDoS protection and caching systems, which allow us to securely host and safeguard our website.”
As well as EGodly boasting about committing cryptocurrency theft, the group is accused of hijacking emails and contact numbers for law enforcement across Latin America and Eastern Europe.
EGodly also distributed the phone number and photos of one FBI agent’s home in early 2023, alongside a drive-by video of him being harassed outside his house.
The FBI agent is now retired but told Reuters that EGodly had drawn attention due its use of ‘swatting’. Although he didn’t go into further detail, he concluded: “These are bad folks. They’re not a pleasant group.”
Coristine and the DOGE did not respond to Reuters’ request for comment, while he’s listed as a “senior adviser” at the State Department and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency. The CISA is responsible for protecting federal government networks from cybercriminals and foreign spies, but it didn’t comment, and neither did the State Department.
It all comes in the aftermath of a Fox News interview where Musk hyped the work of the DOGE and said: “Basically almost no one has gotten fired, that’s what we’re saying.”
Less than 3 years before Elon Musk made him part of his government “overhaul,” Edward “Big Balls” Coristine, then 17, was subject of a heated dispute between executives at cybersecurity firm where he was an intern & suspected of leaking proprietary information to competitor.
In the aftermath of the report, ‘Big Balls’ started trending on X in the USA.
One concerned citizen wrote: “This is why we need a full investigation into WHO is working for DOGE. Big Balls could never pass a background check, much less get a security clearance.”
Another said: “Meanwhile, @elonmusk wants access to voter rolls & Social Security… what could go wrong? Oh. Maybe we shouldn’t hand the keys over to someone who provided tech support to a criminal gang….”
A third called out the DOGE’s entire mission statement and joked: “Not much has changed for Big Balls. He’s still working for a crime ring.”
Nitin Natarajan served as deputy director of CISA under Joe Biden and shared his concerns with Reuters: “This stuff was not in the distant past,” he said. “The recency of the activity and the types of groups he was associated would definitely be concerning.”
Will Musk still think ‘Big Balls’ is as ‘awesome’ after all of this?
Featured Image Credit: Fox News
Bizarre video of Elon Musk’s dinner table actions leaves everyone saying the same thing
The billionaire was seated next to President Trump at the dinner
A bizarre video has surfaced of Elon Musk’s dinner table actions and it has left everyone saying the same thing.
The clip of the billionaire has been doing the rounds on social media after he appeared to have some strange table manners (or lack thereof).
Musk was seated next to President Donald Trump during the dinner, which is said to have taken place at the president’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida, on March 15.
Elon Musk 🥄🍴🥄 🤘🏼
In the video, the Tesla boss can be seen playing with a fork and two spoons, balancing the cutlery on one finger.
Viewing the bizarre behavior was Neuralink director Shivon Zilis, who is the mother of four of Musk’s children.
Many people have taken to social media to share their reactions to the footage.
One user wrote: “Not at the dinner table!”
While another person said: “Ah yes. Peak 5 year old behavior.”
A third commented: “Engineer dinner table entertainment.”
A fourth user wrote: “I did this s**t when I was 6 for attention, thinking I was a god damn genius. This man is over 50.”
And a fifth added: “We all feel this because we were all once children at the dinner table crafting silverware balancing art followed by looking around for approval of said skills.”
Elon Musk has become close friends with President Trump (Kayla Bartkowski/Getty Images)
However, not everyone was as critical of the behavior, with one user writing: “Now that’s some next-level multitasking! Balancing cutlery like it’s a physics demo, all while talking policy with Trump, only Elon could make dinner look like a TED Talk and a magic show in one.”
Musk doesn’t appear to be fazed by the backlash to his antics, with the SpaceX CEO taking to his own social media platform X, formerly Twitter, to explain exactly what he was doing.
He wrote: “A fork and two spoons balanced on the tip of my finger.”
Although, while it might seem like a bit of harmless fun at a dinner party, according to a Daily Mail report, just one seat at Trump’s dinner came with a required ‘$1 million contribution per guest’.
This means it might have been a pretty pricey meal for Musk.
The world’s richest man has been seen by Trump’s side regularly in recent months after supporting him in his election campaign.
Following Trump’s return to the White House, Musk was appointed as the new head of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), which has proven to be controversial.
Featured Image Credit: X
Elon Musk’s Grok has very ironic reply when asked to name ‘the biggest disinformation spreader on X’
No prizes for guessing who comes out on top
There’s no denying the power that Elon Musk wields, with the world’s richest man leading tech companies like Tesla and SpaceX, lauding it over X with his 219.9-million following, and even dipping his toes into politics as the head of the Department of Government Efficiency.
With such a large platform to call his own, Musk has the world waiting on his every word.
Unfortunately, it seems that not every word that comes out of his mouth is true.
The tech mogul was recently left a little red-faced when he claimed USAID was sending $50 million worth of condoms to Gaza, realizing he was talking about the wrong Gaza and then spectacularly claiming ‘we will make mistakes’ when referring to the DOGE.
There was more embarrassment when the DOGE had to delete $4 billion worth of savings from its wall of receipts, and in his latest claim, Musk maintains that there are ‘magic money computers’ lurking in the Treasury Department.
Thank you for being honest @grok x.com/i/grok/share/v…
Ayo Edebiri also says she received death threats after Musk incorrectly claimed she’d been cast to replace Johnny Depp in the next Pirates of the Caribbean.
While Musk’s supporters stand by everything he says, others have accused him of spreading misinformation online. In particular, you might remember him saying that people were being ‘imported’ from abroad to vote for Kamala Harris in the 2024 election.
It’s not as easy as pinning down who the ‘biggest’ spreader of disinformation online is, but when it comes to Musk’s own Grok chatbot, it’s given a pretty awkward response.
Try it for yourselves, but when we asked Grok, “Who is the biggest spreader of disinformation?” it went into a lengthy paragraph that pulled from various sources. Grok states: “Determining the ‘biggest spreader of disinformation’ depends on how you measure it—reach, intent, or impact. Research often points to high-profile figures with massive platforms.”
Studies from Cornell University in 2020 suggested it was Donald Trump thanks to spreading disinformation during the COVID-19 pandemic. Grok reiterated: “His claims about elections and the virus reached millions through social media and traditional outlets, amplifying their effect.”
Grok has thrown Elon Musk under the bus when it comes to disinformation (X / Grok)
Things get more interesting when it says, “More recently, attention has shifted to Elon Musk.” Blaming his ownership of X and the fact he has a massive following, Grok says his ‘unfiltered takes’ on the likes of the election, immigration, and vaccines have allowed ‘false narratives’ to quickly spread.
The Center for Countering Digital Hate pointed out how the ‘Disinformation Dozen’ accounted for 65% of anti-vaccine misinformation online in 2021, while Russia is also accused of pushing disinformation through RT (formerly Russia Today).
Grok concludes: “In terms of sheer audience and real-time impact, individuals like Trump and Musk often outpace even coordinated campaigns. Without a universal metric (e.g., views of false claims or verified lies), it’s a tight race, but current sentiment on X and research lean toward Musk or Trump as top contenders today, with Musk’s X activity giving him an edge in 2025.”
Asking Grok to keep it short and give just a single name, the machine called out its owner and said, “Elon Musk.”
This isn’t the first time Grok has thrown Musk under the bus, and in November 2024, it similarly accused him of spreading misinformation. Seeing Musk’s own creation turn on him all feels very Frankenstein’s Monster.
Featured Image Credit: VINCENT FEURAY / Contributor / Getty
Man who predicted 2008 financial crash issues stark warning about Elon Musk’s federal spending
He believes the savings will come at a much bigger cost
The man who predicted the 2008 financial crash warns of trouble ahead after Elon Musk’s federal spending cuts.
Danny Moses, the investor known for spotting the 2008 financial crisis before it hit, became famous from the book-turned-movie The Big Short.
Now, he’s warning of the dangerous economic effects of federal spending cuts tied to Musk’s new role in government.
Trump recently signed an executive order to decrease federal spending. Win McNamee / Staff / Getty
“I think we are underestimating the impact to the economy of the cuts we’re making at the federal government, and what that might mean [for] the knock-on effects into the economy,” Moses said on CNBC. “I think we’re hurting the revenue side of the equation.”
His concern follows the recent moves by the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), which is headed by Musk.
According to DOGE, it has saved taxpayers $115 billion by cutting federal programs and laying off workers. But the founder of Moses Ventures believes those savings could come at a much bigger cost – one that reaches far beyond government employees.
“It’s not as simple as just, ‘We think there’s fraud, let’s cut waste, let’s cut expenses,'” Moses explained. “And it’s not just about the federal workers, and it’s not just about the expenses out of those programs. It’s about the contracts with the private sector.”
Moses added that when the government spends money, it doesn’t just disappear. It helps keep roads and infrastructure running, supports state budgets and flows into the economy through business contracts.
He used Musk’s SpaceX company as an example, which has received more than $38 billion in federal support through government contracts, loans and tax credits. Because of the Tesla CEO’s new role in government, companies like SpaceX are probably safe from the funding cuts, Moses argued. But other businesses, including small ones not tied to President Trump or Musk, might not be so lucky.
Musk’s new role in government will keep his ventures safe from funding cuts, Moses claims. Samuel Corum / Stringer / Getty
“Private contractors that are doing legitimate work services that are now being forced to make decisions on their business,” he added.
Adding to the problem is Trump’s constant back-and-forth on tariffs, which has created an uncertain economic climate and made it harder for trading partners to plan ahead.
“I think we are being overly optimistic [as to] how this is going to play out,” Moses continued. “We’re going to start to hear, when first quarter earnings are reported, that there is a market slowdown potentially, and a hit to consumer confidence.”
Meanwhile, Cory Stahle, an economist for Indeed’s Hiring Lab, claims that there’s a lot of ‘unquantifiable uncertainty’ going around.
“Employers seem to be really frozen, by the uncertainty around what’s going to happen around tariffs, what’s going to happen with labour supply, immigration, then obviously, what’s going to happen with these federal workers,” Stahle said.
Featured Image Credit: Andrew Harnik / Staff / Getty
Elon Musk’s DOGE under fire after breaking treasury policy by emailing personal information to Trump admin
The Treasury Department is being sued over DOGE’s access
Elon Musk’s DOGE is under fire after breaking an important treasury policy by emailing personal information to a Trump admin.
More details were revealed about the ongoing lawsuit against the US Treasury Department after court documents showed that a 25-year-old DOGE employee had violated the policy.
The staffer, named Marko Elez, is a worker for the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), which is headed up by Musk.
Elon Musk is under fire for DOGE’s actions (Samuel Corum/Getty Images)
According to a report by Bloomberg, it was found that Elez had sent a spreadsheet containing personal information to two members of the Trump administration.
Elez is also a former employee at two of Musk’s other companies, SpaceX and X, formerly Twitter.
During his time at DOGE, the ex-staffer was tasked with the job of combing through the Treasury payments system.
Last month Elez resigned from his post after racist social media posts were linked to him, although DOGE has since rehired him and he now works at the Social Security Administration.
In February, 19 state attorney generals sued the Treasury Department over the access DOGE has been given to its systems.
The Treasury Department has since claimed that Elez’s ‘read and write’ access to the payment system was a ‘mistake’.
Since the incident, a court order has limited what access DOGE has, although the government is trying to modify this, according to Bloomberg.
In a court filing that the Treasury Department issued on Friday (March 14), it claims that any analysis of Elez’s laptop and email account found that he ‘did not make any alterations or changes to Bureau payment systems’.
Musk has become a close friend of President Trump (Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)
However, he did email a spreadsheet with confidential information, including a name, the transaction type and an amount of money.
This was sent to two unnamed officials within the General Services Administration and violated the department’s policy by not encrypting the document or getting proper approval beforehand.
In another court document sent on Friday, the states that are suing the Treasury Department wrote that the results of the analysis on Elez’s actions ‘do nothing to allay any of the concerns expressed by the court in its opinion about the rushed and chaotic nature of the Treasury DOGE Team onboarding process’.
Musk’s department has been at the center of controversy since the start of the year when President Trump made his return to the White House.
With Musk being an unelected outside advisor, many have questioned the level of access and influence he has on the government.
The White House has claimed that Musk has no decision-making authority.
