By Nermeen Nabil Khear 
Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (D.O.G.E) just crashed into the US Treasury like a runaway Tesla. David A. Lebryk, the highest-ranking career official at the Treasury Department, resigned yesterday after Elon demanded unrestricted access to audit federal spending.
Lebryk called it quits instead of letting Elon’s team poke around the payment systems responsible for moving over $6 trillion annually, because yes, that’s not suspicious at all.
Now Elon claims the D.O.G.E team uncovered mind-blowing negligence at the Treasury, accusing payment approval officers of approving everything, even payments to known scammers and terrorist-linked entities. “They literally never denied a payment in their entire career. Not even once,” Elon said on X.
He’s furious about the federal deficit, which he wants to slash by $4 billion every day until the end of September. But Treasury officials are treating D.O.G.E’s demands like a hostile takeover.
Lebryk’s shady exit
Right now, the Treasury is engaged in a heated dispute with Elon’s team over control of the federal payment system, which disburses Social Security benefits, federal worker salaries, tax refunds, and payments to contractors.
The system is overseen by the Bureau of the Fiscal Service and processes about 1.3 billion payments annually, worth $5.4 trillion. Lebryk was appointed acting Treasury Secretary by Trump after his inauguration, ahead of Scott Bessent’s confirmation, which happened last week.
Before his resignation, Trump administration officials had placed him on administrative leave, reportedly after Elon’s team kept pushing for system access. Tom Krause, a Silicon Valley exec working with D.O.G.E, was leading the charge. He didn’t respond to reporters when asked for details outside the White House yesterday.
According to a Jan. 31 report from The Post, D.O.G.E’s audit requests intensified after the election. Treasury officials, though, were uneasy about the idea of outsiders reviewing what many consider to be one of the government’s most sensitive financial infrastructures.
Elon’s mission isn’t just to audit payments. He’s trying to change how the government spends money—period. On X, he called the rising national debt an “existential threat” and shared plans to reduce the deficit from $2 trillion to $1 trillion by fiscal 2026.
His plan is to cut $4 billion a day, shrink government spending, and let economic growth handle the rest. The man’s already taken over federal agencies, installing allies at the Office of Personnel Management and the General Services Administration.
Legal experts are freaking out. Mark Mazur, who worked in the Treasury under Obama and Biden, says Elon’s approach is unprecedented. “It’s never been used in a way to execute a partisan agenda,” he told reporters, adding that the system’s purpose has always been straightforward: make payments, no politics.
He warned that allowing Elon’s team to access and possibly manipulate the nation’s financial plumbing could lead to dangerous precedents. The White House briefly ordered a federal grant freeze earlier this week, only to backtrack after backlash and legal threats.
D.O.G.E, which Elon created to replace the US Digital Service, has been labeled a watchdog with bite. And Elon isn’t afraid to break the rules. His goal is to audit everything — fraudulent payments, bloated contracts, hidden fees, you name it.
Treasury insiders believe Elon’s team sees federal spending as a tech problem: too much overhead, not enough automation, and zero accountability.
The problem for Elon is that most career officials see it differently. To them, D.O.G.E’s aggressive tactics are just plain dangerous.
The Treasury’s systems have never been used to enact political agendas, and officials fear Elon’s team is treating it like a startup expense report instead of a national safety net.
As for Lebryk, Michael Faulkender, Trump’s deputy Treasury nominee, praised his work, saying, “He always seemed to be relaxed and under control.” But Elon’s arrival threw him into unfamiliar territory, and he chose to walk away rather than fight.
In his farewell email, Lebryk told staff: “Please know that your work makes a difference and is so very important to the country.”
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This articles is written by : Nermeen Nabil Khear Abdelmalak
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