Elon Musk holds a chainsaw reading "Long live freedom, damn it" during
the Conservative Political Action Conference in Oxon Hill, Md., on Feb.
20. Photo: Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images
I’m among the oldest millennials, recently turning 44, and now living through the ‘sandwich generation’—caring for aging parents while raising children. My mother lives on Social Security, her only income after a lifetime of work. My twin brother is fighting cancer and relies on disability benefits. This isn’t abstract policy for me. It’s survival.
Social security is known by many as the third rail of American politics because it's seen as untouchable – but Elon is touching it—not through policy, but through ideology. He’s amplifying contempt for the systems that keep people afloat, and his platforms are echo chambers for those who see Social Security not as a promise, but as a problem to be solved through chaos.
As part of Elon's DOGE initiative, Trump announced intentions to cut staff in the already understaffed department by 7,000 employees. They are discontinuing the phone services requiring in-person identification while closing 10 regional offices. Martin O’Malley, the former commissioner of the SS admin, warns that DOGE’s activities could interrupt the department's history of never missing a benefit payment.. Senator Elizabeth Warren described a scenario where an elderly person with mobility issues could face a two-hour drive just to get to a Social Security office—possibly missing months of benefits if they can’t. As she says, these are backdoor cuts.
While the SSA is working on which 12% will be cut from its workforce, other federal departments are already trapped in chaos—caught in a bureaucratic merry-go-round of disappearing jobs and unclear roles. VA mental health staff hired to work from home are now required to work in the office in cubicles and provide their virtual services. Mental health sessions are now delivered like call center scripts—boxed in by beige partitions, surrounded by strangers. Patients hear other people’s trauma while being watched through glass. The answer? Managers recommended a white noise machine. It’s not a solution—it’s a silencing device. The therapists’ or their patients’ comfort is no longer a priority, it's an obstacle.
These sudden changes in working conditions are pushing workers out. And honestly, who can blame them. Judges have ordered the rehiring of many workers fired from their positions, only for those workers to be immediately put on administrative leave instead of going back to work. The result? Morale? Gone. Predictability? None. People opting out of federal work altogether.
When you gut thousands of experienced federal workers with no plan and no warning, you don’t just create unemployment– you create opportunity. China and Russia don’t need spies when they can just search Linkedin for a list of names and a reason to listen.
Experts warn that this mass exodus is flooding the job market with people who hold deep, sensitive knowledge of how our institutions work. And the biggest national security threat isn’t the ones who held clearances—it’s the ones you’d never expect. Foreign adversaries are increasingly targeting civilian infrastructure: workers from Social Security, the VA, even agriculture. That may not sound dangerous, until it is.
And with Elon and Trump dismantling oversight, disrupting pay, and demoralizing the workforce, they’re practically handing adversaries a pool of angry, skilled, and underemployed Americans—some of whom just might take the call.
Protesters hold signs in solidarity with the American Federation of
Government Employees at a March 4 rally in support of federal workers at
the Office of Personnel Management in Washington, D.C. Alex
Wroblewski/AFP via Getty Images
Bad actors know how to seem legit. It will likely be a scheme similar to one last year where popular conservative commentators were paid massive sums by Russia. The blueprint is there: create a fake company with a facade of legitimacy, recruit recently unemployed federal workers to “consult” and pay them handsomely. They won’t even realize they are selling out their country.
Meanwhile, DOGE is disabling the watchdogs. The Cyber Safety Review Board that was investigating how China has interfered with some of America’s largest telecommunications systems? Disbanded. The think tank inside the DOD that focused on foreseeing future defense vulnerabilities known as the Office of Net Assessment? Gone. All under the administration that is dropping classified attack plans on a Signal group they unwittingly invited a reporter to and not super interested in investigating any of their mistakes.
Our weakest links are the first to break, but in healthy systems we work to reinforce them. Trump's modus operandi has been to break everything and see what survives or is necessary enough to be revived. Some damage will be permanent no matter the remedy. Some simply won’t fight back – and that's the bet. While their goal may be to overthrow a system that checks their overreach, they are also breaking the institutions that protect us all. They won’t second guess themselves. They won’t mitigate the consequences.
But rest assured—they’ll cover their tracks. And the rest of us?
We’re left living inside a fail too big to save.