The team of young vandals assembled by Elon Musk have been given free rein to fire anyone and break contracts for any reason or no reason. They spend a few hours in a Department or agency and decide on the spur of the moment whose career to terminate, without regard to experience or knowledge. What will be left of our government when Musk and his kiddies put down their chainsaw?
In one agency that was shuttered, the team is fighting back. This is their story:
March 1, 2025
A letter to the American People:
For over 11 years, 18F has been proudly serving you to make government technology work better. We are non-partisan civil servants. 18F has worked on hundreds of projects, all designed to make government technology not just efficient but effective, and to save money for American taxpayers.
However, all employees at 18F – a group that the Trump Administration GSA Technology Transformation Services Director called “the gold standard” of civic tech – were terminated today at midnight ET.
18F was doing exactly the type of work that DOGE claims to want – yet we were eliminated.
When former Tesla engineer Thomas Shedd took the position of TTS director and met with TTS including 18F on February 3, 2025, he acknowledged that the group is the “gold standard” of civic technologists and that “you guys have been doing this far longer than I’ve been even aware that your group exists.” He repeatedly emphasized the importance of the work, and the value of the talent that the teams bring to government.
Despite that skill and knowledge, at midnight ET on March 1, the entirety of 18F received notice that our positions had been eliminated.
The letter said that 18F “has been identified as part of this phase of GSA’s Reduction in Force (RIF) as non-critical”.
“This decision was made with explicit direction from the top levels of leadership within both the Administration and GSA,” Shedd said in an email shortly after we were given notice.
This was a surprise to all 18F staff and our agency partners. Just yesterday we were working on important projects, including improving access to weather data with NOAA, making it easier and faster to get a passport with the Department of State, supporting free tax filing with the IRS, and other critical projects with organizations at the federal and state levels.
All 18F’s support on that work has now abruptly come to a halt. Since the entire staff was also placed on administrative leave, we have been locked out of our computers, and have no chance to assist in an orderly transition in our work. We don’t even have access to our personal employment data. We’re supposed to return our equipment, but can’t use our email to find out how or where.
Dismantling 18F follows the gutting of the original US Digital Service. These cuts are just the most recent in a series of a sledgehammer approach to the critical US teams supporting IT infrastructure.
Before today’s RIF, DOGE members and GSA political appointees demanded and took access to IT systems that hold sensitive information. They ignored security precautions. Some who pushed back on this questionable behavior resigned rather than grant access. Others were met with reprisals like being booted from work communication channels.
We’re not done yet.
We’re still absorbing what has happened. We’re wrestling with what it will mean for ourselves and our families, as well as the impact on our partners and the American people.
But we came to the government to fix things. And we’re not done with this work yet.
More to come.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
I’m sure that the chaos caused by all this “disruption” is going to cost the Govt. more money, not less.
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This massive disruption is not efficient.
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Musk has to be booted out of the White House. No one elected him to do a damned thing. Everything he touches turns to shit.
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He cut the staff at Twitter by 80%. He eliminated content moderation, opening the site to slander, lies, medical quacks, and Nazis. It’s a sewer.
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He’s a sewer on two legs.
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He needs to be tossed out of the country.
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Pretty Boy Floyd was celebrated in songs claiming he gave charity where rich people stole money: “some steal with a six gun, and some with a fountain pen.”
if modern writers could write ballads today, they would have some phrases describing how billionaires cause financial instability, then use it to acquire stocks at a reduced level. They might not have a fountain pen, but they are surely criminal.
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The chaos and disruption this insanity is causing is exactly what Putin wants and the Traitorous Felon in the US White House is Putin’s ally through and through.
Putin did this on a smaller scale when his propaganda led to the UK leaving the EU to weaken that alliance.
What Putin wants for the United States is a total collapse, a failed state similar to Venezuela with a dictator ally its ruthless and heartless leader.
“Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro is said to trust the Cubans more than his fellow Venezuelans, meaning Maduro’s protection is in the hands of the Cuban security and intelligence services.”
Before Venezuela fell to one of Putin’s puppets, it was the most prosperous democracy in South America with the best health care system. Now it is a failed state ruled by a ruthless dictator with a failed health care system.
“According to recent reports, over 7.7 million Venezuelans have fled their country, representing one of the largest displacement crises globally due to the ongoing economic and political crisis in Venezuela.”
How long before the Traitorous Felon and convicted rapist in OUR White House asks for Russian, Cuban, or North Korean security and intelligence services to protect them from us?
Is Canada and Mexico ready to accept US citizens when they start fleeing the US? The US has the third largest population in the world and refuges escaping Trump revenge may number in the tens of millions.
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“supporting free tax filing with the IRS”
Cain’t be havin no commie crap comin out of our GUBMINT now can we?
Glad I used one of the free tax filing services offered by the IRS before CONMAN & CONVICT DONNIE was sworn it. Both state and Fed tax files accepted, no problem. And yes, if the government insists that we file tax returns they should be making it as easy as possible for those of us who live on well-below-the-poverty-line income.
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