‘Elon is my prophet’: how Musk’s Doge team took a wrecking ball to Washington

On Saturday night of February 22, 2025, the entire US federal workforce received an email requesting brief summaries of their accomplishments over the past week. Kathleen Walters, the chief privacy officer at the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), noticed the email and immediately felt uneasy. She was dealing with personal matters, including a concerning lump in her breast, and her work life was already stressful.

As the chief privacy officer, she was responsible for ensuring the security of 266 million tax returns processed by the IRS.

The email came at a time when the IRS was experiencing several surprises. On February 13, an unannounced individual named Gavin Kliger arrived at the IRS headquarters and demanded to be granted access to the agency's computer systems and taxpayer information. Gavin, dressed in black and displaying an attitude of rudeness, claimed to be an IRS employee who had been hired three weeks prior by the Office of Personnel Management and a part of a new group called "Doge."

Kathleen, already stressed due to her personal health issues, decided to brief Gavin on data privacy laws and warn her about the potential unpleasantness of the experience. She hoped to minimize the potential impact of 100,000 IRS employees believing they would lose their jobs if they didn't provide the requested information. The email marked the beginning of a significant confrontation between the IRS and Doge, a group led by Elon Musk that aimed to disrupt federal agencies and promote technological efficiency.