Hours after Musk announced a plan to shutter the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) on X, the social media platform he owns, a White House official told USA TODAY he was officially joining the federal government.

The Trump Administration claims it is allowing "lifesaving" foreign aid to continue, but in reality, DOGE is preventing vital work on HIV and AIDS from saving lives.

Another area where the private sector could be of immense help is in the modernization of the government’s IT infrastructure. This is a major challenge for government and will be difficult to implement, but given his background and expertise in IT, this should be Musk’s (and DOGE’s) primary focus.