Won't jeopardise Americans' data: 21 DOGE workers quit amid federal layoffs, Elon Musk says ‘fake news’

Amid a recent series of layoffs implemented by the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), represented by Donald Trump’s advisor Elon Musk, 21 employees of the agency have tendered their resignation, saying that they will not participate in dismantling “critical public services.”

According to a report by the Associated Press, the employees said that they could no longer honour the ‘commitments’ made by them when they signed up for their jobs.

“We swore to serve the American people and uphold our oath to the Constitution across presidential administrations,” they said in a joining resignation letter, which was seen by AP.

“However, it has become clear that we can no longer honor those commitments.”

The workers vowed to not use their skills to ‘jeopardise’ sensitive data.

“We will not use our skills as technologists to compromise core government systems, jeopardise Americans’ sensitive data, or dismantle critical public services,” they said.

“We will not lend our expertise to carry out or legitimise DOGE’s actions.”

DOGE resignations: Who are the workers that quit?

Employees including engineers, data scientists, designers, product managers and the division head of IT were among those who tendered their resignation, which is being seen as a temporary setback for Elon Musk and Donald Trump, who are on a mission to slash federal jobs.

They were employed with the United States Digital Service, which Elon Musk took over and renamed as DOGE.

The USDS, established under President Barack Obama, was created following the rollout of Healthcare.gov, which millions of US citizens use for insurance plan signups.

According to employees, all the employees who resigned previously held senior roles at such tech companies as Google and Amazon. They joined the USDS out of a sense of duty to public service, they wrote in the letter.

The resignation comes after a series of court cases that have sought to stall, stop or affect the Trump administration’s efforts to fire or coerce thousands of government workers out of jobs.

About a third of the 65 workers who remained at USDS quit on Tuesday rather than take new responsibilities at DOGE. The workers also alleged that the government had earlier in February laid off 40 employees of their department, adding that their dismissals would put Americans’ data in an unsafe position.

Elon Musk reacts, White House issues statement

Sharing a social media post of AP reporting on the resignations, Musk said that these workers were “Dem political holdovers”.

“More fake news from Associated Propaganda. These were Dem political holdovers who refused to return to the office. They would have been fired had they not resigned,” he said.

The White House press secretary in a statement said that nobody can deter President Donald Trump by holding protests and filing lawsuits.

“Anyone who thinks protests, lawsuits, and lawfare will deter President Trump must have been sleeping under a rock for the past several years,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said.

“President Trump will not be deterred from delivering on the promises he made to make our federal government more efficient and more accountable to the hardworking American taxpayers,” she added.

(With agency inputs)