I’m not sure where this whole “usb stick” story came about but I couldn’t find any news stories that said he was just plugging in usb sticks. I imagine this was a narrative developed to make DOGE’s access seem less official.
I believe it was actually 'connecting hard drives'... but letting random's (apparently without clearances at the time, though I think they've been granted now...) open up your machines and physically install NVME/Spinners would be even worse then USB, IMHO