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Comment by jeffgreco | Hacker News Reader

No, they are not actually part of the government, authorized by any act of Congress, nor paid by it.

Yes they are. If they are part of DOGE then they are part of the executive office of the President, which would be considered a part of government

https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/01/esta...

There is no such thing as DOGE. Any new “construct” and its directives need to be created and funded by Congress. Musk isn’t even legally an employee of the federal government.

The President can hire him and Congress could direct him to do what he’s doing, but that step has been skipped.

That’s why this is massively illegal

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_DOGE_Service

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Department_of_Government_Effic...

It's not a legal Department.

Trump's team is claiming that anything computerized falls under USDS purview, hence the parasitic hijacking of the US Digital Service.

They renamed the US Digital Services agency to be DOGE. I don't know if they can rename a branch of government but that's how they are doing it. Musk has then gotten Trump to appoint members of his initial DOGE as representatives in each of the departments (Treasury, Commerce, etc) so they can have acting authority.

Trump's delegated Musk as a Special Government Operative and signed executive orders granting him and all his recommended employees security clearances w/o the requisite background checks that normally would be required.

So they are acting within the government, they are employees, and they've been granted special waivers by Trump to do all this craziness.

I think its going to come down more to the courts looking at whether these 'newly appointed employees' are breaking all kinds of laws passed by congress.

Again. All of these things must go through Congress. The President signs laws. He doesn't alter or create them.

What does the executive branch do?

The power President Trump is lawfully exercising in the executive order to control the Executive Office of the President of the United States stems from the Reorganization Act of 1939 (via https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Executive_Order_8248) which FDR had to get Congress to pass after his previous efforts to reorganize the executive branch during the Great Depression were deemed unconsititutional.

Critics at the time warned this Act would give the president too much power.

The Reorganization Act of 1939 lapsed after 2 years. Trump would need a new Congressional Reorganization Act to do what he's doing with DOGE.

Gotta say I'm surprised. I thought for sure I'd get ratio'd by Muskovites, but it seems people have woken up and realize our democracy is literally at stake.

The only way we prevent the worst case scenario is to stand up to authoritarian power.

Keep shining the light on these bad actors. Let's send them home.

Trump is not king. Musk has no authority. DOGE is a hacker crew without a legal mandate.

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