Q: What is WIRED’s overall strategy for covering an undertaking as massive and complex as DOGE?

A: This reporting wouldn’t be possible without the entire newsroom. At the very beginning of this, we understood that all of WIRED’s core beats would be impacted. We’re fortunate to have journalists with deep expertise in both Silicon Valley—where DOGE comes from—and in the areas that DOGE has had the most early impact. 

Every day, we try to skate to where the puck is headed: figuring out where DOGE might go next, what it’s looking for, which government systems could be impacted, and which federal employees are on the chopping block. In a moment like this, our reporting can’t just be reactionary, but forward-thinking and agenda-setting. It helps, too, that we’re deeply familiar with the Elon Musk extended universe. 

Q: What are some of the most impactful scoops WIRED has generated on the DOGE beat so far?

A: WIRED’s reporting on the young engineers core to DOGE, and DOGE’s incursion into the Office of Personnel Management and the General Services Administration, alerted the world to Elon Musk’s influence and early plans. This led to our scoops on the systems DOGE staffers gained access to in the Treasury Department, which resulted in a major lawsuit. Since then, we have continued exposing DOGE’s impacts on the federal government. 

Q: Last week, Donald Trump appeared to put some limits on DOGE during his first cabinet meeting. Do you see those limits as significant? 

A: Probably not. President Donald Trump has bestowed Elon Musk and DOGE with a lot of power, and it’s quite difficult to wrench it back—even if, of course, Trump has any interest in doing that. DOGE, at this point, is almost everywhere. Since that cabinet meeting, federal agencies are still offering buyouts and cutting down departments and staffers. 

Q: What, if anything, is being done to mitigate Elon Musk’s conflicts of interest between his business empire and his work at DOGE?

A: As far as we can tell … nothing! If you know more, feel free to reach out. 

Q: Give us a quick rundown of the major security and privacy implications of DOGE’s access to sensitive data. 

A: The obvious part of this is that the US government has more sensitive data about more Americans than any other entity. DOGE has demanded access seemingly to as much of that data as it can find. But what’s even more alarming is the lack of transparency about what DOGE is actually doing with that data. Americans have a right to know if their sensitive personal information is being fed into an AI system, or accessed by a 19-year-old coder with a checkered online history. As of now, they don’t.