Concern And Outrage After Trump Admits Elon Musk May Be Violating Privacy Laws

Comments made Friday by Felon-in-Chief Donald Trump during a press conference could soon come back to haunt the administration and its Chief Officer of Government Destruction, Elon Musk.

Trump was asked by a Fox News reporter if Musk and his so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) need unfettered access to the private information stored on government computers. That information includes medical records, bank accounts, and other private data that is supposed to be kept securely by the government.

“Well, it doesn’t, but they get it easily. I mean, we don’t have very good security in this country and they get it very easily,” Trump replied.

Trump’s remarks came just hours after the Washington Post reported that a handpicked Musk associate is now in control of the Treasury payment system that disperses Social Security checks, Medicare payments, and tax refunds.

“The decision puts Musk’s DOGE in a potential position to make sweeping changes to the federal budget, with implications for tens of millions of Americans,” the Post report notes. “The payment system, run by the Bureau of the Fiscal Service, contains sensitive taxpayer information, and some former Treasury officials have expressed concerns about granting access to individuals with private business interests. The move has also touched off broad alarm within the Treasury Department, the people said.”

“This is the bureau designed to be run by a career, nonpolitical person, but being taken over by a member of DOGE,” said Aaron Klein, a former Treasury Department official now at the Brookings Institution, a D.C. think tank. “It’s pretty scary — the Fiscal Service is the bureau of the people who cut the checks. They don’t determine who gets the checks. And the data that goes through this is of massive national security consequences.”

And now we have Trump suggesting that it was easy for Musk and his associates to get into that payment system and the private information it contains because security isn’t very good. Is that supposed to make us feel better? Are we supposed to trust Elon Musk with our credit reports, medical records, and other private data?

Trump’s comments set off a firestorm of anger and concern online.

Using Trump’s so-called “logic,” does this mean we all have the right to steal other people’s credit and debit card PINs and charge things on their bank accounts? After all, it’s easy to look over someone’s shoulder and see what numbers they’re punching into the keypad. If we do that, will the Justice Department still charge us with a crime, or will the “Musk rules” be applied to us so we can get away with highway robbery?

Holy shit we are so damn fucked.