Elon Musk has "God mode" access to all of your data (New message from MoveOn) Call your senators/reps!
Dear MoveOn member,
This is terrifying: Elon Musk and DOGE are systematically seizing sensitive data from every federal agency, working to combine it into one massive centralized database.1
So if you thought that Musk would be leaving Washington, going back to focus on his business full time, and finally leaving the rest of us alone, think again.
Musk may be spending less time in Washington, D.C., but his work is as troubling—and dangerous—as ever.
First, Musk put critical government agencies like USAID and the Department of Education into the "wood chipper," hurting American children and, as Bill Gates recently noted, "killing the world's poorest children."2
But as Musk transitions off of being full time in Washington, he's working with his first buddy, Donald Trump, to build the most powerful surveillance machine in American history, with access to our most personal data.
According to a recent Atlantic report, Musk's DOGE has gained "God mode" access to government databases across the IRS, Homeland Security, the FBI, and more—databases that were never meant to be connected.3 They’ve even gone to the Supreme Court—they’re attempting to overturn a lower court order to gain unfettered access to our Social Security data too.4
The data in these databases spans our taxes, our travel, our health records—even things like notes from medical appointments and therapy sessions, our financial info, our Social Security numbers, our income history … everything. They’re trying to pool it all together into one vast data trove under Trump and Musk’s control.5
If Congress doesn't act to stop this soon, everything from your tax filings and Social Security earnings to your airline travel logs and even license plate scans will be centralized and accessible by an unknown number of people. They’ve even pulled in obscure troves like a government catalog of tattoos and detailed mental health records from the VA.6
Trump signed an executive order in March to eliminate the “data silos” that protected our information—-and decades-old privacy laws and safeguards are being shredded.7
This is how an authoritarian surveillance state starts, Beth. We have to stop them. NOW.
MoveOn is fighting back against Musk and Trump's surveillance state, but we urgently need your help. (If you have saved your payment information with ActBlue, your donation will go straight through.)
If we don't stop this, Trump and Musk will soon be able to track, intimidate, and punish anyone at the touch of a button. Experts warn this trove could be used for blackmail, harassment, and targeting of political enemies.8
With this level of centralized data, if Trump or Musk want to destroy a political or business rival, they can dig up their private medical history, tax payments, or even student-loan records and hold it over them.
If they want to silence a dissident or activist, they can comb the data until they find a minor infraction from years ago, a vulnerable point, or even something false and discredited—then use it to justify an arrest, an audit, or a smear campaign. An endless well of personal data means they can always find something to use as a pretext for retribution.
They could comb your past earnings records and terminate your benefits by claiming you once earned "too much" many years ago.
They could even lean on private companies to deny you services—imagine being refused insurance because data showed you attended a protest or visited a certain country.
In one chilling example, Trump’s officials are already combining databases to more easily identify and deport immigrants, even building a proposed “master database” of immigrant data to turbocharge deportations.9
First, they come for the immigrants. Then, they come for the rest of us, the "homegrowns," according to Trump.10 This is straight-up authoritarian: a surveillance dragnet to punish enemies at scale, starting with immigrants, minorities, and the most vulnerable—and then coming for anyone who isn't a MAGA loyalist.
Will you chip in $9? Your donation will help fuel our push to expose this power grab and demand that Republicans in Congress stop it in its tracks. (If you have saved your payment information with ActBlue, your donation will go straight through.)
We’re working to shine a blinding spotlight on Musk’s and Trump’s data takeover and build massive public pressure on the handful of Republicans in Congress who know this has gone too far and fear the consequences.11
Musk may be Trump’s hand-picked tech overlord, but even some GOP lawmakers are nervous about handing one billionaire this much control.12
MoveOn members across the country are mobilizing to make sure these lawmakers do the right thing. We’re organizing at the grassroots level, flooding districts with phone calls, town hall confrontations, and local media coverage to force them to act.
With your help, we’ll plaster the truth everywhere—that Trump and Musk are constructing a data-driven weapon to undermine our democracy—and we’ll demand Congress rein in Musk.
But we can’t do any of this without resources.
This is a true David vs. Goliath fight: Musk is the richest man in the world, and he’s using his wealth to grab even more power.13
He already has a near monopoly over satellites and space launches (SpaceX controls roughly 80% of U.S. rocket launches now), giving him outsize influence over national security.
He owns X (formerly Twitter), one of the world’s biggest social media platforms, where he’s actively amplifying lies and extremism.
He even released an AI chatbot that spewed false voting information to millions of Americans.14
And now, on top of all that, Trump has handed Musk the keys to our most sensitive data and is attempting to shred decades of data protection laws.
This is beyond dangerous—it’s the gateway to an Orwellian nightmare. We’re staring down a now-or-never moment to protect our democracy from this unprecedented merger of corporate tech power and state surveillance. And we have a limited window to act.
Can you chip in $9—or whatever you can—to help power our urgent campaign to sound the alarm and demand that Republicans in moderate and left-leaning districts fight back? (If you have saved your payment information with ActBlue, your donation will go straight through.)
Your donation will help us organize grassroots activists, blast the truth through social and news media, and drive a massive wave of constituent pressure on the Republicans enabling Musk and Trump's power grab.
Trump and Musk want to create a country where they can retaliate against anyone who stands in their way. But if we stand together now, we can stop this nightmare vision from becoming reality.
Thanks for all you do.
–Alexis, Seth, Emma, Jaira, and the rest of the team
Sources:
1. "American Panopticon," The Atlantic, April 27, 2025
https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2025/04/american-panopticon/682616/
2. "Bill Gates Says Elon Musk Is 'Killing World's Poorest Children,'" Newsweek, May 8, 2025
https://www.newsweek.com/bill-gates-says-elon-musk-killing-worlds-poorest-children-2069595
3. "DOGE Has ‘God Mode’ Access to Government Data," The Atlantic, February 19, 2025
https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2025/02/doge-god-mode-access/681719/
4. "Trump turns to Supreme Court in bid to allow DOGE access to Social Security data," Reuters, May 2, 2025
https://www.reuters.com/legal/trump-turns-us-supreme-court-bid-allow-doge-access-social-security-data-2025-05-02/
5. "American Panopticon," The Atlantic, April 27, 2025
https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2025/04/american-panopticon/682616/
6. Ibid.
7. Ibid.
8. Ibid.
9. Ibid.
10. "'Homegrowns are next': Trump hopes to deport and jail U.S. citizens abroad," NPR, April 16, 2025
https://www.npr.org/2025/04/16/nx-s1-5366178/trump-deport-jail-u-s-citizens-homegrowns-el-salvador
11. "Republicans are increasingly anxious about a midterms wipeout," Politico, April 2, 2025
https://www.politico.com/news/2025/04/02/republicans-midterm-backlash-fears-030290
12. Ibid.
13. "Elon Musk is out of control. Here is how to rein him in," The Guardian, August 30, 2024
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/article/2024/aug/30/elon-musk-wealth-power
14. "How to stop Musk," Robert Reich, August 15, 2024
https://robertreich.substack.com/p/time-to-stop-musk
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= new reply since forum marked as read
ALL of us. Not just "criminals" (WHO decides someone is a "criminal?) or immigrants.
I HAVE NEVER HEARD A DEMOCRAT USE THE WORD "WEAPONIZE" when describing what they're doing.
WHY?
They talk about people's data privacy but REFUSE to call out what Trump and DOGE are ACTUALLY doing here.
THIS IS A PROBLEM.
The media won't call it what it is.
Democrats won't call it what it is.
Americans - most of them - are unaware, especially the most vulnerable among us.
As many of us knew would happen. 