People associated with Elon Musk’s “Department of Government Efficiency” project showed up at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s headquarters Tuesday, the Guardian reports:
“They apparently just sort of walked past security and said: ‘Get out of my way,’ and they’re looking for access for the IT systems, as they have in other agencies,” said Andrew Rosenberg, a former Noaa official who is now a fellow at the University of New Hampshire.
Musk’s so-far unimpeded romp through federal agencies doesn’t appear to be aimed at NOAA’s core functions: Axios confirms that DOGE reps are on site at NOAA and reports that they are “combing through IT databases to find employees associated with DEI initiatives.” But Project 2025, the “blueprint” for Trump’s second administration that he disavowed but which nonetheless seems to offer a fairly good roadmap to actions in his first weeks in office, calls for the agency to be broken up.
Trump has nominated Neil Jacobs, a key player in “Sharpiegate,” one of the dumbest scandals of the first Trump administration, to run NOAA.
Andrew Beaujon joined Washingtonian in late 2014. He was previously with the Poynter Institute, TBD.com, and Washington City Paper. He lives in Del Ray.
