Report – Cut to Shreds: How Elon Musk Profited While Decimating the US Government
Democracy Defenders Fund: “A new white paper, Cut to Shreds: How Elon Musk Profited While Decimating the US Government, offers a blistering account of Elon Musk’s tenure as a “special government employee” under President Trump. Far from a symbolic role, Musk used his position as de facto head of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) to slash public protections, consolidate influence across federal agencies, and open new revenue pipelines for his companies.
This white paper arrives amid an increasingly public feud between Trump and Musk, a chaotic falling out that further highlights just how transactional their alliance always was. The report, co-authored by Charles Green, former Amb. Norm Eisen (ret.) (the executive chair of Democracy Defenders Fund), Virginia Canter, and Heather Dewar, documents how Musk’s brief stint in government overlapped with unprecedented self-dealing, skyrocketing contract awards, regulatory rollbacks benefiting his firms, and relaxed ethics oversight. The report calls on the Office of Government Ethics to investigate whether Musk violated federal conflict-of-interest laws during his time as a special government employee.
“Musk gutted the government in broad daylight. He slashed public protections — including in agencies that oversee his businesses,” said Amb. Norm Eisen (ret.), the executive chair of Democracy Defenders Fund. “He used a chainsaw when a scalpel was needed – also raising profound questions about conflicts that demand answers. This report will help to hold him accountable.”
- Billions in federal contracts flowed to Musk-controlled entities during his government service, including $6.3 billion in new SpaceX deals and potential windfalls from a $542 billion missile shield program.
- Starlink’s fortunes are poised to surge once the Commerce Department implements announced rule changes that widens its eligibility domestically and after the State Department advocacy boosted its availability overseas.
- Federal ethics norms collapsed, with Musk having been given seemingly endless authority over agencies and programs that directly affected his companies, despite being legally required to recuse himself.
- Regulatory scrutiny evaporated, as cases involving Tesla, Neuralink, and other Musk ventures were delayed or dropped while enforcement agencies saw mass firings.
- X’s ad revenue rebounded, potentially aided by pressure campaigns on advertisers and growing federal reliance on the platform for communications.
- DOGE staff deployed across the government reportedly gained access to sensitive data, raising alarms about whether proprietary government information could now be used to train Musk’s AI firm.
The report warns that Musk’s departure does not end the risk. Many former Musk employees remain embedded across the executive branch. Trump’s budget proposals and agency actions continue to reflect Musk’s priorities, from Mars colonization funding to deregulating self-driving cars. Now, in the middle of the disintegration of their partnership, it’s more obvious than ever that Musk was given a blank check to dismantle our government because he helped Trump win the presidency.
GhostVendors Exposed: Silent Push Uncovers Massive Network of 4000+ Fraudulent Domains Masquerading as Major Brands
“Silent Push Threat Analysts are tracking a massive “fake marketplace” scam that uses thousands of fake websites to abuse dozens of major brands and buy Facebook ads to promote its scam products. Our team is labeling this group “GhostVendors,” and we suspect they are also purchasing ads on other networks to self-promote their scam sites. We will update this report accordingly as our investigation continues.
Our team also confirmed how a Facebook advertiser can buy ads which show up in the Meta Ad Librarywhile they are running, and then stop their campaigns, thereby removing all evidence of their posted ads from the Meta Ad Library.
In early May 2025, we documented the appearance of ads from this threat actor group that were searchable in the Ad Library, five days later, all evidence of their presence was removed from the Ad Library due to the ad campaigns stopping.
This helped to confirm a known Meta ad library policy existed, and highlighted that potentially these threat actors were taking advantage of this by rapidly launching and stopping ads for similar products on different pages. Based on the brands being impersonated, this campaign appears to focus on impersonating brands that buy large amounts of online ads—many of the impersonated brands are huge and well-known for purchasing significant quantities of ads.
In contrast, other brands being impersonated are smaller ones that mostly use online sales processes. Brands our team has observed being targeted by the GhostVendors campaign include: Amazon, Costco, Bath & Body Works, Nordstrom, Saks Fifth Avenue, Lowes, L.L. Bean, Tommy Bahama, Rolex, Brooks Running, Birkenstock, Crocs, Skechers, Total Wine, Omaha Steaks, Instacart, Duluth Trading, Advance Auto Parts, Party City, Dollar General, Tractor Supply, Joann, Big Lots, Orvis, Alo Yoga, On Running, Tom Ford Beauty, Rebecca Minkoff, Yankee Candle, Hoka, Thrive Market, Vionic Shoes, Rock Bottom Golf, Vuori Clothing, Goyard, Icebreaker Clothing, NOBULL Sportswear, Alpha Industries, Volcom, Kizik Shoes, Vessi Shoes, Mammut Outdoor Gear, Buffalo Games & Puzzles, Ravensburger Puzzles, Fast Growing Trees, Gurney’s Seed and Nursery, Vivobarefoot, KaDeWe, Palmetto State Armory, Natural Life, Luke’s Lobster, Cousins Maine Lobster, White Oak Pastures, Seven Sons Farm, Arcade1Up Gaming, EGO Power+ Tools, Cobble Hill Puzzles, Popflex, Argos UK, Huk Clothing, 44 Farms, Tyner Pond Farm, Pipers Farms, Rebel Sport, The Woobles Crochet, Massimo Dutti, and GE Appliances….”
