By Ben Meiselas
Let me break this down for you because what I just heard in my interview with Merici Vinton—an actual former insider at the U.S. Digital Service (USDS), now the dystopian “DOGE”—left me floored. You’ve probably heard the spin from Trump’s cronies and Elon Musk’s fanboys about how DOGE (the Department of Government Efficiency) was supposed to “streamline” government. Cut waste. Save trillions.
Yeah, that was a lie.
Here’s the truth: DOGE is a hostile takeover of our government, engineered by Trump, executed by Musk, and designed to dismantle the federal agencies that actually serve YOU.
Merici Vinton, who helped build some of the most beloved government services like the IRS Direct File system, joined me to reveal what really went down. She was there before DOGE, during the hostile takeover, and saw the destruction firsthand.
What started as a patriotic mission to modernize government tech under USDS turned into a nightmare. With the stroke of Trump’s pen, Musk’s DOGE swept in—firing 42 career staffers on Valentine’s Day (because of course they did), demanding access to sensitive data (yes, your data), and pushing out loyalty tests like some dystopian sci-fi flick.
And the so-called “efficiency”? Musk and his DOGE goons walked into the IRS, the one place where the law actually matters, and told agents to “imagine there are no laws.” That’s right. They wanted to play dictator, even over our tax system.
But here’s the kicker: while DOGE was gutting agencies and cutting services that Americans depend on, they tried to kill the Direct File program—the free, user-friendly system Merici helped create that allowed millions of Americans to file taxes easily, quickly, and without predatory fees.
How good was Direct File? It had a Net Promoter Score (basically how much people love the product) that beat Apple. Let me say that again—the IRS had a higher satisfaction rating than Apple. That’s what they attempted to destroy.
All this while Musk’s promised “$2 trillion in savings” magically shrank to $150 billion—if that. Even Steve Bannon (yes, that Steve Bannon) is calling BS and demanding an audit of DOGE. When Bannon is the voice of reason, you know something’s rotten.
Merici didn’t sugarcoat it. This is a constitutional crisis. DOGE has been deleting federal agencies, cutting off cancer research funding, choking off grants for education and medicine, and gutting government services that millions rely on. And the scariest part? Most Americans don’t even know it’s happening.
But there’s hope. People like Merici and her colleagues, the ones who actually care about good governance, are ready to rebuild. They just need the chance.
So here’s my ask to you: Don’t look away. Demand accountability. Share this story. Because the more we expose this corrupt scheme, the closer we get to putting power back where it belongs—with the people. People are already starting to wake up. Let’s keep our foot on the gas.
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