US civil servants fear becoming targets of the world’s richest man

When U.S. President-elect Donald Trump said Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy would recommend major cuts to the federal government in his administration, many public employees knew that their jobs could be on the line, CNN writes.

Now they have a new fear: becoming the personal targets of the world’s richest man – and his legions of followers.

Last week, in the midst of the flurry of his daily missives, Musk reposted two X posts that revealed the names and titles of people holding four relatively obscure climate-related government positions. Each post has been viewed tens of millions of times, and the individuals named have been subjected to a barrage of negative attention. At least one of the four women named has deleted her social media accounts.

Although the information he posted on those government positions is available through public online databases, these posts target otherwise unknown government employees in roles that do not deal directly with the public.

Several current federal employees told CNN they’re afraid their lives will be forever changed – including physically threatened – as Musk makes behind-the-scenes bureaucrats into personal targets.

“These tactics are aimed at sowing terror and fear at federal employees,” Everett Kelley, president of the American Federation of Government Employees, said.

This isn’t new behavior for Musk, who has often singled out individuals who he claims have made mistakes or stand in his way. It’s his way of intimidating people to either quit or also send a signal to all the other agencies that “you’re next”.