The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) is located in a modern concrete and glass building just a short walk from the White House. While the agency’s name might conjure images of routine government functions, it actually plays a crucial role in managing human resources on a national scale. OPM oversees detailed records for around 2.1 million federal employees, as well as countless others who have applied for federal jobs. Interestingly, the agency also holds email addresses for nearly all federal employees.
Recently, tensions have escalated as President Trump and Elon Musk have criticized the federal workforce and the spending mandated by Congress. Their scrutiny has particularly focused on Musk and his team’s potentially questionable use of government data. The executive offices on the fifth floor of OPM’s Washington, D.C. headquarters are central to these developments.
For OPM’s career staff, red flags were raised during transition meetings with the incoming Trump administration. These meetings are usually designed to share essential information from the outgoing administration regarding ongoing projects, organizational structure, and the onboarding process for new hires.
However, the Trump team showed an unusual fixation on OPM’s computer systems, as noted by a current official. During those initial discussions, Greg Hogan, who later became OPM’s chief information officer, spent excessive time asking about the agency’s computer systems, access protocols, security measures, and the process for security updates. “I sensed something was amiss,” recalls the OPM official, who has experience briefing past presidential transition teams. “The questions were all IT-related.”
Federal employees quickly became aware of the ramifications of OPM’s changes on January 28, when they received an email from a newly implemented government-wide email system. This message offered them eight months of salary in exchange for their resignation. Following the distribution of these emails, staff at agencies such as the USDA and NOAA reported an influx of spam. The buyout plan is currently on hold due to a temporary injunction issued by a U.S. district judge in response to a lawsuit from labor unions.
The sweeping request for resignations was just the most visible sign of how the new administration is harnessing OPM’s resources to advance Trump’s objectives. In the past fortnight, administration officials have started appointing Trump loyalists to key technical positions within OPM—roles that Congress intended for career officials who possess expertise across multiple administrations. Musk’s associates are working to alter this dynamic across various agencies, leveraging OPM’s role as the central authority for federal hiring practices.
Read more: Inside Elon Musk’s War on Washington
This week, Trump’s political appointees removed OPM’s chief financial officer, Erica Roach, a long-serving official responsible for overseeing $1 trillion in deposits related to the Earned Benefits Trust Funds, which cover retirement and health benefits for most federal employees. Upon learning of her demotion, Roach chose to resign, as confirmed by an OPM official. Neither the White House nor OPM has responded to requests for comments.
Days earlier, the agency’s top technology officer, Melvin Brown, was reassigned, allowing Hogan, a Trump ally, to take over a position typically reserved for career civil servants. Charles Ezell, OPM’s acting director, intends to replicate this approach across the federal landscape. On Tuesday, a memo from Ezell to all cabinet departments and agencies signaled what could potentially be a significant shift in how the federal government appoints its top technology officers, known as chief information officers (CIOs).
Currently, CIO roles in most agencies are classified as “career reserved,” meaning they can only be filled by existing members of the federal senior executive service. This practice has been upheld by multiple administrations, emphasizing the legal requirement that career appointees are vital for maintaining impartiality and public trust in the government.
However, the new leadership at OPM contends that CIO positions should not be limited to career government officials, as their decisions greatly impact policy. “A modern agency CIO is not just an engineer, scientist, or technocrat,” Ezell stated in his memo. “Their role includes shaping and implementing policy, along with managing budgets, aligned with the priorities of their Administration.” Ezell has set a deadline of February 14 for agencies to request OPM to eliminate the career federal service requirement for the CIO role. This administrative change would enable political appointees in Trump’s administration to seek candidates from outside the career federal service for these positions.
By appointing favored individuals to these vital IT positions throughout the government, Trump and his allies will gain centralized access to extensive data concerning the federal workforce and government expenditures. This strategy is deliberate; however, it raises significant concerns regarding the potential neglect of established protections designed to prioritize employee privacy and safeguard against foreign intelligence threats.
Recently, OPM’s upper management has seen an influx of Musk’s associates, including senior advisor Brian Bjelde, a former SpaceX human resources VP; chief of staff Amanda Scales, who previously worked at Musk’s xAI; and senior advisor Anthony Armstrong, who was involved in Musk’s 2022 acquisition of Twitter. Another key figure in pushing these changes is Andrew Kloster, OPM’s new general counsel, who served in the White House during Trump’s first term and was formerly general counsel for Matt Gaetz.
Some senior career officials at OPM have already found themselves locked out of essential databases. There are rising concerns about political appointees accessing systems like Enterprise Human Resources Integration without the usual safeguards meant to protect information confidentiality. This system holds sensitive data, including salary scales, service duration, Social Security numbers, birth dates, and home addresses.
On January 31, Bjelde communicated to career supervisors at OPM that the goal was to reduce the agency’s workforce by 70%. A current OPM official warned that this could severely hinder the teams responsible for managing healthcare benefits and retirement planning for federal employees.
