As Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency associates barrel through the federal government, former Twitter (now X) employees have seen this all before.

Musk is taking “the same Twitter playbook now with the federal government,” according to the lawyer representing thousands of Twitter workers laid off after Musk took control of the social media company.

Even as Mr Musk was speaking, workers at USAID ’s headquarters in Washington were being told not to come in the next day. Some 600 of the agency’s staff seem to have been locked out of their emails. That followed a weekend in which the agency’s website went offline;