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.

The billionaire seems to be repeating his Twitter playbook. The question is why? And will he get away with it?

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;