Protests in Washington have started to pop up as Elon Musk works to rapidly consolidate control over large swaths of the federal government with President Donald Trump’s blessing.

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;