Welcome to Week Five of the Revolving Door Project’s Corruption Calendar, where we highlight examples of corporate corruption shaping the Trump administration’s agenda and their material impact on everyday people. Read our inaugural issue here and follow us on Bluesky and X for #CorruptionCalendar updates.
This week, we’ll focus on how DOGE’s priorities seem to reflect Musk’s grudges and interests in a less efficient government. Trying to be thorough without being totally thorough (the reign of ignorant terror is as vast as it is deep and consequential), here are several of the most salient examples of the Trump’s administration’s prioritization of corporate interests at the expense of the public.
- New NLRB Memos Have Rescinded Pro-Union Policies. The National Labor Relations Board’s acting general counsel, William Cowen, issued a memo which rolled back some of the progressive policies passed by the previous general counsel, Jennifer Abruzzo. Notably, he took back the ban on non-compete agreements, while also making it more difficult for unions to gain official recognition. One of the most damaging rollbacks is the previous NLRB’s ban on an infamous union-busting technique: the ban on captive-audience meetings.
- Cowen’s memos come as the agency is effectively on pause following the Trump administration’s illegal removal of board member Gwynne Wilcox. The NLRB only has two members, and they need three in order to function. As a cnn.com headline reveals, “Elon Musk’s dream comes true: The federal board that protects workers does not exist, at least for now.” As our Musk law flouting tracker notes, Tesla has long been at odds with the NLRB.
- DOGE Might Close An NLRB Office That Filed Unfair Labor Charges Against Tesla. On Wednesday, the DOGE website displayed a canceled lease for the regional NLRB office in Buffalo, prompting the federal workers there to assume that they were effectively being evicted. The NLRB tweeted, “Cancelling a lease is tantamount to shutting down the enforcement of labor law in that jurisdiction” in response. The next day, however, the federal workers were told they were just being moved into a smaller office. The situation remains ambiguous. The Buffalo office had previously filed unfair labor practice charges against Tesla after the company fired workers in retaliation for trying to organize a union.
- Musk’s SpaceX Employees ‘Overhauled’ The FAA’s Air Traffic Control System. On Sunday, the union representing employees at the Federal Aviation Administration rang the alarm that the Trump admin fired hundreds of probationary employees. Instead of civil servants, employees of Musk’s SpaceX reportedly showed up to the federal agency’s headquarters in Virginia for an “overhaul” of the air traffic control system. Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy claimed that SpaceX’s visit will help them “envision how we can make a new, better, modern and safer system.” A major defense contractor “envisioning” a better aviation agency when its CEO is also in charge of firing hundreds of that agency’s workers obviously raises some serious questions about conflicts of interest: is Musk firing FAA workers just so that he can replace them with his own employees (or technology)? On Wednesday morning, Wired reported that SpaceX engineers touring the administration were already being onboarded as senior advisors to the acting administrator.
- The agency had been previously investigating SpaceX for its failed rocket launches. Many of these launches resulted in debris raining over populated areas that also incurred significant environmental damage. Seemingly because of these investigations, Musk had long demanded the former head of the FAA, Michael Whittakker, resign, along with demanding “radical reform” at the agency.
- Alarm Bells Go Off After DOGE’s Visit To The IRS. DOGE’s updated hitlist also includes the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), with the apparent intent to gain access to the private financial information the agency holds. Scott Bessent, who previously gave Musk access to the Treasury’s financial payments system, claimed that Musk is trying to “upgrade the antiquated technology at the I.R.S.” But in a letter to the IRS, Senator Warren’s office said giving DOGE members access to IRS systems is “raising serious concerns that Elon Musk and his associates are seeking to weaponize government databases containing private bank records and other confidential information to target American citizens and businesses as part of a political agenda.”
- The Trump Admin Installed A Tax-Fraud-Profiteer At The IRS. The Trump admin appointed Frank Schuler IV, the co-founder and president of Ornstein-Schuler, to be a Senior Advisor to the General Services Administration (GSA) at the IRS. Ornstein-Schuler is infamous for abusing tax loopholes in order to turn a huge profit. Ornstein-Schuler’s “syndicated conservation easements” racket was previously included on the IRS’ “Dirty Dozen” list of the worst tax scams, singled out as a particularly abusive scam. What kind of advice is Schuler giving to the head of the GSA?
- Internal Revenue Service Layoffs In The Middle Of Tax Season. Thursday evening, ABC reported that over 6,000 new and newly promoted employees at the nation’s tax collector faced cuts. This follows the Trump administration’s recent reassignment of IRS personnel to the immigration crackdown, which he described as a “get out of taxes free” card. Once again, there’s only one constituency that benefits from a sclerotic IRS: wealthy tax evaders.
- Musk and DOGE Are Going After The SEC. Monday evening, reports surfaced about Musk and DOGE’s next target, the SEC – and unsurprisingly, it’s yet another agency with which Musk has personal beef. Musk has a long running feud with the Securities Exchange Commission, stating in a 2018 interview, “I want to be clear, I do not respect the SEC. I do not respect them.” His lack of respect seems to stem from the SEC’s years of investigations and lawsuits against Musk and his companies. In January 2025, the SEC filed a new lawsuit against Musk after investigating him since August 2022 for violating securities laws during his purchase of Twitter. The SEC also sued Musk in 2018 after his infamous “funding secured” tweet. In fact, this battle with the SEC saw the agency oust him as chairman of Tesla, a possible origin of the ire Musk is finally unleashing. Although White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt has claimed there will be no conflict of interest with the billionaire raiding the federal regulator, his many vested interests in dismantling the agency suggest a different reality.
- Coinbase Had Its SEC Case Dropped, While Other Crypto Firms Won Pauses. Crypto industry leaders are already celebrating Trump’s new SEC, which this week paused its high-profile lawsuits against Binance, Ripple, and Coinbase. Meanwhile, Industry figures including Cardano’s Charles Hoskinson, Coinbase CLO Paul Grewal and Ripple CLO Stuart Alderoty made public statements of approval. Here’s how these crypto firms stand to benefit from the pauses and a weakened SEC:
- Coinbase Had Its Case Dropped: In 2023 the SEC filed a case against Coinbase, arguing that the crypto exchange was an unregistered broker and had to comply with the same rules followed by stock exchanges and brokerage firms. The SEC, however, made a court filing last Friday, February 14, seeking a 4 week extension. On Friday morning, Coinbase announced the SEC has dropped its case.
- Binance: The SEC sued Binance in 2023, arguing that the cryptocurrency exchange (the world’s largest, in fact), had been “artificially inflating trading volumes, diverting customer funds and misleading investors about its surveillance controls.” The case was put on a 60 day pause last week.
- Ripple: The SEC sued Ripple in 2020, alleging that the company had illegally raised $1.3 billion through unregistered sales of its token, XRP. The case was one of the first high-profile lawsuits against a crypto company, spurring widespread uproar in the crypto world and was looked at as an example of how the booming, unregulated crypto markets would start to interact with federal regulation. The case is now on appeal. With Musk raiding the SEC, the other cases on hold, many are speculating that the case may come to an end in a manner favorable to crypto.
- SEC Backed Off Climate Disclosure Rules Opposed By Big Oil. Last week, the SEC backed away from a rule that would have required large companies to disclose greenhouse gas emissions, as well as their plans for reducing them. The move is a clear win for the oil and gas industry, which has been lobbying against the Biden-era rule for a year. Looks like Big Oil is getting what they paid for: the industry spent millions of dollars on Trump’s re-election.
- Musk Adds Antitrust Enforcement To His Growing List Of Responsibilities. Wednesday evening, the Wall Street Journal reported that Musk’s lawyers at X demanded that advertising conglomerate Interpublic cajole their clients to spend more on X or risk further scrutiny of their proposed merger with Omnicom Groups. Per WSJ, “Interpublic leaders interpreted the communications from X as reminders that the recently announced $13 billion deal to merge Interpublic with rival Omnicom Group could be torpedoed, or at least slowed down, by the Trump administration, given Musk’s powerful role in the federal government, some of the people said.”
X has been hemorrhaging value since Musk bought it (possibly as a propaganda tool/loss leader?), but what appears on their surface to be shakedowns could turn that around.
We are continuously updating resources to keep you up to date on Trump and Musk’s all-out assault on everyday people and the Constitution.
This includes:
No Corporate Cabinet, a central hub documenting corporate corruption and conflicts of interest among those jockeying for power in the Trump administration. We’ve published profiles on Trump nominees like Paul Atkins, Linda McMahon and Chris Wright – check back for more profiles in the days to come.
Our tracker of the Trump administration’s failure to comply with court orders, and the programs and services being disrupted by its non-compliance. We are also tracking the actions judges take to attempt to enforce their orders.
A list of all of the individuals who have ever been reported to be affiliated with Elon Musk’s DOGE, with links to the original reporting.
A list of the agencies that DOGE has visited, keeping you up to date on what Elon Musk is looking to illegally gut.
An aviation tracker of administration attacks on air safety.
Agency Spotlight—Our tracker of appointments to leadership positions at thirty-nine federal independent agencies.