President Donald Trump’s executive order creating the Department of Government Efficiency makes billionaire Elon Musk subject to conflict-of-interest laws, while also granting him access to a vast trove of federal data with immeasurable value.

Musk isn’t introducing a novel idea. For years, people have advocated eliminating the penny, as pennies are rarely spent as change. And since the Covid-19 pandemic, more consumers are shopping online or avoiding physical currency altogether .

Pennies cost more than 3 cents each to make, which has the little round Lincoln heads in the crosshairs of Elon Musk’s new Department of

A former USDS employee called the repurposing of the Digital Service into DOGE an “A+ bureaucratic jiujitsu move.” It will give Musk and his associates access to unclassified data in every government agency.