'Fork off': Protesters gather outside OPM to condemn Elon Musk 'stealing' personal data

Protesters congregated in front of the Office of Personnel Management in Washington, D.C., on a chilly Monday morning, vowing to return every morning this week to stand against what they called a "coup" by Elon Musk and his aides to seize the department's data.

"Musk can fork off," said Keya Chatterjee, a former federal employee who is now the executive director of Free D.C., a local social justice nonprofit, as she held up a fork – a reference to a memo sent by Musk to government workers entitled “fork in the road” that offered workers eight months of pay to incentivize their resignation.

Twenty years ago, Chatterjee said, she had arrived at the OPM building, blocks from the White House, for her first job interview to enter the federal workforce. Now, she joined other activists outside to stand up against what she called "illegal decisions" by Musk, an "unelected foreign national" who she said controls President Trump as a "puppet."

"They're stealing all of our data. They're stealing our servers, and it is not theirs to have," she said. "We will take it back."

Last week, Musk's representatives reportedly locked senior officials out of some of the agency's computer systems, including vast troves of the personal data of federal employees, including their Social Security numbers, birthdays, and home addresses. OPM is the federal government's human resources department, tasked with managing recruiting, health insurance, retirement and more for civil servants.

Musk has said the government needs to be drastically cut to improve its efficiency and cut bureaucratic red tape. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment, and Musk has not commented publicly on DOGE accessing the Treasury payment system.

At the protest, demonstrators erupted in cheers, and later, chants of, “We don’t want your tech solutions, give us back our constitution,” and "Elon, Elon, have you heard? You're a nasty, fascist nerd."

Chatterjee said demonstrations were planned every morning this week at the building. On Tuesday evening, they would bring a protest to the Treasury Department, after Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent granted Musk's aides access to the department's $6 trillion payment system late last week, The New York Times first reported.

Chatterjee also raised concerns about Musk's total shutdown on Monday of USAID, the U.S. foreign aid agency. That morning, the agency's doors were closed and its employees were told to stay home.“Our leaders need to take control of this,” said Cindy Nell, 67. “This is insane. It’s illegal. It’s terrifying.”

Nell, a retired teacher who has lived in the Washington area for decades, said she was alarmed at the Trump administration’s attempts to shut down USAID and Musk getting access to the Social Security numbers of U.S. citizens. She held a sign reading, "This is a coup!"

Nell said she lives on Social Security payments, but was more worried about federal workers than herself. "There's no one I know who I've talked to in the last week is not affected by this," she said. "I have friends who are fearful of losing their jobs."

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: 'Fork off': Protesters gather at OPM to condemn Elon Musk 'takeover'