Elon Musk scooping up 'invaluable' data before 'inevitable' Trump split: advisers

Donald Trump's aides are fully supportive of Elon Musk's efforts to drastically cut government spending, but his decisions have generated some stress because he often moves forward without giving the president a heads up, according to a new report. However, the order carves out exceptions for two Musk-aligned special government employees, Tom Krause and Marko Elez, who remain authorized to access the system's payment records on a "read only" basis, but a source familiar with the situation told researcher Nathan Tankus at his Notes on the Crises website that arrangement was highly unusual and dangerous. The 25-year-old Elez, who's previously worked for two Musk companies but has no government experience, might still be permitted to make changes to Secure Payment System, a source familiar with the situation told Tankus. "A source familiar with the situation knows for a fact that Marko Elez’s access was set to 'insert' for the Secure Payment System, which is distinct from 'alter,'" the researcher reported. None of his sources could confirm what level of access Musk has to the system through his allies, but Tankus said it's possible that Elez has gained enough clearance to break into the system and restore his full "read and write" privileges or carry out other types of mischief with some of the nation's most sensitive data.