Elon Musk, the head of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), is making claims on his social media account that he had “deleted” the General Services Administration’s 18F technology group.
Those claims in turn have led to some confusion about whether at least one tech-driven project that 18F helped to engineer – the Direct File program created by the IRS – is still available.
18F is housed within GSA and helps Federal agencies improve their digital services. 18F was launched in 2014 and has since then helped improve Federal website accessibility, modernize technology, enhance data access, and boost the government’s customer service experience.
In a post made yesterday to his social platform X, Musk reposted a tweet that called 18F part of the “far left government” that helped to build the IRS Direct File program, with the repost claiming that the tax program “puts the government in charge of preparing peoples tax returns for them.”
In his repost, Musk added that the 18F “group has been deleted.”
While the 18F X account has been deleted, its website is still up and the Direct File program is still available, including recent expansions enabling the citizens of 12 more states to file tax returns electronically.
Musk’s most recent post follows another one he made late last week where he reposted another tweet calling GSA’s Technology Transformation Service (TTS) a “far-left agency,” and added his own comment “deleted.”
Since the launch of the Direct File, the program has received staunch opposition from some Republicans and private tax preparation companies. Last May, the IRS said it would make the Direct File program permanent. It’s now available in 25 states and accessible for up to 62 percent of individual taxpayers.
The program’s expansion was announced amid House Republican calls for President Donald Trump to end the program on the first day of his new administration, calling the program “unauthorized and wasteful” in a letter to the president. The program is still operational and taking tax files.
The current status of the 18F team is unclear, as GSA did not immediately respond to MeriTalk’s request for comment for this story.
Musk’s comments came just a day after the DOGE head tasked with improving the Federal government’s technology and agency efficiency announced the apparent seizure and shuttering of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), the world’s largest single humanitarian aid donor. Musk claimed that President Trump had given him the green light for the agency shutdown, leading Democratic lawmakers to call the action unconstitutional.
