Will Trump 'Fix the Glitch' to Win His War on the Government? | Opinion

There's a famously funny version of this.

In the classic movie "Office Space," a buffoonish boss brings in a couple of weaselly consultants to figure out which employees to fire. They zero in on the hapless worker Milton, and discover that, though he had previously been laid off, no one ever told him; he even still draws a paycheck due to a glitch in the payroll department.

"So we just went ahead and fixed the glitch," says the consultant. The boss asks if this means that he fired Milton. "Well, just a second there, professor," says the consultant. "We, uh, we fixed the glitch. He won't be receiving a paycheck anymore, so it'll just work itself out naturally."

Hilarious. Now here's the dark version.

For the past three weeks, representatives of Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency have been playing the role of the "Office Space" consultants: parachuting into federal agencies, conducting struggle sessions with employees, and demanding access to sensitive data systems.

The data could be the key. WIRED broke the story that Musk's team got access to the computers (note: this is a subject of unresolved litigation—at the very least, President Donald Trump's appointees have now reconnoitered the system and his Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent retains access) at a little-known agency called the Bureau of the Fiscal Service (BFS). BFS sends out almost all payments from the federal government, (much of it through an even more obscure office called Federal Disbursement Services): things like your federal income tax refunds, Social Security benefits, veteran's pay, pensions, and education benefits.

And pay for federal workers.

So what if instead of dealing with all the fuss of trying to fire senior people, changing legal protections to get rid of thousands more, or offering to buy workers out, Trump simply choose which federal employees he wants gone and then tells Musk (or Bessent) to "fix the glitch?"

The affected employees could ask their bosses for help getting their pay. But agency higher-ups are Trump appointees who won't defy him (after all, they could end up on the hit list themselves). "Glitched" employees could file a grievance. But the ultimate power to release payment would still rest with Musk.

Or they could file a lawsuit. Good luck with that: on their own, workers would have to expend their personal resources against the vast resources of the United States. Suing through the federal employees union, as happened with the data intrusions and buyout plan, is also an option. Judges might even issue temporary injunctions.

But the Trump team knows that the legal dominoes are all lined up to fall in their favor. Defying the law would bring no real legal consequences for the people involved—which is why the Trump administration is already thumbing its nose at court orders.

After all, Attorney General Pam Bondi's Department of Justice won't pursue them. The Republican Congress is actively protecting them. And as Kim Wehle—law professor at University of Baltimore Law School, legal contributor for ABC News, and author of the newsletter Simple Politics—brilliantly lays out in her book "Pardon Power," the Supreme Court's immunity ruling last year handed them the ultimate one-two punch: Trump himself can't be prosecuted—even for directing a conspiracy to commit a crime, provided it is tied to his official duties—and he can pardon any of his minions who act illegally.

And even if there were a protracted civil lawsuit from "Miltoned" federal workers, it would almost certainly end up in a Supreme Court that has shown immense deference to the president's executive authority. So, Trump could win de jure in court or de facto when employees suffering through years of uncertainty amid a media and legal circus cry uncle and quit (i.e., it "works itself out naturally").

I asked Wehle if this scenario checks out from a legal standpoint. "I think you are correct," she said. "It's a checkmate."

So why does this subterranean, subversive dark glitch approach matter when Trump is openly sand-blasting the federal government right now and veering us into a constitutional crisis? Why sweat the scalpel when Trump wields the sledgehammer?

Because Trump's assault on the rule of law can be aptly described in military terms as "reconnaissance in force": an attack that, according to retired U.S. Army infantry lieutenant colonel Dr. Les Grau, is "genuine and threatening, requiring the full commitment of the defense," but whose ultimate aim is to develop information. The offense keeps its options open—retreat and assess if you meet determined resistance, expand into a full engagement if you find a weakness.

That's what's happening. It's not that the Trump administration isn't seriously trying with maneuvers like the funding freeze, shuttering USAID, unilaterally cutting funding for the National Institutes of Health, or firing agency officials. These are real attacks that could work, perpetrated by true believers (like Vice President J.D. Vance) who genuinely think the president should rule like a king.

But if Trump decides not to bring on a full meltdown of the republic, he's got a backdoor into the engine room of the federal government now, a backup secret weapon that accomplishes most of his aims.

Not paying selected employees could easily be the kind of thing that falls under the president's executive branch authority, and smack dab into a legal gray area. It's murky, stealthy, and effective—hard to raise the public's ire over the plight of federal workers they've never heard of, and hard for agencies to function when the all the Miltoned non-MAGA people start to "self-deport."

Not to mention that glitching workers can be its own reconnaissance in force maneuver. If Trump can get away with doing it to a few, it's easy to expand. Grants he doesn't like. Individual projects. Entire agency functions that would collapse if the staff was pushed out en masse as paychecks disappear. Why shutter the EPA over the objections of the courts when you can muck up their money so much that they crumple out of sheer confusion?

He who pays the piper calls the tune. The Trump team was cagey enough to remember that. Now we all may have to face the music.

Matt Robison is a writer, podcast host, and former congressional staffer.

The views expressed in this article are the writer's own.