Former DOGE official Tyler Hassen is pushing back on the public image of Elon Musk and the team, offering a sharply different account of what he says actually happened behind closed doors. Hassen says Musk was so consumed with solving problems that he sometimes slept on the floor of a nearby office. He also describes DOGE staff going through thousands of contracts and grants, asking officials to “defend the spend” and explain what was mission critical. Hassen acknowledges DOGE didn’t accomplish everything it set out to do, but argues the experience exposed deeper problems inside government operations. Read his firsthand account of what he says Americans didn’t see inside DOGE: