Alexis Goldstein had just dropped her toddler off at day care and was on her way back into the office when she ran into a group of people she had never seen before attempting to access equipment that appeared to be from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB). What ensued was a yearlong fight to save her job at the agency from Elon Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency.
It was February 2025, and DOGE was conducting a wholesale assault on the US government. The operatives arrived at the CFPB on February 6. Goldstein whipped out her phone and started documenting the intruders; they turned out to be members of DOGE, including Jordan Wick and Jeremy Lewin. CFPB leadership alleged that Goldstein violated agency information security rules because the pictures she took included computer screens. After a year in administrative leave limbo, she was fired this past February.
Like the US Agency for International Development (USAID), DOGE targeted the CFPB early on, attempting to terminate more than 1,400 of its 1,700 workers in April 2025. Musk first acknowledged his intention to destroy the small consumer protection agency in November 2024, writing on X “delete CFPB.”
Days after her firing, Goldstein announced that she would run in a crowded race for the US House of Representatives as a Democrat in Maryland’s 6th congressional district against incumbent April McClain Delaney. WIRED spoke to Goldstein about her experiences in the government and with DOGE—and how her experience as a federal worker inspired her to run for office.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: wired.com
