Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it’s investigating the financials of Elon Musk’s pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, ‘The A Word’, which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.
Read more
DOGE staffers are building IKEA flatpacks so they can sleep in the office buildings of the very federal agencies that they are trying to dismantle, according to a new report.
The Elon Musk-led cost-cutting arm has swiftly terminated federal workers, slashed contracts, and taken steps to reduce the government’s real estate footprint, upending the federal government in a matter of weeks. But one area DOGE staffers aren’t reportedly cutting down on is sleep.
DOGE employees have reportedly transformed at least four rooms on the 6th floor of the General Services Administration’s building to sleep in, equipping them with beds from IKEA, lamps and dressers, two agency employees told Politico.
“People are definitely…sleeping there,” said one GSA staffer.
The home furnishings don’t stop there. The cost-cutting army is allegedly weighing spending about $25,000 to install a washer and dryer on that floor of the Washington D.C. office building, a February 25 invoice obtained by the outlet shows.
open image in gallery
The makeshift rooms in question reportedly share office space with conference rooms and can only be accessed by those with high-security clearances. The Independent has reached out to the agency for comment.
It’s not immediately clear for how long this arrangement has been going on or for how long it will continue.
“Government employees are working incredibly hard and long hours to help reduce the federal deficit and ensure an effective government,” a spokesperson for the agency told Politico.
“Any purchases the agency has made followed all appropriate laws and regulations,” the spokesperson said. “In accordance with the Sleeping in Federal Buildings bulletin, specific instances of an employee sleeping at the 1800F building was expressly authorized by an agency official.”
That 2019 bulletin states that sleeping in federal buildings is prohibited, unless an agency official authorizes someone to sleep there so long as “the person is directed by a supervisor to remain in the building to conduct official government business and it is necessary for the person to sleep on the premises or, in the case of an emergency where there is imminent danger to human life or property, where persons are directed to shelter-in-place.”
open image in gallery
The DOGE staffers appear to be embracing Musk’s habits.
The tech billionaire was sleeping at the DOGE offices at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, Wired reported in January.
This isn’t the first time Musk used his workspace as a bedroom. He told Ron Baron in a 2023 interview that he slept on the floors of Tesla factories in California and Nevada for three years, calling them his “primary residence.”
“I actually slept on a couch, at one point on a tent on the roof and then but for a while there I was just sleeping under my desk which is out in the open in a factory for an important reason,” the world’s richest person said. He has served as the CEO of Tesla since 2008. “Since the team could see me sleeping on the floor…they knew I was there and that made a huge difference and then they gave it their all.”
