Trump’s Administration Orders Staffers to Stop Reading the News at Work
Donald Trump’s administration — which is, in partnership with Elon Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency, waging a sweeping, shambolic crackdown on the federal workforce — is now ordering employees to stop reading the news on their office computers.
In an email today titled “Internet Browsing from Government Equipment,” which was blasted out to “all” staffers at the Social Security Administration (SSA), Trump officials announced that “SSA is implementing additional restrictions to the categories of websites prohibited from government-furnished equipment,” according to a copy reviewed by Rolling Stone. The email states that “effective today, March 6, 2025, the categories” now include “online shopping” and “sports,” and perhaps most conspicuously: “general news.” The message continues: “Employees with a legitimate business should submit an exception SAM request for their supervisor’s review.”
A Social Security spokesperson confirmed the message, telling Rolling Stone: “Social Security employees should be focused on mission-critical work and serving the American people. Therefore, we implemented additional restrictions to the categories of websites prohibited from government-furnished equipment, including online shopping, general news, and sports. Employees may request an exception if they have a business need for job-specific duties.”
A spokesperson for the Trump White House says, “President Trump is committed to making the federal workforce more efficient and effective to deliver for the American people.”
The emailed directive comes on the heels of other communications in recent days that have left SSA employees reeling from massive changes within the agency. Last week, acting SSA Commissioner Leland Dudek told employees that “tough, decisive choices” must be made in an email obtained by Rolling Stone and first reported by the Bulwark.
The internal strife is just part of what Social Security advocates say is a full-on attack on the agency and its programs — which are seen as a possible avenue for major savings for a Trump administration that is looking to drastically cut government spending and, as Trump claimed in his address to Congress on Tuesday night, balance the federal budget.
Meanwhile, using DOGE, Musk has promised to cut $2 trillion in government spending by identifying fraudulent and wasteful spending. On Wednesday, Rep. John Larson, (D-Conn.), the ranking member of the House Social Security Subcommittee, drew a parallel between Musk’s lofty goal of government savings and Social Security’s trust fund — which currently sits at $2 trillion.
DOGE has closed 10 field offices and laid off or fired scores of employees within the SSA in addition to closing agency offices whose work focused on customer service, as well as the Office of Civil Rights. Five of the agency’s eight regional directors have resigned as well as 24 senior staff, Larson tells Rolling Stone in a statement.
Musk has publicly attacked the key social program, calling it a “Ponzi scheme” without any basis, and falsely claiming that millions of Americans age 100 years and older are improperly receiving benefits.
In his address Tuesday night, Trump doubled down on the latter falsehood, incorrectly claiming that more than 18 million Americans between the ages of 100 and 300 are receiving Social Security benefits. The actual number of Americans age 99 years or older who received benefits last year was 89,000, according to Politifact.
On the front page of The Washington Post’s online homepage this morning was a story headlined, “DOGE is driving Social Security cuts and will make mistakes, acting head says privately.” The newspaper reported, “The Social Security Administration’s acting commissioner said members of Elon Musk’s cost-cutting team are outsiders who are unfamiliar with the nuances of the agency’s programs.”
The staffwide SSA email claims its new web-browsing clampdown “will help reduce risk and better protect the sensitive information entrusted to us in our many systems.” While it’s unclear who exactly sent the email directing agency employees not to read “general news,” DOGE has targeted government spending on media subscriptions. In the first weeks of the Trump administration, DOGE canceled subscriptions to services like Politico Pro, which many agencies rely on to stay abreast of legislation moving through Congress. DOGE also incorrectly identified a contract with a wing of Thomson Reuters as going toward news subscriptions. In fact, the contract — signed by the Defense Department under the first Trump administration — was with Thomson Reuters Special Services and dealt with preventing cyber threats.
It is more than a little rich coming from the Trump administration that they would be worried about properly safeguarding “sensitive information entrusted to” the United States Social Security Administration, given the widespread concerns and alarm over Musk’s DOGE demanding unprecedented access to sensitive federal systems and confidential taxpayer information held by the government.
It is not clear if this new anti-news order automatically applies to, for instance, the communications and press staffers at the SSA, for whom reading the news is likely a core function of daily work. It’s not known yet whether this policy is being replicated at other agencies.
One federal staffer says the email reminds them of the supposedly productivity-maximizing rules that Musk imposes on his private business empire. Though slacking off at work to visit sports websites or shop online all day is typically ill-advised, there is plenty of research and data to suggest that allowing workers’ breaks to do what they want, within reason, improves productivity at the office.
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This story is being published in partnership with American Doom, a newsletter that focuses on right-wing extremism and other threats to democracy.
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