This story was originally published byProPublica.
Are we going to break something?
Dudek asked at one point, referring to what DOGE has been doing with Social Security data.
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But then he said, in a more reassuring tone: Theyre learning.
Theyre going to make mistakes.
Dudek embodies the dramatic whipsawing of life as a public servant under DOGE.
He was largely unknown even within the agency.
I work for the president.
I need to do what the president tells me to do, Dudek said, according to the recording.
(He didnt name specific actions that Trump did or did not direct.)
… And thats not to say I dont have some more hard choices to come.
The president has an agenda.
Im a political appointee.
I need to follow that agenda.
These are records we never bothered with, he explained.
Under DOGE, several Social Security IT contracts have been canceled or scaled back.
Elections have consequences, Dudek wrote in a March 1 email to the agencys staff.
That would have not been my first preference.
I think we need to see whats going to happen in terms of fallout.
Again, he said, I work for the president.
DOGE is part of that.
Theyre thinking about work differently.
I am an IT guy and a fraud guy.
Dudek will eventually be replaced by Frank Bisignano, Trumps long-term pick to execute the Social Security Administration.
At times, Dudek sounded fatalistic.
Im the villain, he said in the recording.
Im not going to have a job after this.
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