How do I protect myself and my money from the Trump-DOGE coup? (Pt. 1 of an 8-part series)

Tips and steps to safeguard personal data, money, and other concerns. And how to assess risk in an uncertain time.

Illustration: Cristóbal Schmal

(Part 1 of an 8-part series)

In this newsletter:

• How do I protect myself and my money from the Trump-DOGE coup?

• What’s going to happen to the money in the US Treasury? Do Musk and Thiel have access to our individual taxpayer data? What’s at stake?

• How to prepare yourself

• Safer Communications and Unplugging from the cloud

• Safer email and messaging

• VPN and Surfing Incognito Mode

• Temporary emails, second phone numbers, OG paper trails

• Unplugging your household

How do I protect myself and my money from the Trump-DOGE coup?

Over the past month, more Americans are expressing alarm and uncertainty about the potential personal impacts of the Trump 2.0 and Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) actions and attacks against the federal workforce and government programs and agencies. The recent news of DOGE hacking into our Treasury Payment System, then the IRS and Social Security and other federal departments, has raised growing alarm about who has, or could gain, access to our personal and financial data and what they could do with this information. Has it been copied and stored on Elon Musk’s private servers? How can we know?

We are collectively worried about Trump’s recent Executive Orders (EOs) giving his administration control over independent federal regulators including the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), that regulates banks, and the National Credit Union Administration (NCUA) that oversees credit unions. We worry about the implications of administration’s actions to cut staff and merge the FDIC into the Treasury. Similarly, NCUA officials view the Trump EO as a first step toward merging the NCUA into the Treasury. How will this impact the safety of our data and deposits in credit unions? It’s a burning question.

What’s going to happen?

A related concern is the Trump administration’s focus on riskier and novel cryptocurrencies and digital assets, and the interest of many conservatives in replacing the US dollar with crypto as our main currency. Pundits speculate, with concern, that Trump’s Treasury will allow transfer of Treasury monies into the new Trump-created Sovereign Wealth Fund, and into cryptocurrencies, which are viewed as risker. Some are viewed as little more than Ponzi schemes. The Treasury reserves are backed by the FDIC and gold reserves. What guarantee will there be for people owning Treasury securities (federal bonds)? That’s a new question some ask.

All of this has rattled the financial experts and industry, though some conservative financial experts welcome these changes and moves. But even conservative voices have voiced caution about the speed of the proposals and the outsize role and influence being played by Elon Musk, a private citizen and America’s wealthiest individual, who also runs X, a major social media platform. They’re also concerned about the unclear roles of DOGE shadow advisors who represent tech titans running and investing in crypto platforms and currencies, and individuals like Peter Thiel, a DOGE advisor whose Palantir AI surveillance software is installed on federal databases at the DOD and FBI and NASA, and is being installed on other databases. Musk’s goal is a unified, centralized database. That means his team will have access to everything.

What’s going to happen to US money in the Treasury system? Do Musk and Thiel and their companies now have copies of our individual taxpayer data?

That’s the fear, and we aren’t getting reassuring answers. What does it mean that AI agents are now on the system, and can extract data from any federal agency? That includes our personal data in the IRS system, Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, the VA… the list goes on.

Legal groups have already filed several lawsuits challenging the legality of DOGE and the EOs, and gained an early win to limit DOGE’s access to the Treasury. Other groups including the Electronic Privacy Information Center are joining lawsuits as litigants, focused on our first amendments rights to privacy. They argue that laws exist to protect the privacy of Americans’ financial data. Trump’s move may also have extremely negative financial repercussions, say economists, causing Americans to doubt the stability and transparency of the US banking and financial system, and the safety of individual and institutional deposits (see Banking below).

While Trump and Musk and their supporters say they’re ushering in a “a new golden age” for America, one designed to increase wealth, critics say they’re hollowing out the federal workforce, destroying our system of checks and balances, and shredding our democracy, while seizing control of our public assets – an autocracy move.

Image: Shutterstock

What’s at stake? The many questions we have….

Americans are asking: What should I do to protect myself financially? Should I freeze my credit reports? What will it mean if the FDIC or NCUA are merged into the Treasury with other smaller financial regulatory agencies? Will my money remain safe in the bank? Are Treasury bonds okay? What about my personal financial data? What are the security risks for me? Could my personal data be weaponized, sold, or used against me somehow? Has our financial data been copied and stored elsewhere, on servers controlled by Musk and tech allies?

What are the risks that third-party hackers could access it? What about Palantir and AI surveillance? Are my communications safe? Should I quit Gmail and Facebook and sign up on Signal? What about Social Security and Medicaid? What about the VA cuts and the attacks on trans healthcare? How I can better protect myself and family and community from these threats?

The list of questions and worries is long and legitimate. With every fast move and power grab, more questions spring up.

Project 2025: We also know that Project 2025 serves as a policy blueprint for what is planned in terms of restructuring the government. That vision is expanded privatization of the duties of government and off-sourcing government services and duties like VA healthcare to private groups, including Christian groups. Project 2025 advances a Christian nationalist agenda, and we’ve seen the purging and blocking of federal grants and programs related to DEI, transgender healthcare, and reproductive services – the social issues being criminalized and outlawed by Trump. We also know that, historically, privatization of healthcare and insurance often spells higher costs to consumers because the bottom line is shareholder profit not public health. When you couple that with the cuts to consumer regulatory agencies, it spells reduced consumer protection and fewer brakes on industry.

How to prepare yourself:

The good news is, there are myriad preparedness steps you can take or consider to address these questions. Below I’ve consolidated preparedness tips and strategies, as well as some insights from autocracy watchdogs. I urge you to start by educating yourself first, and seek out informed sources who are tracking these different topics. Substack and other platforms feature newsletters, journalists and sector experts who provide informed real-time discussion of these developments. – AC

What’s the risk to me? To my communications, my money, my activities? Should I stay or move? What can I do to feel safer or reduce my vulnerability to Trump’s coup?

Given the barrage of attacks and concerns you may feel, it helps to take a second to think: what am I concerned about? What risk or threat? What is the solution I seek? Make a list for yourself. Be as concrete and specific as you can be. Naming your fear or the threat can help you get your hands around it. Remember too: many others have or are experiencing similar concerns, so reach out. Isolation can prevent you from taking action. There are often local resources in your community.

I always recommend public libraries because they serve the community and have real librarians available to serve the public. They are a terrific resource of information, and a source of deeper reading on subjects. Don’t forget to seek emotional support and share your concerns with people you trust, and talk about possible steps you are considering, whether it’s moving your money or investments, or signing up for Social Security, or exploring options for relocation.

Illustration: RaShawn Dixon | Shutterstock

Safer Communications and Unplugging from the Cloud:

It’s no secret that Big Brother knows all about you and your online habits. Anyone who’s connected to a piece of technology, especially smart gadgets like Alexa and Siri, knows that software developers are mining our data constantly for commercial purposes – to sell us something. Now we have Elon Musk at X, who is carrying out a hostile takeover of the federal government like he did at Twitter, turning it into X, a mouthpiece for MAGA. Musk plans to integrate financial payment systems into X and turn it into a one-stop-shop digital platform of integrated online services – communication, financial payments, email, etc. He has a similar vision for the entire US federal government computer system.

Musk also owns the Starlink satellite system, controlling global telecommunications and internet access. Meanwhile, Thiel at Palantir owns the technology and AI agents being installed to upgrade our federal surveillance systems. That’s why it’s time to consider how to safeguard your personal data, including communications, banking, and credit information, and take steps to limit third-party access to it. Here are some options and thoughts, culled from multiple sources:

Safer email and messaging:

End-to-End Encrypted E-mail / Messaging:

Many people, myself included, use Gmail and Google for email and for storing data in a Google Drive. I’ve never assumed it was safe from third-party eyes, but I haven’t cared that much. Now, with the criminalizing of our lives, I have to reconsider. You might too.

There are a number of messaging apps that are end-to-end (e2e) encrypted, meaning only you and the person you’re talking to or chatting with can hear or read your convo. Signal remains a favorite, though an activist pal warned me that hackers accessed Signal, too. But compared to Gmail, it takes longer to do so. Some use Telegram, but a lot of MAGA folks also use it, as on X. Voxer is a newer app that uses the same end-to-end encryption as Signal.

A Wired overview says Signal is broadly recommended because it offers the best privacy protections, and, “importantly Signal doesn’t collect or store metadata about who is calling or texting whom, information that can often be nearly as sensitive as the content of conversations.” It also has a ‘self-deleting’ feaure that, if turned on, will erase messages after a period of time (you set that). Also important, Signal doesn’t back up communication logs to iCloud or other cloud services, reducing the risk that your messages will be saved on a server and possibly accessible to third parties.

How do you get and use it?

It’s pretty easy, say techies, even for luddites: 1) You go to your phone app store and download Signal (if that’s your choice… or choose the encrypted app you want). Then, in Signal, you turn OFF your “notification previews,” because your conversation on Signal is encrypted (read safer), but not the notifications, so people could still try to find and track your online activity. You can encourage others to join Signal and chat away more safely.

Here’s a little overview of how Signal works from CNET.

For more online safety, Substacker Tate Jarrow urges those using Apple products and ICloud to turn on an Apple feature, “Advanced Data Protection for iCloud” that provides end-to-end encryption (dubbed “e2e”) of the contents of your cloud. When e2e is turned on with iCloud, it will encrypt your photos, drive files, emails, and messages, so no one can access your account, and Apple can’t turn over your files to a third party. Google does not offer this same feature. While the data you sync to the cloud is encrypted for most service providers including Google, the companies still maintain access to the encryption keys. So they can decrypt and look at your data and have the right to do so per their terms of service (ToS). Google fired 80 employees for breaching user data, writes Jarrow. So if you are an Apple user, turn on e2e for iCloud, or consider switching to Apple for that level of privacy. Learn more at Jarrow’s Tate’s Online post and subscribe to their newsletter covering online security issues.

Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) (to hide your IP address….):

When you surf the web, you have an online identity linked to an Internet Protocol or IP address. A VPN is an app you can also download (and buy) that will redirect and thus mask your IP address. That way you can email someone and they can’t track you back as easily. The VPN companies state that they don’t log internet traffic, so they can’t be subpoenaed for your data (internet traffic) later. Techies recommend these VPN options: NordVPN, SurfShark, ExpressVPN, and ProtonVPN.

A lot of people I know switched over to Proton, but do your homework to know more about the pros and cons of these products and which is a better fit for your needs. A VPN also allows you to connect to the internet in different countries and get different search results, so you get a little plus feature. A VPN is not failsafe, though: if you post online using one, it’s still a public post. But it’s a good safety move.

Web Surfing Incognito Mode:

All internet browsers offer a Private or “Incognito” mode. It allows you to avoid picking up “tracking cookies” when you visit a given website, something used by advertisers and people who monitor or track your consumer internet traffic to know what you like or where you visit. Go incognito, and you’ll delete most of the cookies or your web browsing history when you close out your web session.

Computer and phone safety: There are lots of digital security systems and programs out there and most computers come with some free software already installed. It’s important to know that when you surf the web, you’ll leave a data footprint, and others may add tracking cookies (data tags) to monitor your activity. That’s also true for groups doing digital surveillance. So check your data settings and make sure you have adopted privacy settings on your various electronic gadgets, especially anything used to surf the net. You should already be regularly cleaning out your browsing history and limiting access of third parties to your data.

Temporary Email Addresses: You may want a temporary email address that can’t be linked to your name and is encrypted in order to contact someone anonymously (such as a reporter like me if you’re a whistleblower with juicy info on DOGE). There are various products out there, including Proton Mail, which some of my journo colleagues have switched to. (I have a Proton account and plan on using it more.) You can use it to email people on Gmail or other email platforms.

Don’t forget second phone numbers and burner phones….

There are lots of reasons you may want a second phone number or “burner” phone that isn’t linked to your current main phone, and lets you call or text someone without revealing your real name if you don’t want them to have it. You may need a telephone number to log into the internet that relies on a text backup to confirm one’s identity – there are lots of reasons to use this. Among options out there, Phoner and Hushed do notrequire you to have or use your current phone number to create an account. (You don’t want to give your existing number to get a second one if it can then be linked back to you; if a company asks you for your current telephone number, they can.)

Don’t forget your smart appliance trail….

What smart gadgets and apps are you connected to? Not just your phone but your house security and other systems (Nest home security, etc.). Do an assessment. Check settings on these, too, to assure you are adopting privacy modes and not allowing third-party access by allies of the companies giving you services. Alexa, hear that?

Offline OG Paper trail:

As a general rule, having paper copy / trail of things is very useful and recommended for your important documents and personal papers. Anything you use that has your essential info on the cloud should be downloaded and stored on a disk or printed out so you have it. Given the cuts in federal programs, etc., and removal of agency information and web content, this is an important step for individuals, businesses, or federal contractors with federal or other government grants or contracts. Store essential identity documents in a fire-proof, water-proof box, too. Consider plastic sleeves for critical documents. Ink can fade; paper can yellow and break down over time.

Unplugging your household:

There are lots of steps you can take to unplug your household from the web, including those discussed above. I’ll share one resource, but Substack is full of folks with tips on living more off the grid, which also has environmental implications. -- AC