Even as Mr Musk was speaking, workers at USAID ’s headquarters in Washington were being told not to come in the next day. Some 600 of the agency’s staff seem to have been locked out of their emails. That followed a weekend in which the agency’s website went offline;

Federal agencies have offered exits to millions of employees and tested the prowess of engineers — just like when Elon Musk bought Twitter. The similarities have been uncanny.