>A Secretive Movement Known As '#AltGov' Is Openly Rebelling Against Trump And Musk From Inside Our Federal Agencies
They can't help themselves. They have to brag about it
#AltGov: the secret network of federal workers resisting Doge from the inside
Helping people before, during, and after (this democratic) disaster,’ says the #AltGov Fema account on Bluesky. Composite: Guardian Design/Bluesky
Trump administration
#AltGov: the secret network of federal workers resisting Doge from the inside
Government employees fight the Trump administration’s chaos by organizing and publishing information on Bluesky
Timothy Pratt
Wed 26 Feb 2025 07.00 EST
After seeing Elon Musk’s X post on Saturday afternoon about an email that would soon land in the inboxes of 2.3 million federal employees asking them to list five things they did the week before, a clandestine network of employees and contractors at dozens of federal agencies began talking on an encrypted app about how to respond.
Employees on a four-day, 10-hours-a-day schedule wouldn’t even see the email until Tuesday – past the deadline for responding – some noted. There was also a bit of snark: “bonus points to anyone who responds that they spent their government subsidy on hookers and blow,” one worker said.
Within hours, the network had agreed on a recommended response: break up the oath federal employees take when hired into five bullet points and send them back in an email: “1. I supported and defended the constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic.”
“2. I bore true faith and allegiance to the same,” and so on.
It was only the latest effort by a growing and increasingly busy group banding together to “expose harmful policies, defend public institutions and equip citizens with tools to push back against authoritarianism”, according to Lynn Stahl, a contractor with Veterans Affairs and a member of the network. Increasingly, the group is also trying to help its members and others face the thousands of layoffs that have been imposed across the federal government.
Calling itself #AltGov, the network has developed a visible, public-facing presence in recent weeks through Bluesky accounts, most of which bear the names or initials of federal agencies, aimed at getting information out to the public – and correcting disinformation – about the chaos being unleashed by the Trump administration.
With 40 accounts to date, their collective megaphone is getting louder, as most of the accounts have tens of thousands of followers, with “Alt CDC (they/them)” being the largest, at nearly 95,000 followers.
The network has also formed a group and a series of sub-groups on Wire, the encrypted messaging app, to share information and develop strategies – as played out on Saturday.
A Bluesky post from a user called Alt CDC (they/them) says “Good morning! We are caffeinated and ready to fight! We will touch on a number of issues today but before you do anything else, call or visit your members of Congress and demand Medicaid be left alone and absolutely no work req!” alongside emojis of a sunrise, cup of coffee and a cellphone
A post from the #AltGov account for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Composite: Alt CDC (they/them)/Bluesky
The #AltGov hashtag has roots in the first Trump administration, perhaps most famously through the “ALT National Park Service” account on what was then Twitter, according to Amanda Sturgill, journalism professor at Elon University, whose book We Are #AltGov: Social Media Resistance from the Inside documents the earlier phenomenon. (That account, with its 774,000 followers, has since moved to Bluesky. Its online presence is parallel to and separate from the #AltGov network.)