Elon Musk has posted the identities of relatively unknown government officials and federal employees whose jobs he wants to eliminate, and his followers are taking it upon themselves to harass and threaten those they can find.

Following a series of posts from Musk earlier this week highlighting the names and titles of federal employees whose jobs he called “fake,” the targets of his social media activities are facing a barrage of online abuse, according to a report from CNN on Wednesday. Many of the employees Musk highlighted do not hold public jobs, and they have done nothing more than carry a title that displeases the billionaire who has anointed himself co-president to Donald Trump and is expected to help the president-elect cut through government bureaucracy .

CNN’s investigation into Musk’s prolific posting habits found that the billionaire had promoted posts on his website over the past week that revealed the names and job titles of four federal employees working in climate policy and regulation. The four targets were all women, and Musk – owner of the electric car company Tesla – has a vested interest in climate policy.

In one case, Musk cited a post highlighting the role of a woman who works as “director of climate diversification” at the U.S. International Development Finance Corp. (DFC), a relatively obscure government agency. “So many fake jobs,” Musk wrote in his repost.

Musk, a self-described “anti-woke” crusader, likely took the word “diversification” to mean the “D” in “DEI.” This is what a spokesperson for the DFC says The Wall Street Journal earlier this week that the employee – who holds degrees in engineering, business administration and water sciences from Oxford and MIT – fills a highly technical role focused on identifying innovative solutions to help protect U.S. agriculture and infrastructure from the impacts of natural disasters .

CNN’s investigation found that the employee closed several of her social media accounts after Musk’s tweet.

In another repost — which highlighted a tweet from the same account that targeted the DFC employee — Musk mocked former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s niece, who works as a senior advisor for climate change at the Department of Housing and Urban Development.

“Nancy Pelosi’s niece should not be paid $181,648.00 by the American taxpayer to be a ‘climate advisor’ to HUD,” the original report said.

“But maybe her advice is great 🤣🤣” Musk noted.

The post included the names and titles of two other employees: the Department of Energy’s chief climate official in the loan program office — a program that awarded Tesla a $465 million investment in 2010 — and the name of an employee who served as a senior advisor on the field of environmental justice. and climate change at the Department of Health and Human Services.

The messages provide insight into the kinds of roles Musk plans to take on as co-director of the so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) – an unofficial department created specifically to fulfill Musk’s promise to undermine the federal bureaucracy and clean up government agencies . of what he considers redundant employees.

DOGE has no inherent power, and has not been approved by Congress as an official department – ​​but according to recent reports, Musk and his co-director, failed presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, have been in talks with members of the Trump transition and MAGA. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) will form a congressional subcommittee tasked with turning DOGE recommendations into concrete legislation.

Missy Cummings, a former fighter pilot and senior adviser at the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, was targeted in 2021 by Musk, who claimed she is “extremely biased against Tesla.” Tesla has been repeatedly scrutinized by the NHTSA, dating back to at least 2021, and has been forced to issue recalls over its so-called ‘Full-Self Driving’ and Autopilot programs.

Cummings told CNN that as a result of the attention from Musk and other prominent accounts associated with him, she had received death threats, been forced to temporarily leave her home and deleted her X account.

She added that the climate of intimidation is already causing some longtime federal employees to quit their jobs. “His intention was for them, these types of people, to be intimidated and for them to just quit so he wouldn’t have to fire them. So his plan works to some extent,” she said.