Intercessor, do you know what #AltGov is? If not, don’t blame yourself. If you had asked me one week ago what that hashtag meant, I would’ve assumed it had something to do with politicians and bureaucrats dressed in goth apparel.

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No, #AltGov has nothing to do with the feds’ fashion trends. Rather, this hashtag is the label chosen by a network of social media accounts, all run by anonymous government employees and all dedicated to fighting President Trump and his administration from the inside.

Initially started during the first Trump administration on what was then Twitter, #AltGov refers to social media accounts that, on the surface, seem to spoof real government accounts. They name themselves after various departments and agencies and use official looking logos, though they always made sure to include the phrase “alt” somewhere in their name and profile icon. After Twitter was purchased by Elon Musk and rebranded as X, these accounts moved to Bluesky, an X alternative, aiming to avoid, in their words, the “Elon mess.” Now, under the second Trump administration, this network is once again working to oppose the President, according to a report from The Guardian.

The #AltGov movement aims to connect people to the government, creating a so-called “government with the people.” One FEMA employee who joined the network said she did so because “information [from the federal government] is so compromised right now. Everything is going on behind closed doors.” Of course, this means that the #AltGov FEMA account has engaged in its fair share of “fact checking” as well. Take, for example, when Elon Musk and DOGE discovered that FEMA spent $59 million to house illegal immigrants in luxury New York hotels. Outraged by this supposed misinformation, the #AltGov FEMA account shared the following post on Bluesky:

Fiction: FEMA paid $59 million last week for illegal immigrants to stay luxury hotel rooms in NYC

Fact: FEMA administered funds allocated by Congress via the Shelter and Services Program (for CBP) which reimburses jurisdictions for immigration-related expenses. FEMA just sends the payments.

So, in other words, FEMA didn’t really pay to put illegal immigrants in luxury hotels. Someone else put the illegal immigrants in luxury hotels, and FEMA just reimbursed them. That’s totally different.

Regardless of who authorized the decision and who paid who what, it is clear that our federal government paid to put illegal immigrants in luxury hotels. The above “fact check” doesn’t even dispute this fact. This is exactly why Elon Musk’s DOGE is necessary. The Department of Government Efficiency is aiming to cut back on the waste of taxpayer money and attempting to create a federal government that is more efficient, more streamlined, more focused, and more in line with what our founders envisioned. This effort seems to have enraged many in the federal government and many on the left, including those in the #AltGov network. In response to Musk’s recent email asking government employees to describe what they accomplished in the previous week in five bullet points, the members of the network took to encrypted messaging apps, aiming to come up with a response.

In the end, the #AltGov network recommended federal employees respond to Musk’s request with the oath these employees took when hired. From The Guardian:

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.

This tongue-in-cheek response may read as humorous, but it is anything but. It’s a sign that the members of this network and the followers of its social media accounts are not at all interested in working with the Trump administration or DOGE. Rather, they intend to fight both the administration and the department every step of the way. And this network isn’t small either. The largest Bluesky #AltGov account, “Alt CDC (they/them),” has over 100 thousand followers (by the way, I didn’t add the pronouns. They’re in the account name, and they tell you all you need to know).

If the other accounts in this network have similar numbers of followers, we’re looking at easily half a million federal employees, all dedicated to opposing the Trump administration through encrypted apps and sarcastic emails. Already the network is evolving, turning to what one member called “action plans,” such as calling lawmakers and attending town halls.

What else will this network do? What else are these accounts planning? Will they actually be able to impede the efforts of the President and DOGE? All that remains to be seen. For now, though, it’s up to us to pray. Let’s pray that these accounts and employees would be unified behind the President, not against him. Let’s pray that they would work with the administration to better the nation and save Americans money, not against it. And, most importantly, let’s pray that everyone involved in this network comes to know Christ if they do not already.

America is changing, and the members of this network get to choose whether to be willing participants or not. My prayers are that these federal employees use this network and their connections in government to better our nation, not to sew division.

What are your prayers for the #AltGov network? Share your prayer points and scriptures in the comments.

(Nathan Tabler is IFA’s Communications Coordinator. Photo Credit: Nathan Dumlao on Unsplash)