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The network of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) consists of personnel, allies, and Elon Musk associates appointed during the second presidency of Donald Trump to implement his government efficiency initiative. DOGE's leadership is ambiguous: while Amy Gleason was named Acting Administrator[2] and Steve Davis reportedly managed daily operations,[3] Elon Musk (formerly an official special government employee with limited formal authority) has been described by Trump as being "in charge",[4] and a court has declared him the "DOGE leader".[5] In April 2025, Musk declared he would work on DOGE remotely,[6] months after declaring his intent to ban remote work for federal workers.[7] Musk and Davis left DOGE at the end of May.[8][9]
Musk said in March 2025 that there are around 100 employees and that he planned to double the staff.[10] Many of the employees, informally called "DOGE kids", are software engineers aged between 19 and 24 and without prior government experience.[11] At least 23 DOGE officials are making cuts at agencies that regulate where they previously worked.[12] The broader network also includes allies from Silicon Valley, the Trump administration and conservative legal circles.[13] Roughly 40 DOGE members are currently or were previously employed by Musk and his companies.[13][12] DOGE's structure has not officially been published,[2] and the identity of DOGE members was revealed by investigative journalists, which Musk described as doxxing.[14] DOGE's workforce is controversial, with concerns over its transparency, potential conflicts of interest,[15][16] information security,[17] and members' past conduct or affiliations.[18][11] Many DOGE members made financial contributions to the Trump campaign.[19] While the White House Presidential Personnel Office made political loyalty to Trump a cornerstone of its hiring strategy, DOGE employees were onboarded through a separate Musk-led process.[20] Following the Trump–Musk feud, Politico described the General Services Administration and the Office of Personnel Management as two agencies that remain "DOGE strongholds".[20]
Members of the network entered or joined various federal agencies. They took control of information systems to facilitate mass layoffs. Their actions have met various responses, including lawsuits.
In a February 17 affidavit, Office of Administration director Joshua Fischer told Judge Tanya Chutkan that Musk was not the administrator or an employee of DOGE but (like much of DOGE's workforce) a special government employee with no "authority to make government decisions". Special government employees have an advisory role limited to a 130-day work period that can be paid or unpaid. Those who earn a substantial salary have to disclose it. Unlike federal workers, special employees are allowed to keep outside salaries and may not need to disclose conflicts of interest.[21][22] Nevertheless, Trump declared two days later to have put "Musk in charge" of DOGE.[4] At a February 24 hearing, Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly questioned the constitutionality of retrofitting DOGE as the United States Digital Service and asked the government attorney, Bradley Humphreys, about its structure; he said that he ignored Musk's role beyond that of Trump advisor.[23] On the next day, Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said that Musk is "overseeing DOGE" but refused to identify its administrator after being asked repeatedly.[24][25]
Later the same day, the White House named Amy Gleason as the acting DOGE administrator; Gleason worked from 2018 through 2021 at US Digital Service.[26][27] On February 28, Justice Department lawyer Joshua Gardner told Judge Theodore D. Chuang that he was unable to identify the administrator of DOGE before Gleason.[28] In a filing submitted under seal but partly released in March, the Trump administration recognized that Gleason has been working at Health and Human Services at the same time that she said having worked full-time as an administrator of the US DOGE Service.[29]
In his March 4 joint address to Congress, Trump repeated that DOGE "is headed by Elon Musk".[30][31] After being quoted in lawsuits days later, Trump reportedly told members of his Cabinet that they rather than Musk and DOGE were to make staffing decisions for their departments, but a few hours later remonstrated "If they don't cut, then Elon will do the cutting."[32] On March 18, Chuang determined that Musk was "the leader of DOGE" and that his actions in dismantling USAID violated the Appointments Clause.[33] In a May 21 Supreme Court filing, Solicitor General John Sauer told the court that Musk "is not part of" DOGE.[34] In a separate lawsuit involving Musk's company X, his own lawyers stated that he is "in charge of" DOGE.[35] In late April, Musk told his investors that he planned to reduce his government work, but that he will "likely" continue for the remainder of Trump's term.[36]
In April, Elon Musk ceased basing his DOGE work from the White House, instead opting to work remotely.[37] During Tesla's earnings call on April 22, 2025, Musk said: "Starting early next month, in May, my time allocation to DOGE will drop significantly [...] I will be allocating far more of my time to Tesla."[38][39] This has been widely interpreted as a response to drops in Tesla's stock and sales resulting from Musk's work with DOGE;[40] David Sacks attributed the pivot to Musk’s modus operandi and usual shifts in focus.[41] Musk clarified that he was not planning to step away from DOGE entirely, saying that he would "spend a day or two per week on government matters for as long as the president would like me to do so".[42] Musk began working remotely around the same time,[43][44] months after expressing his intent to ban remote work for federal workers.[45]
Musk's offboarding began on May 28 at the end of his scheduled time as a special government employee.[46][47] Top Musk lieutenant Steve Davis, top DOGE adviser Katie Miller and DOGE general counsel James Burnham would be leaving as well.[48] Trump officially thanked Musk during an Oval Office farewell on May 30, and said Musk was "not really leaving".[49] During an interview with Brett Baier on June 1, Musk criticized Trump's "big beautiful bill" for undoing DOGE's work.[50]

DOGE hired software engineers aged 19–24 with no experience in government, including Akash Bobba, Edward Coristine, Luke Farritor, Marko Elez, Gautier Killian, Gavin Kliger, and Ethan Shaotran.[11] Reportedly, DOGE members conducted 15-minute video interviews with federal workers without identifying themselves, with queries such as "whom they would choose to fire from their teams if they had to pick one person",[51] and surprise code reviews, silently supervised by "extremely young men".[52] The team has been called "Doge Kids" by officials, reporters, and social media users.[53][54][55]
According to Brian Krebs, Edward Coristine's past poses security risks:[56] The 19-year-old son of the LesserEvil owner[57] leaked information from the data-security company where he was interning,[58] mingled with 'The Com', a cybercriminal network,[59] and owns web domains registered in Russia.[60] His online footprint also makes security clearance tough, according to some security experts.[60] As of February 19, Coristine is a staff member at the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency.[61] On March 27, documents resurfaced showing that Coristine has provided tech support to EGodly, a cybercrime group.[62] Coristine has gone by the name "Big Balls" on the internet, a nickname that has been widely referenced in the media.[63][64] In June 2025, Coristine resigned from DOGE and moved to SSA.[65]
Some members have been accused of previously amplifying extremist views. Gavin Kliger, 25, has an edgelord past,[66] crediting Ron Unz for his political awakening[67] and reposting internet personalities such as Nick Fuentes and Andrew Tate, along with white supremacist memes.[68][69] Elez has shared similar viewpoints, with posts such as "You could not pay me to marry outside of my ethnicity" or "Normalize Indian hate."[70]
On February 24, the Washington Post reported that Farritor and Kliger manually blocked payments for critical programs multiple times, programs that Secretary of State Marco Rubio had approved by decree.[71][72][73] Court documents filed on March 14 have revealed that DOGE staffer Marko Elez violated U.S. Treasury Department policy by mishandling personal information.[74] Kliger was accused of yelling at Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) staff he kept for a 36-hour shift.[75]
After the February 2 Wired article, names of DOGE members started to circulate; Musk accused those who did so of committing a crime.[76] The next day, interim United States attorney for the District of Columbia Ed Martin released a statement on Musk's social saying that certain individuals and/or groups have committed acts that appear to violate the law in targeting DOGE employees.[77] Musk quoted that statement, adding "Don't mess with DOGE".[78] On February 7, Martin sent Musk and his deputy Steve Davis a letter (also posted on his social) announcing that he had opened an investigation into government employees Musk accused of stealing property and making threats.[79][80] According to New York Times reporter Ken Bensinger, Musk was attempting to describe traditional journalism as "doxxing" in order to invalidate the role of the media in government accountability.[14]
After the names of DOGE employees began circulating on Reddit—and some users suggested violence—site administrators posted that Reddit had "seen an increase in content in several communities that violate Reddit Rules. Debate and dissent are welcome on Reddit—threats and doxing are not." The popular subreddit r/WhitePeopleTwitter was subsequently banned for three days, and a small subreddit called r/IsElonDeadYet was permanently removed.[81]
On February 11, Musk reshared a post by Laura Loomer with screenshots that identified Judge John J. McConnell Jr.'s daughter, along with her financial disclosure forms from the department, doxxing her.[82] This reshare followed McConnell's order to unfreeze federal grants.[83] On February 12, Rep. Andrew Clyde announced that he was drafting "articles" of impeachment against McConnell, echoing Musk's claim that there "needs to be an immediate wave of judicial impeachments, not just one".[84]

DOGE membership has been contested.[85] Amy Gleason argued in group chat she had no control over DOGE members hired by other agencies, nor any responsibility regarding their actions, including firings.[86] General Services Administration (GSA) administrator and DOGE member Stephen Ehikian stated "there is no DOGE team at GSA"[87] even though Steve Davis had taken up offices at GSA. In a legal case involving the Department of Labor, DOGE lawyers objected to the plaintiffs' meanings of "DOGE employee", "sensitive systems", "access", "records", and "authority", which they deemed "vague and ambiguous"; they restricted the concept of DOGE employee to "individuals who have a formal relationship" with the US DOGE Service.[88][89] In a court case involving the "Fork in the road" mass email, DOGE member Jacob Altik has been presented as a lawyer from the Office of Personnel Management when trying to shut down the African Development Foundation along with other DOGE members.[90]
On February 18, 2025, CNN sent Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests for security clearance records of DOGE team members who were granted access to sensitive or classified government networks; the response, from an OPM email address, was: "Good luck with that they just got rid of the entire privacy team". Sources told CNN that employees from the communications staff and those who handle FOIA requests were also dismissed.[91]
During his tenure at DOGE, Musk gave many interviews to Fox News.
NPR conducted an interview with an anonymous United States Digital Service (USDS) employee who resigned in protest, along 20 other staffers. The employee detailed the reasons for their resignation, including potential mishandling of sensitive government data, unexplained firings, and increasing pressure toward actions that went against USDS' apolitical mission.[92] Another former USDS employee (Merici Vinton) told Channel 4 that DOGE's approach was inefficient.[93]
Before being kicked out of DOGE for having given an interview to Fast Company, Sahil Lavingia said that he modernized the internal AI to Veterans Affairs; he also said that DOGE planned a hackathon for the new AI chatbot to start on May 19.[94][95] Lavingia made multiple interviews after being fired.[96] He admitted being "pretty surprised" by the actual efficiency of the government.[97][98]
TechCrunch sorts "Musk's universe" as inner circle, senior figures, worker bees, or aides;[99] The New York Times associates the "clear mandate" of "shrinking and disrupting" government" to DOGE leadership, staffers, and allies;[100] Wired maps three types of people "affiliated" with DOGE: conservative lawyers, Trump administrations, and Silicon Valley.[13] DOGE membership extends beyond employee status: many Musk allies are venture capitalists and startup founders.[101] Many DOGE members are embedded in other government units;[102] there are at least 23 employees hired between Jan. 20 and Feb. 20 that, according to Bloomberg, "have worked for DOGE in some capacity" at the Office of Personnel Management (OPM).[103] Few have a known contractual status; some have tried to conceal their roles; the White House provides little information.[104]
Staff roles follow the DOGE teams mentioned in the first executive order: "at least four employees" with one "Team Lead, one engineer, one human resources specialist, and one attorney".[105]
The highest and latest title is given in the "Role" column; its associated agency is given first in the "Unit" column. "Notes" summarize notable deeds or facts, which are prefaced with the agency connected to them. "Ties" are given in alphabetical order for individual connections: Musk, Thiel, Trump, etc. Sorting the information of very column then reveal the implicit DOGE structure found by the sources.[13]
| Name | Role | Unit | Ties | Notes | See also |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Daniel Abrahamson | Senior advisor | DOT | Musk – Tesla counsel, Munck Wilson Mandala[106] | Requested access to various databases[104] | [107] |
| Justin Aimonetti | Attorney | EOP | Law – Dechert LLP (Fox News case),[107] FedSoc contributor;[108] Trump – first administration[109][110] | Has a DOGE email; contacted the Vera Institute to send a DOGE team | [100][104] |
| Baris Akis | Recruiter | OPM | Musk – Human Capital co-founder;[111] tied to Amanda Scales | Vetoed by Trump (non-citizen);[112] still in charge of recruitment[113] | [100][101] |
| Jacob "Jake" Altik | Attorney | OPM | Trump – Neomi Rao clerk, Neil Gorsuch clerk; New Civil Liberties Alliance; Weil, Gotshal & Manges | USADF standoff; Fork in the road: represented OPM in trial | [104][114][100][115][116][117] |
| Marc Andreessen | Musk ally | Musk – a16z backed SpaceX, xAI, and Twitter; Trump – transition team | DOGE early recruitment | [99][118] | |
| Anthony Armstrong | Senior advisor to the Director | OPM | Musk – Twitter purchase; Morgan Stanley | Denied on Fox News that DOGE changes were radical; resigned in April, 2025 | [119][104][120][121] |
| Jennifer "Jehn" Balajadia | Musk aide | ED | Musk – his confidant and assistant, Boring | [104] | |
| Ankur Bansal | DOT | Homelight; SnapSaves | Identified grants to be canceled | [104] | |
| Sam Beyda | DOL | Used PuTTY to transfer and access data | [122] | ||
| Alexandra T. Beynon | Expert (coding) | ED | Musk – Mindbloom, ketamine-assisted therapy company founded by her husband; Goldman Sachs | [104][123][100] | |
| Riccardo Biasini | Senior advisor to the Director | OPM | Musk – Boring, Twitter, Tesla | Contact point for the government-wide email system; disclosed 1–5M in Boring stocks and 1–5M in Boring options | [104] |
| Brian Bjelde | Senior advisor | OPM | Musk – early SpaceX employee, helped terminate 80% of Twitter's employees; NASA: vested interest in company making Black Hawk helicopters autonomous (Rain) | Top DOGE lieutenant | [104][100][124] |
| Adam Blake | DOGE team lead | NRC | Questioned Steve Davis’s continued influence at DOGE as a non-employee | [125][126] | |
| Akash Bobba | Expert (coding) | OPM, GSA | Thiel – Palantir intern; Diversity Discovered CIO | SSA: asked for every bit of data | [11][100][127][128][129] |
| Ashley Boizelle | Attorney | GSA | Trump – FCC, under Ajit Pai; Sandra S. Ikuta clerk; Gibson Dunn | [130][100][109] | |
| Emily Bryant | CFPB[131] | Seen at the FTC; has an OEP and a GSA email | [104][132] | ||
| James Burnham | General Counsel | EOP | Trump – first administration, Neil Gorsuch clerk; FedSoc; Jones Day | Resigned on May 29, 2025 | [133][104][114][134] |
| Nate Cavanaugh | GSA ($120,500)[22] | Thiel fan; Brainbase; FlowFi (co-CEO) | Appointed: USIP, ICH; detailed: USADF, IAF, IMLS, NEH, MBDA; contacted: Vera Institute.[135] | [101][104][110] | |
| Alison Childs | GSA | Musk – Dream Team | [104] | ||
| Yat Choi | Engineer | OPM | Gebbia: AirBnB engineer | Non-citizen (from Canada); true believer | [136] |
| Carl Coe | Chief of Staff | DOE | Mango Practice Management[137] | Led DOGE efforts in the DOE[138] | |
| Michael Cole | USDA | [104] | |||
| Miles Collins | DOL | Named in GAO audit notes; has access to National Farmworker Jobs Program system | [139][140][104] | ||
| George Cooper | Recruiter | Thiel – Palantir engineer | Hired Palantir talent | [99][141] | |
| Sam Corcos | Chief Information Officer | USDT | Andreessen – Levels co-founder; health influencer; wife tied to Suleyman Kerimov | Asked for detailed taxpayer and vendor IRS information; will develop an API for IRS data in Palantir's Foundry | [142][143][144][145] |
| Edward "Big Balls" Coristine | Senior advisor | SSA; Previously CISA; GSA ( GS-15)[146] | Musk – Neuralink intern; Tesla.sexy LLC owner; LesserEvil; Path Network fired intern; The Com; Valery Martynov grandson | Interviewed by Jesse Watters; left in June 2025 to work for SSA[147] | [61][56][60][148] |
| Scott Coulter | Formerly the SSA Chief Information Officer (replaced by Moghaddassi) | NASA, SSA | Tiger Cubs: Cowbird Capital (now closed) | Told SSA executives to take the fork; has wide access to NASA's database; relabeled 6,100 living immigrants as dead | [149][104][150] |
| Steve Davis | Day-to-day deputy leader, Musk's second in command (left on May 25, 2025) | EOP, OPM, GSA | Musk – SpaceX, Twitter, Boring; Atlas Society advisor | GSA: occupied a whole floor; SSA: pressured to grant Bobba access to everything, including source code; resigned on May 29, 2025 | [120][119][104][151][99][100][152][134] |
| Stephen Duarte | Expert (HR) | OPM | Musk – SpaceX, Bjelde colleague | [104] | |
| Leland Dudek | Acting Commissioner (February to May, 2025) | SSA | Mid-level manager at the SSA (cybersecurity) | Placed on leave for breaking the chain of command to help DOGE, wrote and deleted a post on it, got promoted; threatened to shutdown SSA; placed on leave after contesting Trump's 40% claim;[153] replaced by Frank Bisignano; wrote an op-ed in the New York Post[154] | [100][55] |
| Stephen Ehikian | Acting Administrator | GSA | Musk – spouse worked at X; Salesforce; AI startup | ZBB fan | [100][104][155] |
| Marko Elez | Expert (coding) | USDT | Musk – SpaceX, X, xAI, Neuralink | Fired from DOGE for past racist posts; re-hired after JD Vance's intervention; accidentally published an API key for 52 xAI LLMs in a GitHub repository | [104][156] |
| Bee Elvy | Web designer | GSA | Musk – Dream Team | [104] | |
| Luke Farritor | Senior advisor | GSA[146] | Musk – SpaceX; Thiel Fellowship | Helped DOGE recruitment; accessed at least 12 databases (HHS, DOS, etc.) | [104][141] |
| Conor Fennessy | Senior advisor | ED, HHS | [104] | ||
| Joshua ("Josh") Fox | Attorney | Trump – Court of Federal Claims (Ryan T. Holte); Charles Koch: Institute for Justice;[157] Alston & Bird | [109] | ||
| Justin Fox | GSA | Nexus Capital Management | Detailed: NLRB, USADF, IAF, NEH, USIP, the Wilson Center, MEC, etc.[135] | ||
| Justin Fulcher | Senior advisor | DOD, VA | Musk – longtime admirer; donated c. $40,000 to Republican lawmakers and political action committees; shady credentials, bankrupted startup[158] | Accessed VA's HR systems; fired by DOGE, promoted by Hegseth at DOD;[159] made false wiretap claims;[160] left government in July | [104][161][162] |
| Nicholas Gallagher | Lawyer | GSA | [104] | ||
| Mattieu Gamache-Asselin | Senior advisor | HHS | Health services: Alto co-founder | Advises on budgeting, grants and financial management | [104] |
| Joe Gebbia | Musk ally, volunteer | OPM | Musk – Tesla board; Airbnb | Supports Robert Kennedy Jr; said on Fox News he wants an "Apple Store-like experience" for federal retirement; interviewed by Jesse Watters, along DOGE kids | [120][163][164][165][148] |
| Derek Geissler | DOL | Used PuTTY to access and transfer data | [122] | ||
| Patrick George | DOGE lead at US Navy | DoD | [104] | ||
| Brady Glantz | FAA | Musk – SpaceX engineer | Special employee for 4 days; still has an FAA email | [104] | |
| Amy Gleason | Acting Administrator | USDS | Brad Smith: Russell Street Ventures; Trump – US Digital Service | Nominally overs both USDS and USDSTO and reports to Susie Wiles | [100][166][167] |
| Mike Gonzalez | Senior advisor | OPM | David Sacks: Zenefits; TraceHQ | Lamented the state and process of the federal budget | [101] |
| Antonio Gracias | Musk ally | SSA | Musk – old friend, Tesla and SpaceX early investor, America PAC funder | Helped Trump transition; pushed anti-immigrants narratives in the media and on political platforms | [100][168] |
| Michael Grimes | DOC | Musk – Twitter acquisition; Morgan Stanley | Expected to lead the new sovereign fund | [100][169][104] | |
| Joshua A. Hanley | Attorney | NIH | Trump – DOJ; Federalist Society; Williams & Connolly | Authored grant termination notices | [104][100][109] |
| Tyler Hassen | Liaison | DOI | Former oil company CEO | Unsuccessfully attempted to turn on water at the Jones Pumping Plant; sought access to DOI's databases; Fox News appearance | [119][170][100][171] |
| Christina Hanna | Expert (HR) | OPM | Musk – SpaceX HR manager | [100] | |
| Jim Hickey | Senior advisor | DoD | [104] | ||
| Vinay Hiremath | Recruiter | DOGE | Trump – transition team; Loom | Quit DOGE to focus on himself | [99][101] |
| Adam Hoffman | DOJ | Musk – Citadel invested in X and Tesla; Trump – White House Council of Economic Advisers | Gained access to DOJ files on immigrants | [104] | |
| Greg Hogan | Chief Information Officer | OPM | Musk – Comma.ai | Named in a lawsuit vs OPM | [100][104] |
| Nicole Hollander | GSA | Musk – Twitter, Married to Steve Davis | Initiated thousands of lease cancellations on federal buildings;[172][173] resigned on May 29, 2025[174] | [99] | |
| Stephanie Holmes | DOGE Head of human resources | DOI | Federalist Society; Jones Day lawyer; Oklo chief people officer; BrighterSideHR: anti corporate DEI (closed) | Involved in the three-phase DEI purge plan; sought write permissions to DOI's HR resources and credentialing systems | [104][100][175] |
| Jared Isaacman | Administrator | NASA | Musk – SpaceX | Trump pulled his nomination[176] | [177] |
| Kenneth Jackson | Acting deputy administrator | USAID | Authored a memo about the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation | [178] | |
| Anthony Jancso | Recruiter | Thiel – Palantir software engineer; AccelerateX | Told Palantir alumni DOGE was recruiting to "deploy AI agents across live workflows in federal agencies" | [104][99][141][179] | |
| Rajasekar Jegannathan | Data engineer | GSA | Musk – Tesla senior employee | [104] | |
| Erica Jehling | EPA, GSA | Musk – SpaceX purchasing director | [104] | ||
| Gautier "Cole" Killian | Federal Detailee | EPA, DOL | Jump Trading (engineer) | [180][181][11][122] | |
| Thomas Kiernan | FAA | Musk – SpaceX software engineer | Left on February 6; had an official email | [104] | |
| Gavin Kliger | Senior advisor to the Director | CFPB, OPM, USAID, IRS | Musk – Tesla stock owner; Edgelord past; Ron Unz fan; Databricks; LinkedIn | Disclosed 1–5M in Databricks; manually blocked USAID payments authorized by Rubio; shouted at CFPB employees he made work for 36h straight | [11][67][104][182][183] |
| Keenan D. Kmiec | Attorney | EOP | Federal circuit court (Samuel Alito); Supreme Court (John Roberts); InterPop (Tezos); Sidley Austin | Son of former U.S. ambassador Douglas Kmiec; rejects the expression "judicial activism" | [104][114][184] |
| Jon Koval | Executive | SSA | Musk – Valor Equity Partners, co-founded by Gracias, invested in SpaceX and Tesla | [185] | |
| Tom Krause | Acting Fiscal Assistant Secretary of the Treasury | USDT | Musk – Citrix and Twitter share underwriter; still CEO of Cloud Software Group, where he axed thousands of jobs, some leading to security weaknesses | Had access to Treasury payment systems, with Elez; said on Fox News he wants to audit every federal payment; involved in USAID's dismantlement; resigned on June 6, 2025[186] | [120][119][104][187][99][188][189] |
| Michael Kratsios | Recruiter | DOGE | Trump – Chief Tech Officer in the first administration, wrote the 2020 pro-AI investment executive order; Thiel – Thiel Capital | Helped find the DOGE core members | [99][185] |
| Scott Kupor | Director | OPM | Andreessen – a16z; self-help author; National Venture Capital Association | [100][190][101][191] | |
| Scott Langmack | Liaison | HUD | Real-estate: Kukun COO; wrote The Fast Track to Your Ideal Job; became a loan shark during the 2008 recession | [100][192] | |
| Sahil Lavingia | Advisor to the Chief of staff | VA | Musk fan, brother was working at Twitter c. 2022; Gumroad CEO who fired most of his employees in 2015, to replace them with bots | Wanted to "digitize the agency" with vibe coding; "got the boot" in May, after the Fast Company interview;[193] suspected that DOGE will fizzle out after Musk's departure | [194][195][196][197][198] |
| Jeremy Lewin | Chief operating officer | USAID | Musk – Munger, Tolles & Olson (Tesla); Laurence Tribe collaborator; racism and violence issues | Receives $167,000 from GSA; authorized USAID shutdown; overrode 58 objections and 9 mandatory safeguards to approve $30 million for the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation | [199][200][201][202][22][178] |
| Kendall M. Lindemann | Expert (HR) | EOP, USDS | Brad Smith: Russell Street Ventures associate; competitive swimmer | [104][100] | |
| Kathryn Armstrong Loving | Federal detailee | EPA | Musk – Tesla; Brian Armstrong's sister; Y Combinator | Looking for contracts contra Trump's agenda; resigned on May, 23 | [203][104] |
| Shaun Maguire | Trump – supporter; Musk – Sequoia Capital (through Roelof Botha) | Helped screen DOGE candidates; vocal DOGE fan on Musk's social | [101] | ||
| Tarak Makecha | Senior advisor | FBI, DOJ, DOS | Musk – Tesla; Software company (finance executive) | Worked at the Justice Department on grant-making operations, and at the FCC | [100][110][104] |
| Ted Malaska | FAA | Musk – SpaceX software engineer | Given an ethics waiver; held an official email; left on February 6, 2025 | [104][101] | |
| David Malcher | GSA, VA | Musk – SpaceX senior financial analyst | [104] | ||
| Allan Mangaser | Senior advisor | GSA, OMB | Thiel – Palantir | [104] | |
| Jonathan Mendelson | Senior advisor | GSA, SEC | investor at Accel | Started on April 9 | [135] |
| Katie Miller | DOGE Spokesperson | Trump – Mike Pence press secretary during the first administration, wife of White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller | Left to work with Musk on May 25, 2025 | [104][204][134] | |
| Clark Minor | Chief Information Officer | HHS | Thiel – Palantir | Bitcoin enthusiast, disclosed a $244,000 Palantir salary and between 1 and 5M in Palantir stocks | [104] |
| Michael Alexander Mirski | Liaison | FHFA and HUD | Real estate: on a six-month leave from TCC Management, a mobile-home park business with a possibly predatory model; mnemonist | Gained access to HUD's Enforcement Management System | [100][192] |
| Eliezer Mishory | Attorney | SEC | Formerly an attorney for Kalshi, a prediction markets firm and official at Commodity Futures Trading Commission | [205][104] | |
| Bryanne-Michelle Mlodzianowski | Expert (HR) | OPM | Musk – SpaceX HR Manager | [100] | |
| Aram Moghaddassi | SSA Chief Information Officer | USDT, DOL, SSA | Musk – Neuralink, Twitter | Appeared on Fox News with Musk | [120][119][206][136] |
| Justin Monroe | Expert (security) | FBI | Musk – SpaceX; US Navy information warfare officer | First naval information warfare officer to be commissioned out of the Naval Academy in 2011 | [104][207] |
| Brooks Morgan | ED | Podium Education | [100] | ||
| Elon Musk | DOGE leader, Senior Advisor to Trump | Trump – spent $290 million to elect him, spent weeks at Mar-a-Lago | "Head of DOGE" according to Trump; de facto DOGE leader; compared himself to Buddha; officially resigned on May 25, 2025 | [104][208][134] | |
| Todd Newnam | IRS | Encore Technology Group CEO; The Carlyle Group; Sovereign Intelligence | [104] | ||
| Donald Park | SBA, GSA | [104][209] | |||
| Matthew Parkhurst-Session | GSA | [104] | |||
| Noah Peters | Attorney, senior advisor | OPM, Executive Office | Trump – first administration; Project 2025 and Federalist Society collaborator; Jared Taylor lawyer; | Authored the work-from-home termination memo | [100] |
| Nikhil "Nik" Rajpal | Expert (coding) | CFPB, NOAA, OPM | Musk – Twitter | [104][210][211] | |
| Adam Ramada | Liaison | EOP, DOL, ED | Musk – investment firm tied to a SpaceX alumnus | Identified as team lead in two legal cases | [104][212] |
| Brandon Mayhew | Senior Advisor | OPM | Musk – Twitter acquisition | [213] | |
| Austin Raynor | Attorney, senior advisor | OPM, Executive Office | Federalist Society; clerk for Clarence Thomas; DOJ; Pacific Legal Foundation | Condones Trump's Birthright Citizenship challenge | [100][122][214] |
| Payton Rehling | Expert (coding) | SSA | Musk – Valor Equity Partners, an early Tesla investor | [215] | |
| Ryan Riedel | Chief Information Officer | DOE | Musk – SpaceX network security engineer; U.S. Army Cyber Command | [104][100] | |
| Rachel Riley | Senior advisor in the Office of the Secretary | HHS | Brad Smith: colleague; McKinsey & Company | Requested access to Medicare payment systems; declared a stake in Patriot Family Homes, owned by husband; resigned in March, 2025. | [104][216] |
| Michael Russo | Chief Information Officer | SSA | Musk – Shift4 Payments executive, a company that process payments for Starlink | [104][206][100] | |
| Amanda Scales | Chief of Staff | OPM | Musk – xAI; Baris Akis: Human Capital; Uber | Worked on "Fork on the road" operation; returned to xAI by May 20, 2025[217] | [104][101] |
| Frank Schuler | Real estate executive | GSA | Real estate: syndicating easements specialist | Involved with the Fork in the road email; worked with Nate Cavanaugh on interviews; resigned on May 29, 2025 | [100][218] |
| Kyle Schutt | Software engineer | GSA($195,290)[22] | Trump – Revv and WinRed raise funds for the Republican Party; Outburst, which hosts parts of the DOGE website | Accessed FEMA systems to deobligate funds; has access to UAC portal | [104][101] |
| Riley Sennott | Senior advisor | NASA, GSA | Musk – Tesla; Thiel – Palantir | Conducted DOGE interviews | [219][104] |
| Bryton Shang | Senior advisor | NOAA | Unsuccessfully attempted to turn on water at the Jones Pumping Plant | [170][220] | |
| Ethan Shaotran | Expert (coding) | GSA,[146] ED | Musk – xAI hackathon runner-up; OpenAI grantee with Energize.ai, on "democratic methods to decide the rules that govern AI systems" | Requested access to a decade's worth of GSA data; interviewed by Jesse Watters | [11][101][221][148] |
| Gary Shapley | Acting administrator | IRS | Trump – first administration | Put into the role by Musk without having consulted with Trump or Scott Bessent; fired, and replaced by Michael Faulkender | [222] |
| Ryan Shea | GSA | [104] | |||
| Thomas Shedd | Acting Director (TTS), Chief Information Officer (DOL)[223] | GSA (TTS), DOL | Musk – Tesla engineer | Leads ai.gov[223] | [104][100][224] |
| Roland Shen | Engineer | USDT | Thiel – Ramp | [136] | |
| Alexander Simonpour | NASA | Musk – Tesla | Helps NASA's reduction in force | [177] | |
| Mike Slagh | DoD | Andreessen – Founder of company that received funding from a16z | [104] | ||
| Sam Smeal | FAA | Musk – SpaceX software engineer | Had an official email; left on February 6, 2025 | [104] | |
| Brad Smith | DOGE Chief of staff | HHS | Trump – FEMA, CMMI, Jared Kushner friend; Musk – met with him and Lutnick at Mar-a-Lago | Medicaid and Medicare privatization advocate; requested access to the Medicare payment system; appeared on Fox News | [119][104][29][101][225] |
| John Solly | SSA | Analyzes death data in Numident | [136] | ||
| Branden Spikes | OPM | Musk – PayPal, Zip2 Tesla, SpaceX; Spikes Security; California Russian Association | Left after two months | [226] | |
| Christopher Stanley | Musk aide | OPM | Musk – SpaceX principal engineer, Twitter security engineer; Trump – assisted January 6 rioters; leaked LizardStresser's database | Named on Fannie Mae board, resigned; installed Starlink terminals on the Whitehouse | [104][100][227][228] |
| Jack Stein | GSA | Salem Partners | Started April 15; targeted USIP | [135] | |
| Brian Stube | Senior adviser to the Secretary | DOT | Musk – former Citadel quant | Has a DOT email address; introduced to employees as DOGE member | [104] |
| Christopher Sweet | Coding (expert) | HUD | Uses AI to deregulate housing; has read access to the Public and Indian Housing Center Information Center data; focuses on Office of Public and Indian Housing (PIH) | [229] | |
| Zachary Terrell | DHH, NHS | Brian Armstrong: Early Spindl employee | Has access to sensitive systems, including information about those receiving Medicare benefits; reviewed and vetoed NSF grants | [104][230] | |
| Katrine Trampe | Advisor to Doug Burgum | DOI | Sought access to the Federal Personnel and Payroll System | [231] | |
| Cary Volpert | OPM | Musk – SpaceX | [13] | ||
| Russell "Russ" Vought | Acting Director | OMB | Trump – same role under the first administration; Project 2025; Heritage Action; Center for Renewing America | Named himself the CFPB acting administrator to shut it down | [100][232][233] |
| Yinon Weiss | DOGE team leader | DOD | Accused of reporting Justin Fulcher to law enforcement; left DOGE in July | [104][161] | |
| Owen West | DOGE team leader | DOD | Trump – assistant secretary of defense in first administration; Goldman Sachs former financial analyst | Involved in push for US drone dominance | [161] |
| Jordan M. Wick | Expert (coding) | CFPB, DOL | Thiel – Accelerate SF; Waymo | Granted extensive access to CFPB data; posted firing bot snippets on GitHub; suspected of having extracted NLRB data | ;[104][100][101][234][235] USDA: payment system access[236] |
| Joanna Wischer | Policy analyst | Trump – speech writer | [100][122] | ||
| Marshall Wood | GSA | Jefferies | Started April 21 | [135] | |
| Ryan Wunderly | Special advisor | USDT | Thiel – Anduril | [100][104] | |
| Chris Young | Musk's top political advisor | CFPB, Executive Office | Trump – America PAC's director and treasurer; Bobby Jindal staffer; PhRMA lobbyist; Republican National Committee | Gets between 100K and 1M from Musk while at CFPB | [104][99][237][238] |
| Bridget Youngs | Peace Corps | Ramp Charging, New Energy Capital | [104] |
It marks the first time a judge has ruled that Musk is likely exercising enough independent authority to require him to be confirmed by the Senate under the Appointments Clause. "The record of his activities to date establishes that his role has been and will continue to be as the leader of DOGE, with the same duties and degree of continuity as if he was formally in that position,'" wrote Chuang, an appointee of former President Obama. Chuang rejected the Trump administration's argument that Musk is not the DOGE administrator and is instead merely a senior adviser to the president who has no independent authority.
The White House's Presidential Personnel Office has made loyalty a cornerstone of its hiring strategy, scouring social media accounts and grilling applicants about their Trump bona fides. But DOGE hires, selected through a separate Musk-led process, didn't undergo the same level of scrutiny, according to a Trump official granted anonymity to describe the process.
"Based on the limited record I have before me I have some concerns about the constitutionality of the of USDS's structure and operation," said Kollar-Kotelly, using the acronym of the U.S. Digital Service that President Donald Trump renamed and restructured as the U.S. DOGE Service on his first day in office.
It marks the first time a judge has ruled that Musk is likely exercising enough independent authority to require him to be confirmed by the Senate under the Constitution's Appointments Clause. "The record of his activities to date establishes that his role has been and will continue to be as the leader of DOGE, with the same duties and degree of continuity as if he was formally in that position,'" wrote Chuang, an appointee of former President Obama. Chuang rejected the Trump administration's argument that Musk is not the DOGE administrator and is instead merely a senior adviser to the president who has no independent authority.
The group, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics (CREW), noted in its Thursday discovery request that lawyers for Musk told a judge last week, in a case concerning his company X, that he was too busy to sit for a deposition because the White House had put him "in charge of Establishing and implementing" DOGE.
[T]he full recording reveals that [Leland Dudek] went much further, citing not only the actions being taken at the agency by the people he repeatedly called "the DOGE kids "
Experts say it is extremely difficult for former members of violent street gangs to gain a security clearance needed to view sensitive or classified information held by the U.S. government [...] The Com is the English-language cybercriminal hacking equivalent of a violent street gang.
Davi Ottenheimer, a longtime security operations and compliance manager, says many factors about Coristine's employment history and online footprint could raise questions about his ability to obtain security clearance.
I currently serve as acting administrator of the U.S. Doge Service (formerly U.S. Digital Service). That's separate from (1) the embedded agency Doge teams — who are hired directly into each agency — and (2) the broader Doge policy agenda that Elon Musk advises the President on
Kel McClanahan, counsel for the plaintiffs, wrote in the Monday notice that with the relevant information about Altik, "it has become apparent that [Department of Justice attorney] Ms. [Elizabeth] Shapiro may have misrepresented — knowingly or unknowingly — his affiliation to the Court on 6 February — perhaps to preserve the illusion that OPM's counsel were ignorant of what OPM was doing with the Government-Wide Email System, or perhaps to obscure the role of DOGE and the White House in this case."
[A] closer examination of Fulcher's career also suggests his accomplishments don't always add up, according to internal company documents and interviews with 10 people who have worked with him. Fulcher's Singapore-based telehealth company, RingMD, for instance, went bankrupt after he raised more than $10 million from investors. His attempt to restart it in the U.S. led to litigation with a business partner, who claims Fulcher owes him hundreds of thousands of dollars. And the half-billion-dollar manufacturing facility promoted by the Biden administration appears to be one of a few claims that never materialized.
I have enormous respect for Justice Thomas, both as a person and a judge, and I think he's one of the most principled justices ever to sit the bench.
Wick posted the code for a tool that automatically downloads DMs from Twitter accounts. The code specifies Twitter accounts, which existed only until the social platform rebranded to "X" in October 2023, suggesting the possibility that the tool could be used to search through the digital past of government employees looking for disagreeable opinions or references. Another tool appeared to be designed for collecting sensitive data from government agency org charts. The tool contained fields for capturing the employee's office, a 1-5 satisfaction rating, union status, and whether or not their position is statutorily mandated.
Berulis said he noticed five PowerShell downloads on the system, a task automation program that would allow engineers to run automated commands. There were several code libraries that got his attention — tools that he said appeared to be designed to automate and mask data exfiltration. There was a tool to generate a seemingly endless number of IP addresses called "requests-ip-rotator," and a commonly used automation tool for web developers called "browserless" — both repositories starred or favorited by Wick, the DOGE engineer, according to an archive of his GitHub account reviewed by NPR.