An unpaid group of billionaires, technology executives and some disciples of Peter Thiel, a powerful Republican donor, are preparing to take unofficial positions in the US government in the name of cost-cutting.
As President-elect Donald J. Trump's so-called Department of Government Efficiency prepares for the battle against “wasteful” spending, it is preparing to send people linked to its co-leaders, Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, to agencies across the federal government. . .
After Inauguration Day, the group of wide-eyed, Silicon Valley-influenced recruits will be sent to the alphabet soup of Washington agencies. The goal is for most major agencies to eventually have two DOGE representatives as they look to cut costs like Musk did on x, his social media platform.
This story is based on interviews with about a dozen people familiar with DOGE operations. They spoke to The Times on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly.
On the eve of the Trump presidency, the DOGE structure is still amorphous and tightly controlled. People involved in the operation say secrecy and avoiding leaks is paramount, and much of their communication is done through Signal, the encrypted messaging app.
Trump has said the effort would push for “dramatic changes” and that the agency would provide outside advice on how to reduce unnecessary spending. DOGE itself will have no power to cut spending; that authority rests with Congress. Instead, it is expected to provide recommendations on programs and other areas that should be cut.
But parts of the operation are becoming clear: Many of the executives involved hope to serve six-month voluntary stints within the federal government before returning to their high-paying jobs. Musk has said they won't be paid (an impossibility for some initially interested tech executives) and has asked them to work 80 hours a week. Some, including possibly Mr. Musk, will be so-called special government employeesa specific category of temporary workers who can only work for the federal government for 130 days or less in a 365-day period.
Representatives will largely be stationed within federal agencies. After some consideration by senior officials, DOGE is now unlikely to be incorporated as an organized or non-profit external entity. Instead, it likely exists more as a brand for an interconnected group of aspirational leaders who participate in joint group chats and share a loyalty to Musk or Ramaswamy.
“The cynics among us will say, 'Oh, it's naïve billionaires entering the fray.' But the other side will say this is a service to the nation that we saw more typically around the founding of the nation,” said Trevor Traina, an entrepreneur who worked in the first Trump administration with associates who considered joining DOGE.
“The friends I know have huge lives,” Traina said, “and they agree to work for free for six months, leave their families and roll up their sleeves in an attempt to really change things. You can look at it either way.”
DOGE leaders have told others that the minority of people not assigned to the agencies would be housed in the Executive Office of the President at the US Digital Service, which was created in 2014 by former President Barack Obama to “change our government's focus on technology.”
DOGE is also expected to have an office in the Office of Management and Budget, and officials have also considered forming a think tank outside the government in the future.
Musk's friends have been intimately involved in choosing the people who will be sent to various agencies. Among those who have conducted interviews for DOGE are Silicon Valley investors Marc Andreessen, Shaun Maguire, Baris Akis and others who have a personal connection to Musk. Some who have received the Thiel Scholarshipa prestigious grant funded by Mr. Thiel given to those who vow to skip or drop out of college to become entrepreneurs, are involved in DOGE's programming and operations. Negotiating an introduction to Musk or Ramaswamy, or their inner circles, has been a key way for leaders to be chosen for deployment.
So said Loom co-founder Vinay Hiremath, who got involved in DOGE in a rare public statement from someone who worked with the entity. In a post this month on his personal blog, Hiremath described the work DOGE employees had been doing before he decided not to move to Washington to join the entity.
“After 8 calls with people who talked fast and seemed very smart, they added me to several Signal groups and put me to work right away,” he wrote. “The next 4 weeks of my life consisted of hundreds of calls recruiting the smartest people I've ever talked to, working on various projects that I definitely can't talk about, and learning how completely dysfunctional the government was. “It was wonderful.”
These recruits are assigned to specific agencies where they are believed to have experience. A few other DOGE registrants have caught the attention of Mr. Musk and Mr. Ramaswamy through x. In recent weeks, the DOGE account on complete for engineers and back- The office functions as human resources.
The DOGE team, including paid engineers, works primarily in a glass building at SpaceX's downtown office located a few blocks from the White House. Some people close to Ramaswamy and Musk hope that these DOGE engineers can use artificial intelligence to find cost-cutting opportunities.
The broader effort is being led by two people with markedly different backgrounds: One is Brad Smith, a health care entrepreneur and former top health official in Trump's first White House, close to Jared Kushner, Trump's son-in-law. . Mr. Smith has been leading DOGE effectively during the transition period, with a particular focus on recruitment, especially for workers who will be integrated into the agencies.
Smith has been working closely with Steve Davis, a Musk collaborator for two decades and who is widely considered Musk's representative in all things. Davis has joined Musk as he calls experts with questions about the federal budget, for example.
Other people involved include Matt Luby, Mr. Ramaswamy's chief of staff and childhood friend; Joanna Wischer, Trump campaign official; and Rachel Riley, a partner at McKinsey who works closely with Mr. Smith.
Musk's personal attorney, Chris Gober, and Ramaswamy's personal attorney, Steve Roberts, have been exploring various legal issues related to the structure of DOGE. James Burnham, a former Justice Department official, is also helping DOGE with legal matters. Bill McGinley, Trump's initial choice as White House counsel, who was instead named DOGE legal counsel, has played a more minimal role.
“DOGE will be a cornerstone of the new administration, helping President Trump realize his vision of a new golden age,” said James Fishback, founder of Azoria, an investment firm and a confidant of Mr. Ramaswamy, who will provide outside advice. for DUX.
Despite all this firepower, many budget experts have been deeply skeptical of the effort and its cost-cutting ambitions. Musk initially said the effort could result in “at least $2 trillion” in government cuts. 6.75 billion dollars federal budget. But budget experts say that goal would be difficult to achieve without cutting popular programs like Social Security and Medicare, which Trump has promised not to cut.
Both Musk and Ramaswamy have also reframed what success might mean. Ramaswamy emphasized DOGE-led deregulation <a target="_blank" class="css-yywogo" href="https://x.com/VivekGRamaswamy/status/1868362752533860456″ title=”” rel=”noopener noreferrer” target=”_blank”>in x last month, saying that removing regulations could stimulate the economy and that “DOGE's success cannot be measured solely through deficit reduction.”
And in a <a target="_blank" class="css-yywogo" href="https://x.com/Live/status/1877200335443304685″ title=”” rel=”noopener noreferrer” target=”_blank”>interview Last week with Mark Penn, president and CEO of Stagwell, a marketing company, Musk downplayed the total potential savings.
“We'll try to get $2 trillion; I think that's the best outcome,” Musk said. “It is necessary to have some surplus. “I think if we try to get two billion, we have a good chance of getting one.”
