Who Is in DOGE? Tracking Its Staffers and Allies in the Federal Government - The New York Times

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Feb 27, 2025, 11:48:01 AM2/27/25
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The People Carrying Out Musk’s Plans at DOGE

The New York Times identified 45 people within the so-called Department of Government Efficiency, a group formed by Elon Musk that in a short few weeks has radically upended federal agencies. Few members have formal Washington experience. Many are software engineers. All seem to have a clear mandate: Shrink and disrupt the federal government.

DOGE leadership includes a longtime Musk aide, a health care entrepreneur, a digital services employee from President Trump’s first term and Mr. Musk’s political adviser.

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M Ties to Musk companies

Mr. Musk’s team has taken aim at more than 20 agencies while gaining access to sensitive government data systems. But the full extent of its reach or ambitions is unclear.

Much of the team’s operations are opaque, and most of its personnel have not been disclosed by the Trump administration, and it is unclear exactly how large the operation is. Through executive order, President Trump moved the team from the Office of Management and Budget, where it had been housed as the United States Digital Service since its founding, into the White House — a transition that effectively shielded its work from open records laws that could give the public insight into its operations.

The list below includes some of Mr. Musk’s allies; engineers — many of whom are young men — with backgrounds in artificial intelligence; former employees; and others who have helped the operation. Several have recently deleted their social media accounts after their names appeared in news reports.

Do you have information to share about DOGE? The New York Times wants to hear from you.

DOGE leadership

  • Elon Musk

    Senior adviser to the president
    Mr. Musk launched the DOGE operation prior to Mr. Trump’s inauguration, and he has directed it from an advisory role in the White House. As the world’s richest man, he has earned a reputation for being a ruthless cost cutter — something he’s applying to his new perch in the U.S. government.
    Company involvement: X, SpaceX, Starlink, The Boring Company, xAI, Tesla, Neuralink

  • Steve Davis

    A DOGE leader
    Mr. Davis, a close aide of Mr. Musk’s for two decades, is effectively the leader of DOGE. He has been by Mr. Musk’s side at almost every step over the last three months.
    Agency involvement: Office of Personnel Management, General Services Administration
    Company involvement: X, SpaceX, The Boring Company

  • Brad Smith

    A DOGE leader, health care entrepreneur
    Mr. Smith essentially functioned as a chief of staff for DOGE during the presidential transition and has led the team with Steve Davis. He has operated as a kind of policy handyman for Mr. Trump, taking on a variety of health-related roles.

  • Amy Gleason

    Acting administrator
    During the first Trump administration, Ms. Gleason worked at the United States Digital Service, which was subsumed by DOGE. She later worked with Brad Smith at an investment firm focused on health companies, and she rejoined the U.S.D.S. late last year. She was named the administrator of DOGE on Tuesday.
    Agency involvement: Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, United States Digital Service

  • Chris Young

    Musk’s top political adviser
    Mr. Musk hired Mr. Young, a top Republican field operative, to run his Super PAC last year. Mr. Young recently joined the DOGE team to help manage the effort.
    Agency involvement: Office of Personnel Management, Consumer Financial Protection Bureau

DOGE staffers

  • Amanda Scales

    Chief of staff, Office of Personnel Management
    Ms. Scales, who worked at Mr. Musk’s artificial intelligence company, has a senior role at the Office of Personnel Management, a powerful agency that manages government hiring.
    Agency involvement: Office of Personnel Management
    Company involvement: xAI

  • Katie Miller

    Senior adviser
    Ms. Miller, a longtime aide to Mr. Trump, acts as a senior adviser to the operation. The president called her a “deeply experienced communications professional” when he named her to the team as one of the first hires.

  • Riccardo Biasini

    Top aide to Musk
    Mr. Biasini is one of many aides of Mr. Musk who traveled with him to multiple companies before joining the government effort. Among other roles he has held, he is an executive at the Boring Company, Mr. Musk's tunneling business.
    Agency involvement: Office of Personnel Management
    Company involvement: X, The Boring Company

  • Anthony Armstrong

    Senior adviser, Office of Personnel Management
    Mr. Armstrong is a former Morgan Stanley banker who worked on Mr. Musk’s deal to buy Twitter. He now serves as a senior adviser to the Office to Personnel Management.
    Agency involvement: Office of Personnel Management
    Company involvement: X

  • Jennifer Balajadia

    Mr. Musk’s assistant
    Ms. Balajadia is Mr. Musk's longtime assistant, and she has email addresses at multiple federal agencies — a sign of her reach across the bureaucracy, alongside Mr. Musk’s.
    Agency involvement: Department of Education
    Company involvement: The Boring Company

  • Adam Ramada

    DOGE liaison, Education and Labor Departments
    Mr. Ramada comes from a background in finance start-ups, and he has identified himself in lawsuits as the head of teams assigned to the Education and Labor Departments. He has been described by people involved in meetings with him as a liaison between Elon Musk’s engineers and political appointees in the government.
    Agency involvement: General Services Administration, Department of Education, Department of Labor

  • Brooks Morgan

    Education start-up executive
    Mr. Morgan comes from the private sector with experience running an education start-up. He has been described by people at the Education Department as focused on the agency’s work force and budget.
    Agency involvement: Department of Education

  • Scott Langmack

    DOGE liason, Housing and Urban Development
    Mr. Langmack is a businessman who has worked in real estate technology. He has been embedded at the Housing and Urban Development Department.
    Agency involvement: Department of Housing and Urban Development

  • Jeremy Lewin

    DOGE Liaison, State Department and U.S.A.I.D.
    Mr. Lewin is a Harvard Law School graduate who has oversight over grants across government and serves as DOGE’s agency lead for the State Department and U.S.A.I.D. He once worked as a research assistant for Laurence Tribe, a liberal legal scholar.
    Agency involvement: General Services Administration, State Department, United States Agency for International Development, Consumer Financial Protection Bureau

  • Tarak Makecha

    Finance executive
    Before DOGE, Mr. Makecha worked as a finance executive at a software company that detects drones. He has been involved in meetings with the State Department and on foreign aid.
    Agency involvement: State Department
    Company involvement: Tesla

  • Rachel Riley

    Adviser, Health and Human Services
    Ms. Riley is a former consultant with McKinsey, the global consulting giant. She is working at the Department of Health and Human Services and has worked closely with Brad Smith. The two requested access to payment systems at the Medicare agency, according to a document seen by The Times.
    Agency involvement: Department of Health and Human Services

  • Tom Krause

    Senior Treasury official
    Mr. Krause has been leading DOGE efforts to review the Treasury Department’s payment systems, which contain sensitive information about millions of Americans. He clashed with a top civil servant at the Treasury, who resisted giving Mr. Krause access to the systems and later resigned from his job. Mr. Krause has since been named to that civil servant’s job, with oversight of the nation’s fiscal systems.
    Agency involvement: Treasury Department

  • Marko Elez

    Software engineer
    Mr. Elez is a former X employee who has been granted access to the Treasury Department’s payments system. A history of racist social media posts led him to resign from DOGE in February. But he was quickly reinstated after Vice President JD Vance came to his defense.
    Agency involvement: Treasury Department
    Company involvement: X, SpaceX, xAI

  • Ryan Wunderly

    Special adviser, Treasury Department
    Mr. Wunderly was hired to fill Marko Elez’s vacant role at the Treasury, which gives him read-only access to the department’s payments system, according to a court filing.
    Agency involvement: Treasury Department

  • Edward Coristine

    Software engineer
    Mr. Coristine is one of the youngest DOGE staffers, having graduated high school last year. A coder who interned at Neuralink, one of Mr. Musk’s companies, Mr. Coristine was fired from another internship at a tech firm after an investigation into the leaking of internal information.
    Agency involvement: General Services Administration, United States Agency for International Development, Department of Education
    Company involvement: Neuralink

  • Luke Farritor

    Software engineer
    Few of Mr. Musk’s aides have been spotted at as many federal agencies as Mr. Farritor, a prize-winning computer scientist who dropped out of college. He has spent a significant amount of time at the General Services Administration, interviewing tech staff members about their work.
    Agency involvement: General Services Administration, United States Agency for International Development, Centers for Disease Control, Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, Department of Energy, Department of Education, Department of Health and Human Services
    Company involvement: SpaceX

  • Christopher Stanley

    Software engineer
    Mr. Stanley has worked for Elon Musk at SpaceX and X in security engineering roles. He recently was involved in helping to release Jan. 6 prisoners.
    Agency involvement: Office of Personnel Management, Department of Justice
    Company involvement: X, SpaceX

  • Ethan Shaotran

    Software engineer
    Mr. Shaotran is part of the cadre of young coders. He founded an artificial intelligence start-up that received funding from OpenAI, a major player in tech and one of Mr. Musk’s chief competitors in A.I.
    Agency involvement: General Services Administration, Department of Education

  • Alexandra Beynon

    Software engineer
    Ms. Beynon is a former head of engineering at a company that prescribes ketamine therapy. She applied to work at the U.S. Digital Service, the executive office tech unit that was taken over by DOGE, just before Mr. Trump’s inauguration in January.
    Agency involvement: Department of Education

  • Gavin Kliger

    Software engineer
    Mr. Kliger, who has no government experience, has emerged as one of Mr. Musk’s most prolific foot soldiers. He has clashed with security officials at U.S.A.I.D. and sought access to sensitive taxpayer data at the I.R.S.
    Agency involvement: Office of Personnel Management, United States Agency for International Development, Internal Revenue Service

  • Jordan Wick

    Software engineer
    Mr. Wick is among the young coders working at DOGE, and he worked at Waymo, the self-driving car company. He also co-founded a hackathon aimed at developing A.I. software for government infrastructure.
    Agency involvement: Consumer Financial Protection Bureau

  • Cole Killian

    Software engineer
    Mr. Killian is among the young coders working at DOGE and is listed as a detailee at the Environmental Protection Agency, a designation often given to those on temporary assignment.
    Agency involvement: Environmental Protection Agency

  • Greg Hogan

    Software engineer
    With a background in software engineering and A.I., Mr. Hogan has taken over the technology office at Office of Personnel Management.
    Agency involvement: Office of Personnel Management

  • Ryan Riedel

    Network security engineer
    Mr. Riedel left an engineering role at SpaceX to join the Energy Department as chief information officer, according to his LinkedIn account. The account also includes prior information technology roles in the U.S. military.
    Agency involvement: Department of Energy
    Company involvement: SpaceX

  • Nikhil Rajpal

    Software engineer
    Mr. Rajpal is part of the group of young coders at DOGE who have gone into various federal agencies to carry out Mr. Musk’s directives.
    Agency involvement: Office of Personnel Management, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Consumer Financial Protection Bureau

  • Akash Bobba

    Software engineer
    Mr. Bobba is among the young coders at DOGE. He interned at Palantir, which was founded by Peter Thiel, a longtime Republican backer who has a long, on-again-off-again history with Mr. Musk.
    Agency involvement: Office of Personnel Management, General Services Administration

  • James Burnham

    DOGE’s top lawyer
    Mr. Burnham is a well-known conservative attorney who has provided oversight of legal work for the team.

  • Brian Bjelde

    Top aide to Musk
    Mr. Bjelde helped carry out widespread layoffs at X and was an early executive at SpaceX, where he worked in human resources — experience that carries over to his new role at the Office of Personnel Management.
    Agency involvement: Office of Personnel Management
    Company involvement: X, SpaceX

  • Kendall Lindemann

    Human resources staffer
    Ms. Lindemann is an associate of Brad Smith and Amy Gleason who is now working on the team in a human resources and operations role.
    Agency involvement: United States Digital Service

  • Stephanie Holmes

    Human resources staffer, Office of Personnel Management
    Ms. Holmes is a human resources consultant whose practice focuses on pushing back against corporate diversity, equity and inclusion programs. She has joined DOGE and been working on federal work force projects for the operation.

  • Christina Hanna

    Human resources staffer, Office of Personnel Management
    Ms. Hanna worked at SpaceX and is a former H.R. manager for Mr. Musk. She now works at the Office of Personnel Management.
    Agency involvement: Office of Personnel Management
    Company involvement: SpaceX

  • Stephen Duarte

    Human resources staffer, Office of Personnel Management
    Mr. Duarte worked at SpaceX and is a former H.R. manager for Mr. Musk. He now works at the Office of Personnel Management.
    Agency involvement: Office of Personnel Management
    Company involvement: SpaceX

  • Bryanne-Michelle Mlodzianowski

    Human resources staffer, Office of Personnel Management
    Ms. Mlodzianowski worked at SpaceX and is a former H.R. manager for Mr. Musk. She now works at the Office of Personnel Management.
    Agency involvement: Office of Personnel Management
    Company involvement: SpaceX
  • Mr. Altik is a lawyer who was selected to clerk for Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch. In private practice at Weil, Gotshal & Manges, a prominent firm, he focused on litigating complex business disputes in state and federal courts.
    Agency involvement: Office of Personnel Management
  • Mr. Peters is a lawyer who served in the first Trump administration and has a specialty in labor and employment issues. He is now working at the Office of Personnel Management.
    Agency involvement: Office of Personnel Management
  • Mr. Raynor is an attorney who has worked for the Justice Department and once clerked for Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas. He now works for the Office of Personnel Management.
    Agency involvement: Office of Personnel Management

  • Michael Russo

    Chief information officer, Social Security Administration
    Before joining the Social Security Administration, Mr. Russo was an executive at a tech company that processes payments for Mr. Musk’s Starlink.
    Agency involvement: Social Security Administration
    Company involvement: Starlink

  • Frank Schuler

    Real estate executive
    Mr. Schuler is a partner in a real estate investment firm based in Atlanta and has an email address at the General Services Administration, which manages the federal government’s property portfolio.

  • Nicole Hollander

    Real estate manager, General Services Administration
    With a background in real estate management, Ms. Hollander has followed her husband, Steve Davis, into federal government. She previously aided Mr. Musk after he bought Twitter and is now responsible for the assessment of federal buildings and leases through the General Services Administration.
    Agency involvement: General Services Administration
    Company involvement: X

  • Joanna Wischer

    Policy analyst
    Ms. Wischer was a policy analyst and speechwriter for the Trump presidential campaign.

  • Justin Monroe

    Expert, Office of Personnel Management
    Mr. Monroe is listed as an “expert” at the Office of Personnel Management. He previously worked as a security director at SpaceX.
    Agency involvement: Office of Personnel Management, Federal Bureau of Investigation
    Company involvement: SpaceX

DOGE allies

  • Michael Grimes

    Adviser, Commerce Department
    Mr. Grimes is an executive in charge of tech investment banking at Morgan Stanley. He helped to finance Mr. Musk’s $44 billion takeover of Twitter in 2022 and is now now an employee of the Commerce Department.
    Agency involvement: Commerce Department
    Company involvement: X

  • Russell Vought

    Director, Office of Management and Budget
    Mr. Vought worked with Mr. Musk before the inauguration as a guide to the budgeting process and the federal government.
    Agency involvement: Office of Management and Budget

  • Joe Gebbia

    Billionaire Airbnb co-founder
    Mr. Gebbia, who has backed Democrats in the past, said he voted for Mr. Trump last year and is a strong supporter of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. He is said to be assisting DOGE, although his exact role is not clear.

  • Scott Kupor

    Venture capitalist
    Mr. Kupor is a managing partner at Andreessen Horowitz, a venture capital firm, and has been nominated to run the Office of Personnel Management. The firm’s co-founder, Marc Andreessen, played a heavy role in the presidential transition.
    Agency involvement: Office of Personnel Management

  • Thomas Shedd

    Technology director, General Services Administration
    A former Tesla engineer, Mr. Shedd is the appointed director of the specialized tech arm of the General Services Administration. Mr. Shedd has faced pushback from employees for his demands for data access.
    Agency involvement: General Services Administration
    Company involvement: Tesla

  • Leland Dudek

    Acting commissioner, Social Security Administration
    Mr. Dudek, a mid-level manager at the Social Security Administration, was suddenly elevated to become the agency’s acting commissioner in February. Mr. Dudek wrote on LinkedIn that before his ascension, he had been placed on administrative leave for assisting DOGE’s efforts.
    Agency involvement: Social Security Administration

  • Stephen Ehikian

    Acting administrator, General Services Administration
    Mr. Ehikian co-founded a tech company focused on AI assistants before his appointment to the government. After a meeting with Mr. Musk, Mr. Ehikian told General Services Administration staff members that he wanted them to apply a technique called “zero-based budgeting,” an approach that Mr. Musk deployed during his Twitter takeover and at his other companies.
    Agency involvement: General Services Administration

  • Antonio Gracias

    Outside adviser
    Mr. Gracias is one of Mr. Musk’s oldest friends; he was an early investor in SpaceX, Tesla and other companies, and he helped fund a pro-Trump super PAC started by Mr. Musk. Mr. Gracias said he was at Mar-a-Lago with Musk during the transition.
    Company involvement: SpaceX, Tesla
  • Mr. Akis, who was born in Turkey and is not a U.S. citizen, is not involved with DOGE officially. But he played a sizable role during the transition, using his skills as a headhunter to recruit engineering talent.
    Agency involvement: Office of Personnel Management, Treasury Department, Internal Revenue Service

The Times attempted to contact each DOGE staffer on this list through a combination of verified email addresses and social media accounts. For those without known contact information, Times reporters tried to reach them by sending emails to a name and address pattern consistent with other known email addresses. No one returned the Times’s requests for comment.


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