Elon Musk taps Trump's ex-aide, tech execs for staffing DOGE initiative

By Shirin Ghaffary, Gregory Korte and Sarah McBride

 

Billionaire Elon Musk is turning to an executive from one of his own companies, a former Trump White House official and other tech executives to help hire staff for the incoming administration’s nascent effort to slash the size and scope of government.

 

Steve Davis, president of Boring Co., Musk’s tunneling operation, and Michael Kratsios, former US chief technology officer, are among those leading interviews of potential candidates, according to people familiar with the effort. They’ve hired about 10 people so far, and are seeking software engineers including those with experience in artificial intelligence, said the people, who requested anonymity to discuss personnel matters.

 

 

The hiring push signals that momentum is building behind the initiative, a Musk brainchild known as the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE for short. It has the blessing of President-elect Donald Trump, who named Musk and former Republican campaign rival Vivek Ramaswamy to lead it within a week of his presidential election victory.

 

Despite its moniker, DOGE is not an official government agency established under law by Congress, and its authority is still taking shape ahead of Trump’s inauguration next month. For now, DOGE is operating out of glass-walled office space in Washington leased by SpaceX, another Musk-owned company, about four blocks away from the White House. 

 

Musk and Ramaswamy are still trying to figure out DOGE’s structure, but they’re considering incorporating as a 501(c)(3), according to some of the people. One complication is that a 501(c)(3) can be either a public charity — which means it has to pass a public support test with at least a third of donations coming from a broad array of supporters — or a private foundation, which would be more restrictive.

 

Trump could also make it an official federal advisory committee by executive order. But those committees can have strict ethics and transparency requirements — and are funded by taxpayers, which would risk undermining the cost-cutting mandate. There are about 1,000 such public-private advisory committees in the federal government, costing a total $399 million last year.

 

It’s unclear who’ll be signing the paychecks of DOGE hires or if Musk or Ramaswamy are putting in any of their own funds for the effort. But the use of SpaceX offices suggests that Musk, the world’s richest man at a net worth of roughly $458 billion, is shouldering at least some of the expenses.

 

The initiative highlights the relationship that Musk has rapidly cultivated with Trump through the campaign and post-election. Musk contributed a total of $238.5 million to a pro-Trump political action committee, making him the largest single donor in the US election.

 

Musk and Ramaswamy injected themselves into debate Wednesday in Washington over a stopgap government funding bill with posts on X urging lawmakers to reject the legislation and seek aggressive savings. Trump followed hours later with a joint statement also signed by Vice President-elect JD Vance declaring their opposition to the bill and urging Congress to also include an increase to the debt ceiling in the package — a move that risks complicating passage ahead of a Friday deadline.

 

Musk hatched the idea for DOGE during the campaign, and it was quickly embraced by Trump and many of his conservative allies. The Tesla Inc. chief executive officer has amplified the budding initiative with regular posts on X of what he sees as examples of wasteful government spending.

 

House Republicans have seized on DOGE by announcing plans for a Subcommittee on Delivering on Government Efficiency led by Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene that would align with the Musk-led push for streamlining government. 

 

The effort seeks to trim as much as $2 trillion in federal spending, but it’s unclear whether that’s on an annual basis or over a 10-year budget window. That figure, however, exceeds the amount Congress spends annually on government agency operations, including defense, and would likely require deep cuts to popular programs like Social Security and Medicare.

 

“I expect DOGE to operate in ‘founder mode’ — lean, decisive and led by two great people in Vivek and Elon who are obsessed over every detail,” said James Fishback, the co-founder of investment firm Azoria Partners and a Ramaswamy confidant.

 

Formerly a SpaceX engineer, Davis became president of Musk’s tunneling business, Boring Co., and was brought in by Musk in October 2022 to help with the $44 billion purchase of Twitter, the social media platform now known as X. 

 

Davis was devoted to the cause: At one point he moved his family into X’s offices while he worked to slash the website’s expenses. During the election campaign, Davis also played a key role in Musk’s America PAC, a crucial fundraising vehicle supporting Trump’s campaign. 

 

Kratsios was a key technology adviser in the Trump White House, later serving as a Defense undersecretary for research and engineering. He’s now managing director at Scale AI, Inc., which specializes in training data for AI.

 

Musk, Davis, Kratsios and the Trump transition team didn’t respond to messages seeking comment.