Trump has denied all of the allegations, saying they were lies used to hurt his presidential campaign.
James David Vance (born James Donald Bowman; August 2, 1984) is an American politician, author, attorney, and Marine Corps veteran serving as the 50th vice president of the United States since 2025 under President Donald Trump. A member of the Republican Party, he was an Ohio Senator from 2023 to 2025.
Vance is a national conservative and right-wing populist, and describes himself as a member of the postliberal right. He is opposed to abortion, same-sex marriage and gun control. Vance is an outspoken critic of childlessness and has acknowledged the influence of Catholic theology on his sociopolitical positions.
In 2016, Vance was an outspoken critic of Donald Trump, calling him "reprehensible" and himself a "never Trump guy". In 2021, after Vance announced his Senate candidacy, he publicly announced support for Trump, apologizing for his past criticisms of Trump and deleting some of them. That year, Vance advised Trump to fire "every civil servant" to replace them with "our people".
Vance has said that if he had been vice president during the 2020 presidential election, he would not have certified the election results, instead insisting that some states that Trump lost should send pro-Trump electors so that Congress could decide the election.
Approximate net worth: $11,300,000
Kashyap Pramod Vinod Patel (born February 25, 1980) is an American lawyer and former federal prosecutor serving as the director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the acting director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) since 2025. A member of the Republican Party, he previously served as a National Security Council official, chief of staff to the acting secretary of defense, and senior advisor to the acting director of national intelligence during Donald Trump's first presidency.
The CIA asked the first Trump Justice Department to open a criminal investigation into Patel’s activities. The CIA alleged that, in an effort to discredit the FBI investigation of Russian interference, Patel had circulated classified information about the Russian efforts to interfere in the 2016 presidential election to government officials not authorized to see it. Patel denies mishandling classified documents and the DOJ referral did not lead to prosecution. Patel's FBI security clearance file remains flagged to indicate that the CIA referral was made.
In 2023, Patel published the book Government Gangsters. In the book, Patel lists 60 people he believes are members of the deep state, including Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, Hillary Clinton, Merrick Garland, Bill Barr, Robert Mueller, James Comey, Mark Esper, and Robert Hur.
During a December 2023 appearance on Steve Bannon's "War Room" podcast, Patel said that Trump was "dead serious" about seeking revenge against his political enemies were he elected. Patel said:
“We will go out and find the conspirators—not just in government, but in the media ... we're going to come after the people in the media who lied about American citizens, who helped Joe Biden rig presidential elections ... We're going to come after you. Whether it's criminally or civilly, we'll figure that out. But yeah, we're putting you all on notice, and Steve, this is why they hate us. This is why we're tyrannical. This is why we're dictators ... Because we're actually going to use the Constitution to prosecute them for crimes they said we have always been guilty of but never have.”
Two days before Patel's Senate confirmation hearing, 23 former Republican officials released a letter saying that his confirmation would be "a grievous mistake that would endanger the FBI's integrity and compromise its critical mission" because he is "motivated by revenge" and "has repeatedly vowed to go after individuals on perceived enemies lists. This is a vision of the FBI as an authoritarian weapon for pursuing his and Trump's grievances". The signatories included many Justice Department officials from four Republican administrations. Ty Cobb, a former Trump White House attorney who signed the letter, said Patel "is not qualified remotely by character or experience" to be FBI director and is "somebody who is a real danger to democracy and certainly a dagger in the heart of the FBI".
Patel received 25,946 restricted shares at a value of over $800,000 (as of when reported) in Trump Media & Technology Group, which operates the Truth Social platform and is majority-owned by Trump, two days before the Senate hearing, on January 28, 2025. Patel is a board member of the company.
Washington University in St. Louis School of Law professor Kathleen Clark said, "It gives him a financial incentive not to take any actions that would undermine the value of Trump Media. That would include investigations."
Estimated net worth: Between 5.9 and 15 million dollars.
Linda Marie McMahon (born October 4, 1948) is an American politician, business executive, and former professional wrestling promoter who has served as the United States Secretary of Education since 2025. She also served as the 25th administrator of the Small Business Administration from 2017 to 2019.
McMahon, along with her husband, Vince McMahon, founded sports entertainment company Titan Sports, Inc. (later World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc.) where she worked as the president and later CEO from 1980 to 2009. In 2009, she left World Wrestling Entertainment to run for a seat in the United States Senate from Connecticut as a Republican, but lost to Democrat Richard Blumenthal in the 2010 general election. She was the Republican nominee for Connecticut's other Senate seat in the 2012 race, but lost to Democrat Chris Murphy.
On November 19, 2024, McMahon was nominated by Donald Trump to serve as Secretary of Education. McMahon was confirmed to the office by the United States Senate on March 3, 2025, by a vote of 51–45.
After Donald Trump made an appearance at WrestleMania 23 in 2007, the McMahons donated $5 million to the Donald J. Trump Foundation in addition to the payment for the appearance. In 2016, McMahon donated $6 million to Rebuilding America Now, a Super PAC with the purpose of electing Donald Trump as US president, and in 2015 and 2016 combined, $1.2 million to Future 45, a Super PAC which funded anti-Bernie Sanders advertisements.
In October 2024, McMahon was named as a defendant in a lawsuit, accusing her, her husband, and WWE of negligence with regards to the "ring boys" scandal, in which multiple WWE personnel, including ring announcer Mel Phillips and executives Pat Patterson and Terry Garvin, either resigned or were dismissed in 1992 after being accused of sexually assaulting young boys. Phillips for example, was dismissed in 1988 for sexual misconduct, but was rehired several weeks afterwards under the condition that he "stop chasing after kids". McMahon's possible involvement in the scandal was known prior to her tenure as Small Business Administrator; a vetting document from Trump's first transition team, leaked in 2019 and cited in the lawsuit, listed the scandal as a possible "red flag" against her. The lawsuit also alleges the McMahons fostered a culture of sexual abuse within the WWE.
On January 20, 2025, her nomination for Secretary of Education was received in the U.S. Senate and referred to the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP). The nomination hearing was scheduled for February 13, 2025. On January 30, 2025, corporate filings stated McMahon had received 25,946 restricted shares of Trump Media (more than $800,000 when reported). McMahon is an independent director of the social media corporation's board of directors. Approximately $200,000 (25% of the benefit) is accessible immediately, and the remainder of the restricted stock becoming available in a vesting schedule of installments from March 2025 through March 2027.
Approximate net worth: $3,000,000,000
Scott Kenneth Homer Bessent (born August 21, 1962) is an American government official, investor, and hedge fund manager serving as the United States Secretary of the Treasury since 2025.
Bessent is the second openly gay man to serve in the Cabinet of the United States.
In 2016, Bessent donated $1 million to Donald Trump's 2017 presidential inaugural committee. In 2023 and 2024, he donated more than $1 million to Donald Trump's 2024 campaign.[33]
In February 2024, Bessent hosted a fundraiser in Greenville, South Carolina, that raised nearly $7 million for Trump's 2024 campaign. In April 2024, he was a host of a Palm Beach, Florida, fundraiser that raised $50 million for Trump's campaign.
Bessent was sworn in as the 79th secretary of the treasury on January 28, 2025. On January 31, Bessent gave Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency team access to the Treasury Department's payment system, which sends out $6 trillion annually in payments from federal agencies and contains millions of Americans' personal tax information. On February 3, 2025, Bessent was concurrently named the acting director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, replacing Zixta Martinez, who had been serving as acting director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau since the firing of Rohit Chopra on February 1. Bessent immediately ordered the agency to halt all work.
Approximate net worth: $1,000,000,000
Marco Antonio Rubio (born May 28, 1971) is an American politician, diplomat, and attorney serving since 2025 as the United States Secretary of State and acting administrator of USAID. A member of the Republican Party, he served as a United States senator from Florida from 2011 to 2025 and was a candidate for president of the United States in the 2016 Republican primaries.
Rubio's maternal grandfather, Pedro Victor Garcia, immigrated to the U.S. legally in 1956, but returned to Cuba to find work in 1959. When he fled communist Cuba and returned to the U.S. in 1962 without a visa, he was detained as an undocumented immigrant and an immigration judge ordered him to be deported. Immigration officials reversed their decision later that day, the deportation order was not enforced, and Garcia was given a legal status of "parolee" that allowed him to stay in the U.S. Garcia re-applied for permanent resident status in 1966 following passage of the Cuban Adjustment Act, at which point his residency was approved.
In November 2024, it was reported that Trump had chosen Rubio as United States Secretary of State in his second administration. Trump confirmed this on November 13.
Trump formally nominated Rubio, among others, on January 20, 2025, as one of his first acts as president. The Senate Committee on Foreign Relations unanimously approved his nomination and the Senate confirmed him a few hours later by a vote of 99 to 0.
On January 22, 2025, as part of compliance with Executive Order 14168, which ended gender self-identification on passports, Rubio instructed State Department staff to freeze any passport applications that requested "X" sex markers. As part of the move, the department held some transgender applicants' documents while their applications were in limbo. The move created widespread confusion among both applicants and those who had already acquired passports with "X" sex markers.
In accordance with President Trump's executive order, on January 24, 2025, Rubio enacted an unprecedented freeze on all U.S. foreign aid for 90 days, with some exceptions, effective January 28. This shut down many of USAID's humanitarian, development, and security programs worldwide. During his time in Congress, Rubio was an avid supporter of USAID. During a February 6 press conference in the Dominican Republic, Rubio said, "If it's providing food or medicine or anything that is saving lives and is immediate and urgent, you're not included in the freeze." But on February 8, CNN reported that many waivers were not being acted upon because too many staff have been placed on leave and because payment systems had been taken over. Before he decided to cut USAID, Rubio was alerted by the federal government officials who estimated that one million children would go untreated for severe malnutrition, up to 166,000 people would die from malaria, and 200,000 more children would be paralyzed by polio over the next decade if the USAID programs were cut.
In February 2025, Rubio met with El Salvador President Nayib Bukele and reached an agreement for the country to take in deported foreign nationals who committed crimes, in addition to jailed U.S. citizens and permanent residents. Rubio praised the agreement as a way of rehousing deportees and American prisoners in a two-year-old Salvadoran "mega-prison".
In February 2025, Rubio supported Trump's proposal that the U.S. take over the Gaza Strip, saying that the U.S. "stands ready to lead and Make Gaza Beautiful Again" and pursues a lasting peace in the region for all people.
In March 2025, Rubio bypassed Congress by issuing an emergency declaration to send Israel a $4 billion shipment of arms.
On March 14, Rubio expelled South African U.S. Ambassador Ebrahim Rasool and called him a "race-baiting politician who hates America".
Rubio is an outspoken opponent of abortion. He has said that he would ban it even in cases of rape and incest, but with exceptions if the mother's life is in danger.
In March 2016, Rubio opposed President Obama's nomination of Merrick Garland to the Supreme Court, saying, "I don't think we should be moving forward with a nominee in the last year of this president's term. I would say that even if it was a Republican president." In September 2020, Rubio applauded Trump's nomination of Amy Coney Barrett to the court after Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg's death, voting to confirm her on October 26, 86 days before the expiration of Trump's presidential term.
Approximate net worth: $5,000,000
Michael George Glen Waltz (born January 31, 1974) is an American politician, businessman, author, and former Army Special Forces officer who has been the United States National Security Advisor under President Donald Trump since 2025. He was the U.S. representative for Florida's 6th congressional district from 2019 to 2025.
In December 2020, Waltz was one of 126 Republican members of the House of Representatives to sign an amicus brief in support of Texas v. Pennsylvania, a lawsuit filed at the United States Supreme Court contesting the results of the 2020 presidential election, in which Biden defeated Trump.
On May 19, 2021, Waltz voted against legislation to establish the formation of a January 6 commission meant to investigate the storming of the U.S. Capitol.
In 2021, The Intercept reported on his role in founding and managing a defense contracting company called Metis Solutions, which had landed contracts worth an accumulated $930 million in Afghanistan from the US government, largely in the area of training Afghan security forces. As a result of PAE acquiring Metis in 2020, Waltz had personally realized capital gains in the range of $5-25 million.
In January 2023, Waltz and Representative Dan Crenshaw introduced a bill to seek authorization to use US military force to "put us at war with the cartels" in Mexico.
In 2024, he voted against multiple Ukraine bills to aid Ukraine.
Waltz voted for the Consolidated Appropriations Act (H.R. 1158), which prohibits Immigration and Customs Enforcement from cooperating with the Department of Health and Human Services to detain or remove illegal alien sponsors of Unaccompanied Alien Children.
On November 12, 2024, President-elect Donald Trump announced that he would appoint Waltz to serve as his national security advisor.
On January 20, 2025, Waltz tendered his resignation from the U.S. House of Representatives in order to take up his appointment with the Trump administration.
Approximate net worth: $10,500,000
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is an American politician, environmental lawyer, author anti-vaccine activist, and conspiracy theorist who has been the 26th United States secretary of health and human services since February 13, 2025.
In 2016, Kennedy called supporters of then-presidential candidate Donald Trump "belligerent idiots" and suggested that some were "outright Nazis". He has also characterized Trump as a "bully" and a "threat to democracy", comparing him to Adolf Hitler and George Wallace.
In 2024, Kennedy endorsed Trump for president at a Trump campaign rally in Arizona.
In July 2023, Kennedy said, "There's no vaccine that is safe and effective."
In July 2024, Vanity Fair reported that in the late 1990s, on multiple occasions, Kennedy groped and touched inappropriately a 23-year-old part-time babysitter for his children, Eliza Cooney. Kennedy called this a "lot of garbage".
Kennedy says that he drinks only raw milk and believes that it has health benefits. In October 2024, he accused the FDA of "aggressive suppression'' of raw milk.
In December 2024, more than 75 Nobel Laureates urged the U.S. Senate to oppose Kennedy's nomination, saying he would "put the public's health in jeopardy".
Over 17,000 doctors, who are members of Committee to Protect Health Care, signed an open letter urging the U.S. Senate to oppose Kennedy's nomination, arguing that Kennedy had spent decades undermining public confidence in vaccines and spreading false claims and conspiracy theories, that he was a danger to national healthcare, and that he lacked the qualifications to lead the Department of Health and Human Services.
On January 28, 2025, Caroline Kennedy wrote a letter to senators, calling her cousin, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a “predator” addicted to attention from airing dangerous views on vaccinations and who is unfit to be the nation’s health secretary.
On February 4, 2025, the Senate Committee on Finance voted 14–13 to forward Kennedy's nomination to a full Senate vote. Bill Cassidy was the deciding vote. He was originally hesitant, but said he had received "serious commitments" from the Trump administration and "honest counsel" from Vice President JD Vance in exchange for his support of Kennedy's nomination.
Approximate net worth: $15,000,000
Below is the letter that Caroline Kennedy wrote to senators.
Peter Brian Hegseth has served since January 2025 as the United States secretary of defense. Prior to this he was a Fox News presenter, author, president of Concerned Veterans for America, and National Guard officer.
Hegseth holds strongly conservative views and is a self-avowed Christian nationalist. In his book American Crusade (2020), Hegseth characterized "Americanism" as being opposition to movements such as feminism, globalism, Marxism, and progressivism, equated democracy to a leftist demand, and expressed support for election-rigging through gerrymandering to "screw Democrats". He described progressives and Democrats as enemies of freedom, as well as the United States and the Constitution. Hegseth has said that victory for America includes the end of globalism, socialism, secularism, environmentalism, Islamism, genderism, and leftism
On November 2024, Vanity Fair reported that Hegseth had allegedly sexually assaulted a woman at the Hyatt Regency Monterey Hotel and Spa on Del Monte Golf Course in Monterey, California, in October 2017, when he was scheduled to speak at the California Federation of Republican Women convention. According to the Monterey Police Department, Hegseth was investigated in connection with two incidents of sexual assault but was not criminally charged. The Washington Post reported that Hegseth had paid the accuser as part of a non-disclosure agreement after she threatened litigative action in 2020.
The New Yorker reported in December 2024 on a detailed seven-page whistle-blower report on Hegseth’s tenure as the president of Concerned Veterans for America which says that he was repeatedly intoxicated while acting in his official capacity—to the point of needing to be carried out of the organization’s events. The report was compiled by multiple former C.V.A. employees and sent to the organization’s senior management in February, 2015. The report accounts instances such as when Hegseth had to be restrained while drunk from joining the dancers on the stage of a Louisiana strip club, where he had brought his team. The report also says that the married Hegseth, and other members of his management team sexually pursued the organization’s female staffers, whom they divided into two groups—the “party girls” and the “not party girls.”
According to the New Yorker, the report also states that, under Hegseth, the organization became a hostile workplace that ignored serious accusations of impropriety, including an allegation made by a female employee that another employee on Hegseth’s staff had attempted to sexually assault her at the Louisiana strip club. In a separate letter of complaint, which was sent to the organization in late 2015, a different former employee described Hegseth being at a bar in the early-morning hours of May 29, 2015, while on an official tour through Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio, drunkenly chanting “Kill All Muslims! Kill All Muslims!”
Approximate net worth: $6,000,000
Jennifer Balajadia, 36
Connected to: Executive Office of the President
Musk link: Worked at The Boring Company
Balajadia, who also goes by “Jehn,” is an official member of the DOGE team, according to federal records viewed by ProPublica. She worked as an operations coordinator at The Boring Company for seven years, according to her LinkedIn page. Recent media reports have described her as Musk’s assistant and close confidant, traveling with him and assisting with scheduling and daily tasks.
Alexandra T. Beynon, 36
Connected to: Executive Office of the President
Beynon is an official member of the DOGE team, according to federal records viewed by ProPublica and media reports. According to her LinkedIn page, she most recently worked as the head of engineering at her husband’s startup, Mindbloom, which provides “guided at-home ketamine therapy.” She previously worked as a software developer at investment banking company Goldman Sachs. When reached by ProPublica and asked about her involvement in the new administration and DOGE, she said, “I have no idea what you are talking about.” She did not respond to additional requests for comment.
Nicole Hollander, 42
Connected to: General Services Administration
Musk link: Worked at X
Hollander is working at the GSA. She most recently worked at X, where she handled the company's real estate. She is married to longtime Musk lieutenant Steve Davis, according to media reports.
Kendall M. Lindemann, 24
Connected to: Executive Office of the President
Lindemann is an official member of the DOGE team, according to federal records viewed by ProPublica. According to her LinkedIn page, she most recently worked as an associate at Russell Street Ventures, a health care firm founded by fellow DOGE associate Brad Smith. She also previously worked as a business analyst at McKinsey & Company.
Adam Ramada, 35
Connected to: Executive Office of the President
Musk link: Previously part of an investment firm with links to a SpaceX alumnus
Ramada is an official member of the DOGE team, according to federal records viewed by ProPublica. He previously worked for Spring Tide Capital, a venture capital company. Spring Tide Capital previously invested in Impulse Space, an aerospace company founded in 2021 by Tom Mueller, a founding member of SpaceX. Ramada has reportedly appeared at the Energy Department and General Services Administration, according to E&E News.
Ryan Riedel, 37
Chief Information Officer
Connected to: Department of Energy
Musk link: Worked as SpaceX network security engineer
Riedel emerged in early February as the new chief information officer at the Department of Energy. His position was confirmed in a LinkedIn post by the former CIO, Ann Dunkin, who wrote, “Handing the keys over to you, virtually.” Riedel, who now lists himself online as the department's CIO, has worked at SpaceX since 2020. He previously served in the U.S. Army Cyber Command.
Kyle Schutt, 37
Connected to: General Services Administration
Schutt is a DOGE software engineer working at the GSA. He was previously the chief technology officer at Revv, an online fundraising platform that’s a frequent vendor for the Republican Party. According to his recently deleted LinkedIn profile, Schutt led the development and launch of WinRed, the GOP’s major online fundraising platform, which helped raise $1.8 billion for Republicans in the 2024 election cycle.
Ethan Shaotran, 22
Connected to: General Services Administration
Musk link: Participated in a hackathon organized by Musk's artificial intelligence company xAI
Shaotran is part of the DOGE team. He recently attended Harvard University and studied computer science. He founded Spark, a scheduling assistant startup, for which he said he received a $100,000 grant from OpenAI. He was a member of a team that was a finalist in a hackathon organized by xAI, Musk’s artificial intelligence company. Shaotran’s name first came to light in an article by Wired magazine about a group of young software engineers recruited by Musk to analyze internal government data and technology programs.
Jordan M. Wick, 28
Connected to: Executive Office of the President
Wick is an official member of the DOGE team, according to federal records viewed by ProPublica. According to his personal website, which has recently been taken offline, he graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and recently worked at autonomous car company Waymo as a software engineer. Before joining the government, Wick was listed as the co-founder of an e-commerce startup named Intercept, which is affiliated with the California-based tech incubator Y Combinator. The incubator has featured speaker events with Musk and other AI leaders.
Jacob Altik, 32
Lawyer
Connected to: Executive Office of the President
Altik is a 2021 graduate of the University of Michigan Law School. He clerked for D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Neomi Rao, a Trump appointee known for critiquing the administrative state. For the last year and a half, he worked as a corporate litigation associate at Weil, where he co-authored a detailed legal analysis on administrative law jurisprudence at the Supreme Court. Last year, he was selected to begin a clerkship for Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch in the 2025 term, which is set to begin this summer.
James Burnham, 41
General Counsel
Connected to: Executive Office of the President
Burnham is a former litigation partner at Jones Day and a high-ranking Justice Department and White House official from the first Trump administration. The New York Times first reported his involvement with DOGE as a lawyer in January. His title at DOGE is listed internally as general counsel, according to records reviewed by ProPublica. Burnham previously served as a clerk to Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch. On a website for one of his past companies, Burnham is described as having played a “central role” in the selection and confirmation processes for Gorsuch, Justice Brett Kavanaugh and then-Judge Amy Coney Barrett.
Keenan D. Kmiec, 45
Lawyer
Connected to: Executive Office of the President
Keenan Kmiec’s career veered from elite law to, more recently, crypto. After clerking for then-Judge Samuel Alito on a federal circuit court, he clerked on the Supreme Court for Chief Justice John Roberts in the 2006-2007 term, according to his LinkedIn. He did a stint at a corporate law firm and had his own firm focused on insider-trading litigation. In 2021, Kmiec began working for a Swiss foundation that promotes a blockchain called Tezos, according to his LinkedIn. He then served for nine months as CEO of a now-defunct startup called InterPop, which described itself as “forging the future of digital fandom with comic, game, and collectible NFTs minted responsibly on the Tezos blockchain.”
Anthony Armstrong, 57
Senior Adviser to the Director
Connected to: Office of Personnel Management
Musk link: Worked on Musk’s purchase of Twitter
Armstrong is a technology banker at Morgan Stanley who worked on Musk’s $44 billion acquisition of Twitter — since rebranded as X — in 2022. He has been given an influential role at OPM, which handles personnel issues across the federal government. Since Trump took office, OPM has spearheaded the new administration’s efforts to dramatically reduce the federal workforce and roll back telework and remote work policies.
Riccardo Biasini, 39
Senior Adviser to the Director
Connected to: Office of Personnel Management
Musk link: Former engineer at Tesla, executive at the Boring Company
Biasini is an engineer and former executive who has worked at two of Musk’s companies, the Boring Company and Tesla. He has also taken a high-ranking role at OPM. Biasini was listed as the contact person for the government-wide email system put in place by the Trump administration and used to send messages directly from OPM to millions of federal workers across the government, according to a recent court filing.
Brian Bjelde, 44
Senior Adviser
Connected to: Office of Personnel Management
Musk link: Vice president of people operations at SpaceX
Bjelde is a longtime SpaceX employee who’s spent more than 20 years at the company, according to his LinkedIn profile, where he’s had a variety of jobs, including as managing director of the “food services group.” He previously worked for NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. He’s been referred to in press reports as a “top DOGE Lieutenant,” working at OPM to slash head count. CNN previously revealed that Bjelde had informed OPM staff of a plan to cut 70% of the agency’s workforce. The New York Times reported that Bjelde helped Musk cut staff at Twitter following its takeover.
Akash Bobba, 21
Senior Adviser to the Director
Connected to: Office of Personnel Management
Bobba was named by Wired magazine as part of a team of six young engineers picked by Musk for his DOGE team. A recent graduate of the University of California, Berkeley, Bobba worked as an intern at Meta, the social media company, and at Palantir, the software and data analytics firm that is a major defense contractor. Bobba is listed in personnel records as an “expert” at OPM, where he has reportedly been able to access internal databases. He graduated from high school in 2021; in his graduation speech, featured in the Spotlight New Jersey newspaper, he told his fellow graduates that, in life, the “answers we deserve demand discomfort.”
Nate Cavanaugh, 28
Connected to: General Services Administration
Cavanaugh is an entrepreneur who has founded companies focused on intellectual property management and small-business finance. He has been interviewing staffers at the GSA as part of the DOGE team, according to those who have spoken with him. GSA procures technology tools, real estate, and other services for federal government agencies. In published interviews, Cavanaugh has expressed an admiration for tech luminaries, including Peter Thiel, Elon Musk, and Mark Zuckerberg, and has said he is “very interested in crypto.”
Edward Coristine, 19
Expert
Connected to: Office of Personnel Management
Musk link: Interned at Neuralink
Coristine is a recent undergraduate student at Northeastern University and part of the group of young DOGE staffers detailed to OPM, the government’s human resources office. Wired reported that Coristine interned at Neuralink, Musk’s brain-computer interface company. Friends of Coristine told Northeastern University’s independent student newspaper that Musk was one of Coristine’s idols and that while he finished the fall 2024 semester, he did not return to school for the spring term. According to CBS News, Coristine has been seeking access to the Small Business Administration’s internal records on behalf of DOGE.
Steve Davis, 45
Connected to: Executive Office of the President
Musk link: Longtime Musk lieutenant, CEO of the Boring Company
Davis has been a senior executive and close associate of Musk’s for over two decades, working with him at SpaceX, X and the Boring Company. He was one of the first people to be associated with the DOGE effort last year. The New York Times reported he was on early calls with Musk as they conceived of the DOGE effort and explored ways to cut federal programs. Bloomberg reported that Davis has helped recruit staffers for DOGE.
Marko Elez, 25
Connected to: Treasury Department
Musk link: Worked as an engineer at X and SpaceX
Elez works at the Treasury Department, a staffer at the office of the Secretary of Treasury confirmed in a call with a ProPublica reporter. Wired reported Feb. 4 that Elez, who graduated from Rutgers in 2021 and studied computer science, has gained access to the highly sensitive payment systems of the U.S. Treasury Department. According to Elez’s LinkedIn bio, which was recently deleted, he was most recently an engineer at X in New York for roughly a year and an engineer at SpaceX in the Los Angeles area for around three years before that. Elez reportedly resigned Feb. 6 after The Wall Street Journal reported that he has links to a social media account that posted racist comments online. Musk said publicly he planned to rehire the engineer, saying that “to err is human, to forgive divine.”
Luke Farritor, 23
Executive Engineer in the Office of the Secretary
Connected to: Department of Health and Human Services
Musk link: Former SpaceX intern
Farritor works as an executive engineer at the HHS, according to agency data. He studied computer science at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and interned at SpaceX, working on its Starlink Wi-Fi team and Starship launchpad software, according to his Linkedin profile. In March 2024, he received a Thiel fellowship, a two-year program founded by billionaire tech entrepreneur Peter Thiel that awards a $100,000 startup grant to students who drop out of college.
Stephanie Holmes, 43
Human Resources
Connected to: Executive Office of the President
Holmes is running human resources at DOGE, according to government workers who have been in meetings with her. A former lawyer with Jones Day, a firm that frequently represents Trump, she was previously the chief people officer at Oklo, a nuclear energy company chaired by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman. She also ran her own HR consulting firm, BrighterSideHR, which advised companies to pursue “non-woke” approaches to diversity and inclusion in the workplace.
Gautier “Cole” Killian, 24
Federal Detailee
Connected to: Environmental Protection Agency
Killian works at the EPA, according to agency data. His position is a federal detail, which typically allows government employees to transfer between agencies for temporary roles. He studied math and computer science at McGill University, where he conducted blockchain-related research. He recently worked as an engineer at Jump Trading, an algorithmic financial trading company, and is a member of the DOGE team, according to recent media reports.
Gavin Kliger, 25
Senior Adviser to the Director
Connected to: U.S. Agency for International Development, Office of Personnel Management
Kliger is a senior adviser at OPM, according to his LinkedIn profile. He spent nearly five years as a software engineer at Databricks, a cloud-based AI company. He is widely reported to be part of Musk’s DOGE team. On his personal Substack, he wrote an essay titled “Why I gave up a seven-figure salary to save America,” according to press reports, and described failed U.S. attorney general nominee Matt Gaetz, who withdrew from Congress amid allegations of sexual misconduct, as a “victim” of the deep state. On Feb. 3, workers at USAID received an email announcing that their Washington offices would be closed that day. Replies to the email were directed to Kliger at a USAID email address.
Tom Krause, 47
Expert
Connected to: Treasury Department
Krause is a part of DOGE’s efforts to gain access to sensitive federal payment systems as part of Musk’s larger effort to root out spending perceived as wasteful. According to the Treasury Department, Krause leads a team of people who have been granted “read-only” access to the code for the agency’s Fiscal Service payment system, which processes payments for major programs such as Social Security and Medicare. The department has clarified he is designated as a “special government employee.” The New York Times reported that Krause is affiliated with Musk’s DOGE team.
Katie Miller, 33
Spokesperson
Connected to: Executive Office of the President
In December, during the transition, Trump named Miller, who served in the first administration as a press secretary to Vice President Mike Pence, as one of the first members of DOGE. She is the wife of White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller. After reports that DOGE personnel accessed internal USAID data, Katie Miller defended the group, saying that “no classified material was accessed without proper security clearances.”
Justin Monroe, 36
Adviser
Connected to: FBI
Musk link: Senior director for security at SpaceX
Monroe is working as an adviser within the office of the director of the FBI, according to three people familiar with the matter. NBC News previously reported that an unnamed SpaceX employee has been placed in the FBI director’s office but said it could not confirm the individual’s identity. Monroe is a seasoned information security professional who previously served in the U.S. Navy as an information warfare officer.
Nikhil Rajpal, 30
Expert
Connected to: Office of Personnel Management
Musk link: Former Twitter employee
Rajpal is listed as an “expert” now working for OPM. An archived version of his personal website from 2018 lists his job title as an engineer at Twitter. Rajpal has extensive access to sensitive personnel data used by OPM, according to a source familiar with his role. Wired reported Feb. 5 that Rajpal also sought and was later granted access to data at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Wired magazine reported that he is part of the DOGE team.
Rachel Riley, 33
Senior Adviser in the Office of the Secretary
Connected to: Department of Health and Human Services
Riley works as a senior adviser at HHS, according to agency data. She previously worked for consultancy firm McKinsey & Company for about eight years, most recently as a partner leading teams advising the company’s state and federal government clients. She has been working closely with Brad Smith, a former health official in Trump’s first administration who ran DOGE during the transition period, according to media reports.
Michael Russo, 67
Chief Information Officer
Connected to: Social Security Administration
Musk link: Former chief technology officer of Starlink payment processor Shift4 Payments
Russo is a top-ranking technology official at the SSA, which disburses over $1.5 trillion in benefits annually. Russo spent over seven years as an executive and senior adviser with Shift4 Payments, a payment processing company that is both an investor in SpaceX and a payment processor for StarLink, according to his Linkedin. The CEO of Shift4 Payments, Jared Isaacman, has been nominated by Trump to lead NASA and is a friend of Musk’s who has purchased multiple spacewalks with Musk’s SpaceX company. Russo’s office will oversee the SSA’s over $2 billion IT budget.
Amanda Scales, 34
Chief of Staff
Connected to: Office of Personnel Management
Musk link: Previous employee of xAI
Scales’ name came to light in the first week of the Trump administration as federal employees received a memo putting them on notice that diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility initiatives in the federal government were now barred through an executive order — and to report efforts to conceal them. The message listed Scales as the point of contact for questions. Scales worked in the human resources department at xAI, Musk’s artificial intelligence company, prior to OPM. Before that, she worked in recruiting at ridesharing company Uber. She is reportedly an integral part of OPM’s sweeping efforts to restructure the federal workforce.
Thomas Shedd, 28
Federal Acquisition Service Deputy Commissioner and Director of Technology Transformation Services
Connected to: General Services Administration
Musk link: Software engineer at Tesla
Shedd’s work at Tesla focused on building software that operates vehicle and battery factories, according to a GSA press release. The office Shedd runs, known as TTS, helps federal agencies improve their tech practices. GSA leaders have told employees they plan to cut 50% of the budget. Shedd has told colleagues he plans to run TTS like a “startup software company,” according to Wired magazine, which will reportedly involve the use of artificial intelligence to analyze government contracts.
Brad Smith, 42
Connected to: Executive Office of the President
Smith was among the earliest names associated with DOGE outside of its founder. The New York Times reported he was helping lead the group. He served in a series of health-related policy roles during the first Trump administration, including being part of the board of Operation Warp Speed, the historic COVID-19 vaccine development program. According to The New York Times, which first reported Smith’s involvement in DOGE, he is a friend of Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law.
Christopher Stanley, 33
Connected to: Executive Office of the President
Musk link: Senior director for security engineering at X and principal engineer at SpaceX
Stanley is an experienced information security professional who has worked at multiple Musk-related companies. He is reportedly an aide to Musk at DOGE, according to The New York Times, and has a role at the White House. He was part of the initial transition team after Musk purchased Twitter in 2022, according to his LinkedIn profile. On inauguration day, Stanley assisted in the release of individuals associated with the Jan. 6 riots, he wrote on X.
https://projects.propublica.org/elon-musk-doge-tracker/
"Elon Musk’s Demolition Crew", by Avi Asher-Schapiro, Christopher Bing, Annie Waldman, Brett Murphy, Andy Kroll, Justin Elliott, Kirsten Berg, Sebastian Rotella, Alex Mierjeski, Pratheek Rebala and Al Shaw, Feb. 6, 2025 • Updated: Feb. 11, 2025