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In an effort that began shortly after the creation of Doge, Propublica has now identified more than 100 private executives, engineers and investors from Silicon Valley.
Elon Musk has left government efficiency, but the world’s wealthiest man is leaving the network of acolites embedded in almost every federal agency.
At least 38 Doge members currently work or work in a business run by Musk. Propublica was found on investigations of resumes and other records. At least nine people have invested in or invested their inventory within it, a review of available financial disclosure forms shows.
Propublica has found that at least 23 Doge officials have made cuts at federal agencies that regulate the industries that employed them, potentially creating a major conflict of interest. For example, one Doge member, tasked with overseeing a massive layoff at the Consumer Financial Protection Agency, did so while owning stakes in a company regulated by the agency.
At least 12 remain in the company’s employees or advisors who worked before the paper, Doge, a review of the financial disclosure form shows. At least nine people continue to receive corporate benefits from private employers, including health insurance, stock vesting plans and retirement savings programs. These employment agreements could create a situation in which Doge staff shape federal policies that affect employers.
The people behind Doge are men in their 20s and 30s, most of whom bring government experience to this job. Many of them previously worked in finance.
Propublica’s list – the largest kind by any news organization – allows readers to have a comprehensive understanding of the background of those assigned to one of the Trump administration’s signature efforts. It comes at a critical moment as some of the first generation of Doge members have left the government and new crops are taking part.
“Even though Elon Musk and some of his top officials have shifted their attention to other issues, there is no indication that they will slow down work to test legal and ethical boundaries of using technology to improve government services.”
The Trump administration claims it is the most transparent in history, but Doge works in the shadow of bureaucracy.
Many of its staff are encouraged to remove public profiles and wipe out the internet in professional backgrounds or not discuss work with friends by leadership. At the Trump administration’s request, the Supreme Court on Friday suspended a court order that would have requested the government’s watchdog be handed over. The Trump administration has banned Doge staff from speaking publicly without approval.
To shed light on this secret group, Propublica began reporting on Musk’s influence within the Trump administration in February. We catalogued the fellow billionaire tech magistrates who were part of the Doge and earned senior posts across the agency. The first list published by the Media Outlet, Doge Tracker is the culmination of hundreds of conversations with sources across the government.
Today we added 23 staff to our tracker, bringing us to a total of 109. They extend across the government, from the Department of Defense to the General Services Bureau to the Securities and Exchange Commission.
It also reveals the composition of the Doge team at the Department of Defense, a group consisting mainly of high-tech startup founders. They became technological entrepreneur Inon Weiss, a former special forces soldier, according to a former Pentagon official who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation. Weiss has repeatedly appeared on Fox News, pushing the US forward to do more to support Israeli military operations in Gaza. He did not respond to requests for comment.
White House officials praised Doge in an interview, saying, “After decades of stagnant bureaucrats who allowed Americans to continue the status quo while they were screwed, bringing this federal government from outside exactly what was needed.”
White House officials said there was “no need” for the public to know who was in the Doge, claiming there was no violation of conflict of interest.
Elon Musk’s demolition crew
“For decades, we were able to operate without these people’s names,” authorities said. “There’s no need to know the palace’s plot of who works in the building.”
Musk defends Doji’s work as “common sense” and “not Draconian or radical.” He did not respond to requests for comment.
The mask retreat from Washington came after his electric car company Tesla sputtered amidst economic turmoil. It is reportedly that his own favours have declined and that some shareholders have lost faith in his leadership. His relationship with Trump has broken, the billionaire blows up the president’s budget, Trump threatens to cancel the government deal for Musk, and Musk is seeking presidential blast each.
It has not yet been seen how that rift will affect Doge, but the White House is already asking for $45 million in funding for the group’s operations, management and budget documents show.
Steve Davis, one of Musk’s top crew aides reported by ProPublica, reportedly acting as the group’s de facto leader, but has left the government. Davis ran Doge from the Commissioner Suite on the sixth floor of the GSA. Trump’s loyalist and OMB director Russell Vert believes he is the architect of Project 2025, who once wanted to put federal workers in “trauma.”
Results of the question
Whether Doge has achieved its mission — it is not clear that it will reduce the federal bureaucracy to a more streamlined, effective workforce.
Musk initially said the initiative would save taxpayers $2 trillion. He later revised that figure, suggesting in April that Doge would cut $150 billion from this year’s national debt. $180 billion in savings have been monitored by media fact-checkers who have questioned the accuracy of Doge’s claims on Doge’s website after finding an error in the accounting of Doge’s cancelled contract.
Still, Doge fired tens of thousands of federal workers and destroyed humanitarian aid programs both domestically and abroad. This includes pushing out key government officials from the Department of Health, Science and Safety.
To put together the list, Propublica tracked the industry where Doge employees previously worked. We looked into the professional experience they brought to the government and whether their allocations in Doge could lead to conflicts of interest. Propublica collaborated through archived resumes, federal financial disclosure forms, online databases and other documents. We interviewed more than 20 federal workers, some of whom shared internal agency emails, calendar invitations, and other materials mapping Doge activities. We have reached out to comment from all those listed on the tracker. Most of the time, we rejected our request.
As Doge enters the post-Musk chapter, here is our central findings.
Potential conflicts of interest are rising.
One 25-year-old software engineer helped to reduce agency staff even after being warned by an ethics lawyer. The White House called the allegations “another attempt to reduce Doge’s important mission” after which an aide who later left the CFPB said they “did not even manage the layoffs.” Another Doge staffer, Musk’s political advisor, was paid between $100,001 and $1 million from one of the billionaire boss companies, while simultaneously overseeing staff cuts at the CFPB. Neither staff responded to requests for comment.
These and other cases of Doge staff overseeing government activities that could benefit the government’s financial interests have prompted three Democrats to ask the Department of Justice, government ethics officers and inspector generals to investigate.
The administration makes such financial arrangements difficult. So far, federal agencies have only released 22 financial disclosure forms to more than 100 DOGE members requested by Propublica.
Doge’s image as a group of computer engineers is completely incorrect.
Doge 100 Plus comes from a variety of professions. 29 came from executive managers, 28 engineers, 16 investors and 12 from legal backgrounds. There were few scattered others who previously worked in cybersecurity, design and science.
More staff comes from a financial background than any other field. Private equity investor Michael Cole, founder of shareholders’ equity LLC, works for example at the Department of Agriculture. The call did not respond to a request for comment.
The staff at Doge are mostly young men with limited government experience.
Under Trump and Musk, Doge became primarily male. Of the 109 staff members identified by Propublica, 90 were male and 19 were female, making up 83% of the group male. This is a much higher percentage than working across the executive branch, where 54% of staff are male, according to 2024 data from the Human Resources Administration.
Many are young and inexperienced. Over 60% of Doge staff are in their 20s or 30s. One was 19 when he joined. As a percentage, Doge’s staff under 30 is roughly three times as many as the entire government agency.
Of the staff members identified by Propublica, 28 are under 29 years old, 35 are 30-39, and 36 are over 40 years old. The oldest is 67.
Doge Wrecking Crew: Executives, Engineers, Investors, Lawyers
He had little experience working for the state or federal government. Propublica has identified 21 Doge staff members with previous government roles, including stints at DOJ and NASA. This means that over 80% of the government participated in the government, where the government dismantles its efforts without having previously worked in the government.
These staff are protected by managers who continue to fire longtime federal employees, cut budgets and continue to suffocate from government programs while continuing to thwart maneuver from the public spotlight.
Doge’s secrets are part of the overall strategy, and some experts believe they allow government watchdogs and courts to blur their work.
Faith Williams, director of effective and accountable government programs for nonpartisan nonprofit projects on government oversight, said: “It’s not inherently bad that these people are coming from outside the government, they don’t have experience in the methods used to reveal waste and inefficiency.”
