DOGE Track

Elon Musk

Executive
Exited govt: 5/28/25 (reported)

Elon Musk was certainly the face and inspiration of DOGE, but it will likely be some time before we know the exact nature of his activities there. According to the official record, he was merely a humble advisor and DOGE was actually run by Amy Gleason. In actuality, it appears that Musk was setting the high-level direction of DOGE, with the daily operations conducted by deputies like Steve Davis, Anthony Armstrong or even Baris Akis. Musk was particularly preoccupied with finding instances of waste and fraud that he was certain was rampant everywhere in the government, and a lot of DOGE’s early involvement at the Treasury and SSA was in chasing down false alarms and misinformation triggered by DOGE’s poor understanding of data or even how the government worked. After his relationship soured with Trump, Musk left DOGE in late May, followed by multiple resignations of other DOGE allies leaving before the winds shifted. This didn’t mark the end of DOGE however, and the remaining staff are largely still carrying forward the same mission they started with.

Positions

Position Notes
DOGE
DOGE 1/20/25-5/28/25
resigned from agency 5/28/25

Events

Date Event
11/15/24
Source
Elon Musk and Russell Vought meet each other for the first time at Mar-a-Lago. They reportedly got along very well, with “both on the same wavelength in terms of taking the most extreme action possible.”
12/06/24
Source
A report on the tech billionaires steering Trump’s transition mentions Elon Musk and other names we now know to be DOGE staffers, and it describes how they have been interviewing people at Mar-a-Lago.
 Baris Akis, Elon Musk, Jared Birchall, Marc Andreessen, Michael Kratsios, Scott Kupor, Shaun Maguire, Steve Davis
c.1/25/25
Source
Elon Musk makes a request for Baris Akis to be allowed to work for DOGE, even though he is a noncitizen and it wouldn’t normally be allowed. His request is denied. (fuzz: date not given, but source published Feb 4th)
1/30/25
Source
Elon Musk reportedly visits GSA to meet with staff, several of whom are identified from their appearances in the internal directory for the agency. These include Steve Davis, Nicole Hollander, Thomas Shedd, Stephen Ehikian and Luke Farritor.
 Elon Musk, Luke Farritor, Nicole Hollander, Stephen Ehikian, Steve Davis, Thomas Shedd
1/30/25
Source
Jeremy Lewin and Elon Musk order the acting head of USAID to comply with orders to lock every USAID employee worldwide out of all email and other communication systems. He refuses, stating that a sudden loss of access could get aid workers killed.
2/04/25
Source
One of AFGE’s members who works in the headquarters of the Department received an instruction from Department leadership that Elon Musk and his DOGE team would be accessing Department of Labor headquarters beginning around 4 p.m. on February 5, 2025. This member and other employees were told by Department leadership that when Mr. Musk and his team visit, they are to do whatever they ask, not to push back, not to ask questions. They were told to provide access to any DOL system they requested access to and not to worry about any security protocols; “just do it.”
 Elon Musk
2/07/25
Source
Elon Musk posts a tweet “CFPB RIP” with a tombstone emoji
2/09/25
Source
Elon Musk posts more tweets claiming to have discovered sources of “massive fraud” within the SSA. These appear to be a misunderstanding of how erroneous records that exist in the SSA database are already filtered out from receiving benefits. Instead, he assumed that all erroneous records had received benefits and thus this was the massive fraud.
2/16/25
Source
Elon Musk posts a tweet claiming that DOGE had uncovered fraud of millions of people older than 120 who were collecting social security payments: “Maybe Twilight is real and there are a lot of vampires collecting Social Security.” This data issue is real, but there is no indication that millions of people were receiving improper payments
3/12/25
Source
Elon Musk visits the National Security Agency (NSA) to meet with its top administrator, General Timothy Haugh
 Elon Musk
3/21/25
Source
Elon Musk arrives at the Pentagon for a meeting with leadership, reportedly to discuss DOGE’s involvement at the agency.
c.3/26/25
Source
In a later interview, Sahil Lavingia describes attending an “E-meeting” for DOGE that included Elon Musk but was essentially run by Steve Davis as well as two other Musk loyalists, Anthony Armstrong and Baris Akis. Baris Akis is notably not an employee of DOGE, since he is a foreign national and Musk was not granted a waiver to hire him. (fuzz: date is given as “late March,” assuming a Wednesday bc others reported DOGE meetings during that time)
 Anthony Armstrong, Baris Akis, Elon Musk, Steve Davis
3/27/25
Source
The EPA administrator’s public calendar includes a “Meeting w/ Elon Musk West Wing 221” at 6:30pm. Musk reportedly did not attend.
 Elon Musk
3/30/25
Source
During campaign rallies in Wisconsin, Elon Musk and Antonio Gracias publish a chart claiming to show an increase in social security numbers being granted to noncitizens as evidence of voting fraud or benefits fraud by immigrants. The problem is that these numbers are necessary for immigrants to work in roles, and are used for paying taxes rather than receiving benefits, and the statistics were from a program to replace a more cumbersome process for assigning SSN IDs. Based on this interpretation, the Trump Administration argued for a change where applicants would have to instead visit an already overstretched field office, a change that is likely to both reduce tax income from immigrant workers and increase the per-person cost from $8 to $51,000
3/31/25
Source
Elon Musk visits the CIA at the invitation of its director, John Ratcliffe.
 Elon Musk
5/14/25
Source
Testifying before a House committee, HHS Secretary Robert Kennedy Jr. described DOGE’s role in their layoffs as “Elon Musk gave us help in figuring out where there was waste, fraud and abuse in the department, but it was up to me to make the decision.”
5/22/25
Source
Elon Musk joins a late-night meeting with senior members of the DOGE leadership team. Katie Miller delivered a blunt message that DOGE was on thin ice with the White House. She also reportedly advised that DOGE should strive to collaborate with Cabinet secretaries more instead of pushiing cuts or projects on them that they didn’t want to do.
 Anthony Armstrong, Antonio Gracias, Elon Musk, Katie Miller, Steve Davis
5/28/25
Source
Elon Musk claims on his X.com account that he has ended his time as a Special Government Employee but that he remains on good terms with the team.
5/31/25
Source
After smiling with Trump at a press conference at the White House, Elon Musk convened DOGE staff for a private farewell at his office in the Old Executive Office Building. He reportedly urged DOGE to rethink its methods and that the next iteration of DOGE should be decentralized and work more collaboratively with agency leadership. Steve Davis joined in by telephone and stated that he did not intend to go anywhere, which many interpreted to mean that he would be hired into a new role.
6/10/25
Source
Despite having left government service, Elon Musk, Steve Davis and Katie Miller reportedly tell top DOGE staff at a meeting that Musk continues to back their work and they should continue to stay the course.
11/22/25
Source
Many current and former members of DOGE reportedly hold a reunion in Austin, Texas where Elon Musk and Steve Davis are expected to attend and it’s likely there will be discussions on the future of DOGE.
2/05/26
Source
A federal judge ruled that Elon Musk and senior State Department officials must sit for depositions about their roles in dismantling USAID. The judge cited the lack of documentation and no cooperation from other State Department staff as the reason there was “no alternative” to ordering the depositions.