DOGE Track

Jonathan Mendelson

Analyst

An April addition to the DOGE lineup, Jonathan Mendelson has been part of Nate Cavanaugh’s wrecking crew that visits small independent executive agencies to subvert and destroy them. He has been spotted at the SEC and the USDFC so far, which is concerning considering he comes from a background in venture capital and investment banking. Prior to DOGE, he was an investor in the Silicon Valley VC firm Accel.

Positions

Position Notes
GSA
Source
GSA 4/09/25
DFC
Source
GSA? DFC 4/28/25 likely detailed
SEC
Sources
GSA? SEC c.5/02/25-10/31/25 likely detailed Senior Advisor «title sourced from ProPublica, reportedly not seen at agency for last few months of official station»
detail ended 10/31/25

Events

Date Event
4/28/25
Source
A team of 4 DOGE personnel – Nate Cavanaugh, Jonathan Mendelson, Ethan Shaotran and Marshall Wood – arrive at the headquarters of the US International Development Finance Corporation
4/29/25
Source
Nate Cavanaugh sends an email to the two remaining members of the CPB board requesting a meeting. He describes a DOGE team at GSA and cc’s several other members of DOGE
 Jonathan Mendelson, Justin Aimonetti, Justin Fox, Nate Cavanaugh
5/13/25
Source
In an overview of how DOGE has tried to assign teams outside of the executive branch, NPR lists six DOGE staffers at GSA who are involved with those efforts.
 Jack Stein, Jonathan Mendelson, Justin Aimonetti, Justin Fox, Marshall Wood, Nate Cavanaugh
c.8/03/25
Source
SEC leadership meets with DOGE representatives Jonathan Mendelson and Christopher Sweet to discuss using Sweet’s AI tool to identify regulations to cut or modify at the agency. It’s unclear if Sweet is detailed to the agency or just demonstrating the tool to SEC staff. Reportedly, agency staff then used the tool to identify thousands of regulations to cut. The list will then be reviewed by agency leadership and lawyers. (fuzz: Date given is “a short time after” the AI task force is created)
 Christopher Sweet, Jonathan Mendelson