Steve Davis
Tech Industry Links: Twitter, Boring Co., SpaceX
Exited govt: 5/28/25 (verified)
Reportedly so loyal to Elon Musk that associates have joked he would jump off a cliff if Musk asked him, Steve Davis has long been besides Musk’s side at various companies, serving in senior executive roles at the Boring Company and Twitter. At Twitter, he was reportedly so dedicated to the work that he moved into the offices with his wife, Nicole Hollander, and their small child. And it is also reported that he was once so distressed by setbacks and failures that he started pulling out his own hair. It’s been a thinly-veiled secret that Steve Davis was running the show at DOGE, well before Amy Gleason was publicly named as the administrator. And recent interviews with Sahil Lavingia and other insiders suggested he had continued to fill that role, until he abruptly departed after Elon Musk left.
Despite no longer being in government, Steve Davis has reportedly stayed in contact with DOGE staffers and has directed their actions through back-channel communications. Reportedly, he has even called for the firing of DOGE staffers who expressed concerns about the legality of his continued involvement.
Positions
| Position | Notes |
|---|---|
| DOGE |
Sources
resigned from agency 5/28/25
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Events
| Date | Event |
|---|---|
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12/06/24
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Source
Directory
An article in the NYT identifies Brad Smith as the person effectively running DOGE at Mar-a-Lago during the project’s formation and speculates that DOGE may have an early focus on healthcare for this reason. It also names Steve Davis as a close collaborator.
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12/06/24
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Source
Directory
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.
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c.12/15/24
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Source
Interagency
A contractor at the Social Security Administration arranges an introduction for Leland Dudek to meet Steve Davis.
(fuzz: Date is just given as “mid-December”)
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1/12/25
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Source
Directory
A New York Times report on DOGE from just before the Inauguration roughly describes the working arrangements for embedding some staff and detailing others as well as some early participants in the project
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1/24/25
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Source
Directory
A report from Business Insider names some of the DOGE staffers who were involved in transition activities and provides an early snapshot of who is in DOGE.
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1/30/25
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Source
Interagency
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.
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1/31/25
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Source
Directory
Wired reports that DOGE staff are attempting to get elevated access to GSA systems and making changes to office arrangements to create a special reserved floor for their staff with a security guard checking names.
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2/05/25
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Source
Official
According to later sworn testimony from Kendall Lindemann, this is the date that Steve Davis was designated as the decision-maker for DOGE as the senior-most political appointee until Amy Gleason is appointed as acting administratior of DOGE on 2025-02-18. Later news reports suggest Steve Davis continued to remain in charge.
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2/10/25
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Source
Disruption
Mike Russo and the DOGE chief of staff Steve Davis both demand that Akash Bobba be onboarded at Social Security Administration before midnight, bypassing the usual background security checks.
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3/03/25
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Source
Disruption
An unidentified member of the DOGE team at the SSA emailed a password-protected and encrypted file to DHS but also included Steve Davis at DOGE and an unidentified DOGE team member at the Department of Labor (possibly Marko Elez or Aram Moghaddassi who were detailed to SSA from DOL). SSA staff believes it contained sensitive PII of approximately 1000 individuals, but the Chief Information Office has been unable to determine more. Notably, the CIO role for SSA has been held by a rotation of several DOGE staffers since February.
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3/05/25
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Source
Directory
The Intercept receives a list of 30 DOGE staffers working within the Executive Office of the President (EOP), including 4 lawyers previously not listed
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3/12/25
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Source
Interagency
Steve Davis sends an email to the FCC general counsel Adam Candeub introducing him to Tarak Makecha (whom he identifies as the Biz Lead) and Jordan Wick (software engineer). He follows up with Tarak and suggests chatting with him on his personal phone number (instead of an official government phone number).
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c.3/26/25
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Source
Directory
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)
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3/28/25
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Source
Disruption
Reports emerge that DOGE is planning to rewrite the entire COBOL codebase for Social Security to Java in months using generative AI
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4/XX/25
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Source
Sighting
A contractor at GSA states that he came across a list of staff at GSA who had not yet completed all of their mandatory security training. This included prominent DOGE staff that had been at the agency for several months like Thomas Shedd, Josh Gruenbaum, Edward Coristine, Luke Farritor and Steve Davis.
(fuzz: only month is given in report)
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4/08/25
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Source
Directory
A partial copy of the GSA’s A-Suite access list includes multiple DOGE personnel who are listed as based in GSA.
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4/13/25
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Source
Interagency
Adam Martinez responds in the affirmative to an email (contents redacted in court filings) requesting items/access for unspecified people to conduct the RIF. Several DOGE staffers (Ashley Boizelle and Steve Davis as well as Gavin Kliger and Jeremy Lewin) are also cc’ed on the message
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5/22/25
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Source
Interagency
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.
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5/29/25
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Source
Offboard
In the wake of Elon Musk’s departure, Steve Davis, Katie Miller and James Burnham reportedly also left DOGE. Davis had been widely described as running the day-to-day operations of DOGE, and it’s unclear who will take that over.
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5/31/25
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Source
Offboard
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.
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6/XX/25
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Source
Report
After several DOGE staffers expressed concerns that he should not have access to government information or continue to direct DOGE staff, Steve Davis reportedly pushes for their firing, calling it an attempted coup. Sam Corcos is named as one DOGE staffer who was given the silent treatment by Davis and allies.
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6/03/25
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Source
Interagency
Steve Davis walked into DOGE’s weekly meeting at the GSA, asserting he was still in charge even though he was no longer a government employee. The acting director of the GSA, Stephen Ehikian, reportedly responded “Steve Davis remains in charge until he says he’s not” to DOGE members confused by this turn of events.
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c.6/05/25
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Source
Disruption
Concerned by people questioning his continued authority, Steve Davis reportedly taps Anthony Armstrong, Josh Gruenbaum and Stephen Ehikian to assess the loyalty of DOGE staffers and assert they are the leadership of DOGE now, acting under the authority of JD Vance and Susie Wiles in the White House. This is a bluff, and staffers in the White House counter that their authority is only within GSA itself.
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c.6/05/25
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Source
Disruption
Concerned by Steve Davis’ attempts to stay involved with DOGE despite no longer being employed by the agency and instructions to not interact with him, DOGE staffers Yinon Weiss, Sam Corcos, Ryan Shea, and Adam Blake privately questioned Davis about his involvement. They also reportedly contacted DOGE general counsel Austin Raynor about the legality of his continued involvement.
(fuzz: date is not given in article, unclear if at meeting or afterwards)
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6/05/25
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Source
Action
Despite having left DOGE a week prior, Steve Davis reportedly holds a meeting with DOGE staff hosted on the sixth floor of the GSA headquarters. At the meeting, he reportedly proposes a “DOGE 2.0” which would be more collaborative with agency heads.
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6/07/25
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Source
Disruption
Steve Davis removed DOGE staffers that he considered disloyal from shared Signal chats that DOGE had continued to use for coordination. He also used his influence at GSA to have Ryan Shea removed from his position. Other Davis targets – Yinon Weiss, Sam Corcos and Adam Blake – were able to remain at their posts but were shut out from DOGE communications
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6/10/25
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Source
Report
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.
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7/08/25
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Source
Report
The Wall Street Journal reports that Steve Davis continues to exert control over DOGE via informal communications, despite having departed the agency after Musk left.
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8/13/25
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Source
Interagency
In a call hosted by the US CIO, DOGE team lead Scott Langmack shares info on an AI tool named SweetREX Deregulation AI Plan Builder developed by Christoper Sweet to review agency regulations for elimination. This is the same tool highlighted by DOGE in a presentation to the White House earlier in the month. Agency representatives from the Environmental Protection Agency, the Department of State, and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation are on the call. Steve Davis also was on the call despite having left DOGE and asked if the tool could be open-sourced.
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11/22/25
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Source
Report
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.
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