Elon Musk declared Last month, the federal government dealt with “totally mad” activities and claimed to distribute $ 100 billion to people without social security numbers.
Two days after Mr. Musk’s comments, one of his key lieutenants, Steve Davis, began to push social security management for information. Mr. Davis called the agency leader to insist on providing a young engineer from the so -called Ministry of Effective of the Government of Mr. Musk on databases that contain sensitive information about Americans.
Mr. Davis’s request was “unprecedented”, said Tiffany Flick, a former social security officer, said in Sworn statusT This month for a lawsuit filed by federal employees trying to block access to data. She added that she felt that Mr. Davis was impatient in the lessons before the DogE engineer was finally allowed to explore the “general myth of the alleged extensive fraud of social security”.
Employee deployment to federal agencies is just one of the tasks Mr. Davis recently performed for Mr. Musk because the richest man in the world continues Efforts to transform the US government. At every step, Mr. Davis supported his boss and laid the foundations for reducing the costs during the presidential transition, reducing the initiatives of diversity, meeting the legislators, and helping to send the “fork on the road” that urged the workers to resign.
These events show how Mr. Davis (45) has effectively become the daily leader of DOGE. Has more power than Amy Gleason“Trump’s administration administration administration administrator, two people who were close to efforts, added that Mrs. Gleasoana was sometimes in the dark to decide Mr. Davis.
As Mr. Davis got to this position, he is hardly a secret. For more than 20 years, the engineer has devoted himself to the fulfillment of Mr. Musk’s desire, who watched billionaires with his various companies, including the SpaceX missile manufacturer and the X -Social Media platform. Davis, with all his heart, believes that Mr Musk will bring humanity to 22 friends, former colleagues and government officials.
For Mr. Musk, Mr. Davis is represented by an ideal employee – an engineer who is suitable for any task, even if he has no expertise in this area, two former colleagues said. Mr. Musk has especially appreciated the ability of Mr. Davis For consumer waste, he once compared his lieutenant to treatment by killing cancer.
“Steve is like chemo,” Mr. Musk said at a temporary meeting before he took the office of President Trump. “Little chemo can save your life; many chemo can kill you.”
Mr. Musk and Mr. Davis joined the cost of reducing costs. In SpaceX, Mr. Davis devised ways to build missiles faster. He also supervised the release on Twitter, which was renamed X. In DOGE, coordinating engineers and lawyers to find 2 trillion dollars that Mr. Musk promised to remove from the federal budget.
Mr. Davis is so loyal to Mr. Muska that he and his partner, Nicole Hollander, 42, who joined General Services to reduce the federal cost of real estate, set up a base on the sixth floor of Washington. It is guarded by full security detail, three agencies said.
Adam Green, a progressive organizer who made friends with Mr. Davis about ten years ago when they lived in Washington, said Mr. Davis was once a “entertaining external thinking” that turned into a “blind servant” Mr. Muska.
Mr. Davis, Mr. Musk, Mrs. Hollander and the White House did not respond to requests for comment.
Mr. Davis began working for Mr. Musk in 2003 when the technical entrepreneur pulled him out of the postgraduate program Stanford Aeronautics. Mr. Davis has become 14. Employee on SpaceX. He quickly approached Mr. Muska by finding cheaper ways to develop missile parts, including the manufacture of control equipment for the shuttle stotina prices.
His modesty led to mistakes. In 2007, Mr. Davis removed components from the SpaceX Falcon 1 missile, which prevented fuel from the section inside the vehicle, three former colleagues said. This caused the fuel not to balance the rocket during the test flight, and before the orbit was reached.
Until 2008, Mr. Davis moved to Washington and was later appointed director of the advanced SpaceX projects. He had a wide range of duties in the company, including finding the land around Boca Chica in Texas, for what would happen Starbase, SpaceX’s Rocket Launch Facility.
On the side of Mr. Davis, he watched the economic doctorate and opened Mr. Yogato, a frozen yoghurt store that offered discounts to customers who answered minor questions. Helped to create a Jewish lifestyle website, gather Jews and joined the Council AtlasA non -profit organization dedicated to libertarian author Ayn Rand.
In 2018, Mr. Musk appointed Mr. Davis to lead a boring company, a start-up to build tunnels under the main metropolitan areas to alleviate overload.
“There is generally almost zero research and development in tunnels in America,” Mr. Davis said During the presentation for the company of that year. “So trying new things is actually useful for us.”
The Nuring company opened a tunnel in Las Vegas in 2021, but encountered regulatory roadblocks elsewhere. This frustrated Mr. Musk, who cursed Mr. Davis and threatened to fire him, three people who worked with Mr. Davis. He weighed stress on Mr. Davis and sometimes pulled out his hair, said five people close.
After Mr Musk bought Twitter in 2022, Mr. Davis helped to reduce the company’s costs and told people hoping to remove more than $ 500 million. He was so devoted that in some nights he stayed with Mrs. Hollander and their newborn in the San Francisco Twitter office.
Mr. Davis also supervised the installation of a personal bathroom for Mr. Musk, and told one employee not to bother to obtain a building permit.
“We don’t have to follow the rules,” Mr. Davis said by 2023 court From former Twitter staff who accused the company and Mr. Musk of violating the terms of their work agreements.
Some workers complained about the reduction of Mr. Davis’s cost Linda yaccarinowho became CEO X in 2023 and asked her to introduce him, two people with knowledge of discussion. Soon after, X.
When Mr. Musk moved to hotels in Philadelphia and Pittsburgh during last year’s presidential campaign last year’s presidential campaign to supervise the Super PAC, which Mr Musk supported, three people said. Mr. Davis helped to get pregnant Petition 47 $ -a-head That Mr. Musk has promoted Trump to show the voters and quotes his reduction in Twitter costs as a way to do things cheaply on Super Pac.
After Mr. Trump won the election, Mr. Davis joined the “landing team” and asked the candidates for the effectiveness of Mr. Musk. He also met agencies that employed engineers to assess the technical talent that DOGE could use, three government officials said. Mr. Musk included Mr. Davis in the recruitment of playgrounds in potential government rental, according to the internal e -mail, which saw the New York Times.
After the inauguration of Mr. Trump, Mr. Davis pushed the administration officials to leave him by e -mail to all government employees at once, two people said with knowledge of his efforts. This led to the January e -mail known as a “fork on the road” that included a Offer resignation for national resignation.
When the offer of resignation spread in the media, Mr. Davis rebuked officials for not checking their crews and accusing them of Mr. Musk’s embarrassment, two people said.
Mr. Davis promotes Mr. Musk’s priorities with Mr. Trump advisors daily, two people said with knowledge of conversations. He pointed out officials of the administration of diversity programs, equity and integration programs that are focused on sections and individuals to be removed from government councils.
Mr. Davis, who can be dull and non -grave, especially in the texts at night, also encountered some employees of Mr. Trump. He and his colleagues upset some White House advisors by trying to place some of his recruits in the Pentagon, three people said.
All the time, Mr. Davis has diligently avoided attention. Mr. Musk and the White House did not mention it. In Washington, Mr. Davis mostly avoided taking his picture until this month when he spoke in the Doga Caucus, a group of representatives working with a working group to reduce costs.
“He wrapped himself at a great meeting with.” @Elon Musk and Steve Davis on their goals for @DOGE“Aaron Bean, Florida, Republican, Florida, published The X report included a photo of Mr. Davis, who held the microphone and smiled next to Mr. Musk.
The report contributed Kirsten Grind, Eric Schmitt, Jonathan Swan and Maggie Haberman. Susan C. Beachy Research contributed.
