An engineer named Nikhil Rajpal represents the so -called Elon Musk Department of Government Performance (Doge) Working Group at the National Ocean and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), according to numerous sources.
Government records reviewed by Wired show that Rajpal has work email addresses with Doge and the NOAA. The Doge Address, like others from the agency, is in format linking it to the president’s executive office. Rajpal also appears in Noah’s public hired directory.
According to sources familiar with the situation, on Wednesday, NOAA employees were ordered to give Rajpal editor access to all NOAA -google website instructions from the acting business secretary, Jeremy Pelter, from the end of business.
NOAA employee with over 40 years of service, who led the work of the agency of diversity, equality, inclusion and accessibility, was, according to these sources, placed in administrative leave on Tuesday, three weeks before their planned retirement. This person did not respond to a request for a comment.
Axios reported On Tuesday that Doge workers entered NOAA facilities in Maryland on Tuesday seeking “access to its systems;” Source Wired spoke to confirm this.
While Rajpal’s online presence appears to be recently deleted, Wired was able to obtain copies of resumes and, through public databases, other biographical information. They show Nik, as he refers to himself, to be around 30 and having studied computer science and history at the University of California, Berkeley. Rajpal worked on Twitter before the acquisition of Elon Musk, and before that worked to redesign Tesla console.
As a student, Rajpal was the head of Libertarian-aligned Student group pleading for “minimum government, free markets, healthy money, non-intervention and maximum individual freedom.” In 2014, he gave a 10-minute presentation on Bitcoin to Viget, the company in which he interned. An an an Instapaper account Linked from his personal website under the header “Read the articles I read”, shows articles by Richard Hanania, Quillette, and Zero hedgeas well as publications such as The Financial Times and Bloomberg.
Nothing in his background suggests some special expertise related to his new role. The NOAA is a non -party scientific agency that monitors and models the oceans and atmosphere to predict changes in climate and weather; Its research and technology fundamentals everything from weather reports to hurricane modeling and fishing management to granular forecasts of the long -term effects of climate change.
The agency has long been the goal of conservatives; the Project 2025 Policy Tome calls for it to be broken and reduced, both for the work of the National Weather Service – which sits within NOAA – mostly privatized.
Do you have advice?
Are you a current NOAA employee, or otherwise have an understanding of how Doge works in government? We would like to hear from you. Using a non -work phone or computer, contact Timmarchman.01.
Rajpal did not immediately respond to a request for comment. NOAA directed a request to the Department of Commerce under which it sits. Trade did not immediately respond to a request for comment, nor the White House.
Doge workers, according to Wired sources and published reports, have effectively taken over key government agencies including the Office of Personal Management (OPM) and the General Services Management (GSA) they also have played a key role In blocking HIV and AIDS relief that the administration exempted from foreign aid reductions from reaching recipients as part of Musk and President Donald Trump Purge of the US Agency for International Development (USAID).
Under the conditions of an Executive order Signed by Trump, Doge has access to all unclassified systems, giving their representatives extraordinary power over sensitive government systems, which include personal information from tens of millions of citizens as well as information about companies. One Doge laborer, as Wired reportedHas full access to the Code of Treasury Department system, which controls the vast majority of billions of dollars in payments that the federal government makes every year.
