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A group of six young tech industry workers, all between the ages of 19 and 24, and many with past ties to Elon Musk, are fanning out across the federal government to carry out the Trump administration and Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE)’s goals of cutting trillions from the federal budget, despite having little apparent government experience.
The group, WIRED reports, includes Akash Bobba, Edward Coristine, Luke Farritor, Gautier Cole Killian, Gavin Kliger, and Ethan Shaotran.
Bobba reportedly attended UC Berkeley and interned at hedge fund Bridewater Associates. Coristine, a recent high school graduate, spent time at Northeastern University, and interned at Musk’s Neuralink brain-computer interface company, according to WIRED.
Farritor, who dropped out of the University of Nebraska, interned at Musk’s SpaceX. Killian, meanwhile, served as an engineer at computerized trading firm Jump Trading, while Kliger worked at AI company Databricks, WIRED reported. Shaotran was still at Harvard as of last year, where he competed in a hackathon run by Musk’s artificial intelligence company xAI, according to the outlet.
The Musk acolytes have popped up across federal government offices since Trump took over, serving as advisers, appearing on calls with government workers, with some of them even obtaining government email addresses and high-level access to physical and IT systems.
The Independent has contacted DOGE for comment.
The unconventional hires are the latest anomaly in the DOGE effort and Musk’s larger role within the administration, where he has reportedly been granted the status of special government employee, sidestepping certain disclosure rules.
Last week, Musk and other unelected DOGE personnel, who operate with little public oversight, gained access to the internal federal payment system and potentially Americans’ Social Security numbers and other confidential information, after a high-ranking Treasury official reportedly resigned rather than provide access.
Three federal employees’ unions announced Monday they were suing the Trump administration to block DOGE’s access to confidential Treasury data.
A similar issue reportedly played out at the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), where employees reportedly were placed on leave after refusing to share information with DOGE.
Musk has repeatedly criticized the agency, baselessly calling it “criminal” without evidence. Democrats rallied outside the agency on Monday in protest, claiming they were denied entry when they sought to go inside.
DOGE employees have also reportedly accessed classified USAID information.
