Elon Musk declared final month that the federal authorities was engaged in “completely insane” exercise, claiming with out proof that it had distributed $100 billion to folks with out Social Safety numbers.
Two days after Mr. Musk’s feedback, considered one of his key lieutenants, Steve Davis, started urgent the Social Safety Administration for info. Mr. Davis referred to as the company’s leaders to insist they offer a younger engineer from Mr. Musk’s so-called Division of Authorities Effectivity entry to databases that contained delicate details about People.
Mr. Davis’s demand was “unprecedented,” Tiffany Flick, a former Social Safety official, stated in a sworn statement this month for a lawsuit filed by federal workers making an attempt to dam entry to the information. She added that she might really feel Mr. Davis develop impatient within the hours earlier than the DOGE engineer was finally permitted to research “the overall fantasy of supposed widespread Social Safety fraud.”
Deploying workers into federal companies is only one activity that Mr. Davis has carried out just lately for Mr. Musk, because the world’s richest man continues an all-out effort to reshape the U.S. government. At each flip, Mr. Davis has backed his boss, laying the groundwork for price slicing through the presidential transition, slashing variety initiatives, assembly lawmakers and serving to to ship a governmentwide “Fork within the Street” e mail that urged employees to resign.
These actions display how Mr. Davis, 45, has successfully grow to be the day-to-day chief of DOGE. He has extra energy than Amy Gleason, the Trump administration’s appearing DOGE administrator, two folks near the trouble stated, including that Ms. Gleason has generally been in the dead of night about Mr. Davis’s choices.
How Mr. Davis obtained to this place is hardly a secret. For greater than 20 years, the engineer has devoted himself to fulfilling Mr. Musk’s wishes, following the billionaire to his varied firms, together with the rocket maker SpaceX and the social media platform X. Mr. Davis wholeheartedly believes Mr. Musk will result in humanity’s progress, in keeping with interviews with 22 buddies, former colleagues and authorities officers.
For Mr. Musk, Mr. Davis represents the perfect worker — an engineer who will throw himself at any activity, even when he has no experience within the space, two former colleagues stated. Mr. Musk has particularly praised Mr. Davis’s ability to excise waste, as soon as likening his lieutenant to a cancer-killing remedy.
“Steve is like chemo,” Mr. Musk stated at a transition assembly earlier than President Trump took workplace. “Just a little chemo can save your life; a number of chemo might kill you.”
Mr. Musk and Mr. Davis have bonded deeply over price cuts. At SpaceX, Mr. Davis devised methods to construct rockets extra cheaply. He additionally oversaw layoffs at Twitter, which was renamed X. At DOGE, he’s coordinating engineers and attorneys to seek out $2 trillion that Mr. Musk has promised to get rid of from the federal price range.
Mr. Davis is so loyal to Mr. Musk that he and his companion, Nicole Hollander, 42, who joined the Normal Companies Administration to chop federal actual property prices, have arrange a base of operations on the company’s sixth ground in Washington. It’s guarded by a full safety element, three company workers stated.
Adam Inexperienced, a progressive organizer who befriended Mr. Davis a few decade in the past after they lived in Washington, stated Mr. Davis was as soon as a “enjoyable outside-the-box thinker,” who had become a “blind servant” to Mr. Musk.
Mr. Davis, Mr. Musk, Ms. Hollander and the White Home didn’t reply to requests for remark.
Mr. Davis started working for Mr. Musk in 2003, when the tech entrepreneur plucked him out of a Stanford aeronautics graduate program. Mr. Davis turned the 14th employee at SpaceX. He rapidly endeared himself to Mr. Musk by discovering cheaper methods to develop rocket elements, together with making a shuttle steering gadget for a hundredth of the value.
His frugality led to errors. In 2007, Mr. Davis eliminated parts from SpaceX’s Falcon 1 rocket that prevented gasoline from sloshing contained in the car, three former colleagues stated. That triggered the gasoline to unbalance the rocket throughout a take a look at flight, and it shut down midair earlier than reaching orbit.
By 2008, Mr. Davis had moved to Washington and was later named SpaceX’s director of superior initiatives. He had a broad vary of obligations on the firm, together with discovering land round Boca Chica, Texas, for what would grow to be Starbase, SpaceX’s rocket launch facility.
On the aspect, Mr. Davis pursued an economics doctorate and opened Mr. Yogato, a frozen yogurt store that provided reductions to prospects who answered trivia questions. He additionally helped create a Jewish life-style web site, Collect the Jews, and joined the board of the Atlas Society, a nonprofit devoted to the teachings of the libertarian writer Ayn Rand.
In 2018, Mr. Musk appointed Mr. Davis to guide the Boring Firm, a start-up that goals to construct tunnels underneath main metropolitan areas to ease congestion.
“Normally there may be nearly zero R&D in tunnels in America,” Mr. Davis said at a presentation for the corporate that yr. “So making an attempt new issues is definitely useful for us.”
The Boring Firm opened a tunnel in Las Vegas in 2021, however has run into regulatory roadblocks elsewhere. That pissed off Mr. Musk, who berated Mr. Davis and threatened to fireside him, three individuals who have labored with Mr. Davis stated. The stress weighed on Mr. Davis, and he generally pulled out his hair, 5 folks near him stated.
After Mr. Musk purchased Twitter in 2022, Mr. Davis helped slash the corporate’s prices, telling those that he hoped to get rid of greater than $500 million. He was so devoted that on some nights, he stayed with Ms. Hollander and their new child child at Twitter’s San Francisco workplace.
Mr. Davis additionally oversaw the set up of a private toilet for Mr. Musk there, telling one worker to not hassle acquiring a development allow.
“We don’t should observe the principles,” Mr. Davis stated, in keeping with a 2023 lawsuit from former Twitter employees who accused the corporate and Mr. Musk of violating the phrases of their employment agreements.
Some employees complained about Mr. Davis’s price slicing to Linda Yaccarino, who turned X’s chief govt in 2023, and requested her to rein him in, two folks with data of the discussions stated. He left X quickly after.
When Mr. Musk stumped for Mr. Trump in Pennsylvania throughout final yr’s presidential marketing campaign, Mr. Davis relocated to accommodations in Philadelphia and Pittsburgh to supervise an excellent PAC that Mr. Musk had backed, three folks stated. Mr. Davis helped conceive a $47-a-head petition that Mr. Musk promoted to end up Trump voters, and cited his Twitter price slicing as a means of doing issues cheaply on the tremendous PAC.
After Mr. Trump gained the election, Mr. Davis joined a transition “touchdown staff” and interviewed candidates for Mr. Musk’s effectivity fee. He additionally met with companies that employed engineers to evaluate the technical expertise that DOGE would possibly faucet, three authorities officers stated. Mr. Musk included Mr. Davis in recruiting pitches to potential authorities hires, in keeping with an inner e mail seen by The New York Instances.
After Mr. Trump’s inauguration, Mr. Davis pushed administration officers to let him e mail all authorities workers directly, two folks with data of his efforts stated. That led to a January e mail blast often called the “Fork within the Street,” which included a governmentwide resignation offer.
When leaks concerning the resignation provide circulated within the media, Mr. Davis rebuked officers for not controlling their staffs and accused them of embarrassing Mr. Musk, two folks stated.
Mr. Davis pushes for Mr. Musk’s priorities each day with Mr. Trump’s advisers, two folks with data of the conversations stated. He has alerted administration officers to variety, fairness and inclusion packages which might be focused for cuts and people to be faraway from authorities boards.
Mr. Davis, who could be blunt and undiplomatic, particularly in late-night texts, has additionally clashed with a few of Mr. Trump’s workers. He and his colleagues upset some White Home advisers with the way in which DOGE tried to put a few of their recruits on the Pentagon, three folks stated.
All through, Mr. Davis has studiously averted consideration. Mr. Musk and the White Home haven’t talked about him. In Washington, Mr. Davis largely averted having his image taken till this month, when he spoke on the DOGE Caucus, a Home of Representatives group that works with the cost-cutting activity pressure.
“Wrapped an incredible assembly with @elonmusk and Steve Davis on their targets for the @DOGE,” Consultant Aaron Bean, Republican of Florida, posted on X. The message included a photograph of Mr. Davis holding a microphone and smiling beside Mr. Musk.
Reporting was contributed by Kirsten Grind, Eric Schmitt, Jonathan Swan and Maggie Haberman. Susan C. Beachy contributed analysis.
