Elon Musk declared final month that the federal authorities was engaged in “totally 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, one among 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 provide 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, mentioned in a sworn statement this month for a lawsuit filed by federal workers making an attempt to dam entry to the info. She added that she may really feel Mr. Davis develop impatient within the hours earlier than the DOGE engineer was ultimately permitted to research “the overall fable of supposed widespread Social Safety fraud.”
Deploying employees into federal companies is only one process that Mr. Davis has carried out not too long ago for Mr. Musk, because the world’s richest man continues an all-out effort to reshape the U.S. authorities. At each flip, Mr. Davis has backed his boss, laying the groundwork for value chopping throughout the presidential transition, slashing variety initiatives, assembly lawmakers and serving to to ship a governmentwide “Fork within the Street” e mail that urged staff to resign.
These actions reveal how Mr. Davis, 45, has successfully change into 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 mentioned, including that Ms. Gleason has typically been at the hours of darkness about Mr. Davis’s choices.
How Mr. Davis received to this place is hardly a secret. For greater than 20 years, the engineer has devoted himself to fulfilling Mr. Musk’s needs, following the billionaire to his numerous corporations, 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 line with interviews with 22 mates, former colleagues and authorities officers.
For Mr. Musk, Mr. Davis represents the best worker — an engineer who will throw himself at any process, even when he has no experience within the space, two former colleagues mentioned. Mr. Musk has particularly praised Mr. Davis’s potential to excise waste, as soon as likening his lieutenant to a cancer-killing remedy.
“Steve is like chemo,” Mr. Musk mentioned at a transition assembly earlier than President Trump took workplace. “Somewhat chemo can save your life; a number of chemo may kill you.”
Mr. Musk and Mr. Davis have bonded deeply over value 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 legal professionals to search out $2 trillion that Mr. Musk has promised to get rid of from the federal finances.
Mr. Davis is so loyal to Mr. Musk that he and his companion, Nicole Hollander, 42, who joined the Common Providers 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 mentioned.
Adam Inexperienced, a progressive organizer who befriended Mr. Davis a couple of decade in the past after they lived in Washington, mentioned Mr. Davis was as soon as a “enjoyable outside-the-box thinker,” who had was 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 grew to become the 14th worker at SpaceX. He shortly 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 gas from sloshing contained in the car, three former colleagues mentioned. That induced the gas to unbalance the rocket throughout a check 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 tasks. He had a broad vary of tasks on the firm, together with discovering land round Boca Chica, Texas, for what would change into Starbase, SpaceX’s rocket launch facility.
On the facet, Mr. Davis pursued an economics doctorate and opened Mr. Yogato, a frozen yogurt store that provided reductions to prospects who answered trivia questions. He 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.
“On the whole there may be virtually zero R&D in tunnels in America,” Mr. Davis mentioned 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 annoyed Mr. Musk, who berated Mr. Davis and threatened to fireside him, three individuals who have labored with Mr. Davis mentioned. The stress weighed on Mr. Davis, and he typically pulled out his hair, 5 folks near him mentioned.
After Mr. Musk purchased Twitter in 2022, Mr. Davis helped slash the corporate’s prices, telling folks 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 lavatory for Mr. Musk there, telling one worker to not hassle acquiring a development allow.
“We don’t must observe the foundations,” Mr. Davis mentioned, in line with a 2023 lawsuit from former Twitter staff who accused the corporate and Mr. Musk of violating the phrases of their employment agreements.
Some staff complained about Mr. Davis’s value chopping to Linda Yaccarino, who grew to become X’s chief govt in 2023, and requested her to rein him in, two folks with data of the discussions mentioned. 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 mentioned. Mr. Davis helped conceive a $47-a-head petition that Mr. Musk promoted to prove Trump voters, and cited his Twitter value chopping as a approach of doing issues cheaply on the tremendous PAC.
After Mr. Trump received the election, Mr. Davis joined a transition “touchdown crew” and interviewed candidates for Mr. Musk’s effectivity fee. He additionally met with companies that employed engineers to evaluate the technical expertise that DOGE may faucet, three authorities officers mentioned. Mr. Musk included Mr. Davis in recruiting pitches to potential authorities hires, in line with an inside e mail seen by The New York Occasions.
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 mentioned. That led to a January e mail blast often called the “Fork within the Street,” which included a governmentwide resignation provide.
When leaks in regards to 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 mentioned.
Mr. Davis pushes for Mr. Musk’s priorities each day with Mr. Trump’s advisers, two folks with data of the conversations mentioned. 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 might be blunt and undiplomatic, particularly in late-night texts, has additionally clashed with a few of Mr. Trump’s employees. He and his colleagues upset some White Home advisers with the best way DOGE tried to position a few of their recruits on the Pentagon, three folks mentioned.
All through, Mr. Davis has studiously prevented consideration. Mr. Musk and the White Home haven’t talked about him. In Washington, Mr. Davis largely prevented 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 process drive.
“Wrapped a terrific assembly with @elonmusk and Steve Davis on their objectives 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.
