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 individuals with out Social Safety numbers.
Two days after Mr. Musk’s feedback, one in every of his key lieutenants, Steve Davis, started urgent the Social Safety Administration for data. Mr. Davis known 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 Individuals.
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 staff attempting to dam entry to the information. 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 delusion of supposed widespread Social Safety fraud.”
Deploying workers into federal businesses is only one activity 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 reducing in the course of the presidential transition, slashing range initiatives, assembly lawmakers and serving to to ship a governmentwide “Fork within the Highway” electronic mail that urged employees to resign.
These actions exhibit 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 individuals near the trouble mentioned, including that Ms. Gleason has generally been at nighttime about Mr. Davis’s selections.
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 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 keeping with interviews with 22 associates, 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 mentioned. Mr. Musk has particularly praised Mr. Davis’s potential to excise waste, as soon as likening his lieutenant to a cancer-killing therapy.
“Steve is like chemo,” Mr. Musk mentioned at a transition assembly earlier than President Trump took workplace. “Somewhat chemo can save your life; quite a lot 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 seek 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 Normal Providers Administration to chop federal actual property prices, have arrange a base of operations on the company’s sixth flooring in Washington. It’s guarded by a full safety element, three company staff 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 became 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 worker at SpaceX. He shortly endeared himself to Mr. Musk by discovering inexpensive methods to develop rocket elements, together with making a shuttle steering machine 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 automobile, three former colleagues mentioned. That precipitated 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 obligations 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 clients 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 below main metropolitan areas to ease congestion.
“Usually there’s virtually zero R&D in tunnels in America,” Mr. Davis mentioned at a presentation for the corporate that yr. “So attempting 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 fireplace him, three individuals who have labored with Mr. Davis mentioned. The stress weighed on Mr. Davis, and he generally pulled out his hair, 5 individuals near him mentioned.
After Mr. Musk purchased Twitter in 2022, Mr. Davis helped slash the corporate’s prices, telling those who 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 trouble acquiring a building allow.
“We don’t should observe the foundations,” Mr. Davis mentioned, 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 value reducing to Linda Yaccarino, who turned X’s chief govt in 2023, and requested her to rein him in, two individuals 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 resorts in Philadelphia and Pittsburgh to supervise a brilliant PAC that Mr. Musk had backed, three individuals mentioned. Mr. Davis helped conceive a $47-a-head petition that Mr. Musk promoted to prove Trump voters, and cited his Twitter value reducing as a manner 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 businesses that employed engineers to evaluate the technical expertise that DOGE would possibly faucet, three authorities officers mentioned. Mr. Musk included Mr. Davis in recruiting pitches to potential authorities hires, in keeping with an inner electronic mail seen by The New York Occasions.
After Mr. Trump’s inauguration, Mr. Davis pushed administration officers to let him electronic mail all authorities staff directly, two individuals with data of his efforts mentioned. That led to a January electronic mail blast generally known as the “Fork within the Highway,” 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 individuals mentioned.
Mr. Davis pushes for Mr. Musk’s priorities day by day with Mr. Trump’s advisers, two individuals with data of the conversations mentioned. He has alerted administration officers to range, fairness and inclusion applications which are 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 individuals mentioned.
All through, Mr. Davis has studiously averted consideration. Mr. Musk and the White Home haven’t talked about him. In Washington, Mr. Davis principally 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 drive.
“Wrapped a fantastic 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.
