NYT reveals 49 people who led the Musk X AI team in the Trump administration's mass layoffs

NYT reveals 49 people who led the Musk X AI team in the Trump administration's mass layoffs

Musk, who led the mass layoffs in the federal government under the Trump administration, transferred the mass layoff strategy team from X to the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), and the NYT revealed the real names and facial profiles of these 49 people.

The New York Times confirmed the 49 people who belonged to the so-called 'Department of Government Efficiency' formed by Elon Musk, and said on the 27th, "The group has fundamentally overturned the federal agency in just a few weeks. Few members have formal Washington experience. Many are software engineers. All of them seem to have a clear order to shrink and dismantle the federal government."

Regarding the public list, he said, “Some of Musk’s allies are engineers, many of them young men with backgrounds in AI,” and “Several former employees and others who helped with the operation have deleted their social media accounts after their names appeared in recent news reports.”

The youngest DOGE employee to be hired and to work in various restructurings at federal agencies, including the General Services Administration, the United States Agency for International Development, and the Department of Education, Edward Coristine, a software engineer who graduated from high school last year, was fired from another internship at a tech company after an investigation into an internal information leak at Neuralink, one of Musk’s companies.
Luke Farritor, a college dropout who became Musk’s aide as a software engineer at SpaceX, is the most widely seen federal agency executive.
He worked as a tech engineer at the General Services Administration. He spent a significant amount of time interviewing employees about their work.
The federal agencies he worked with included the General Services Administration, the U.S. Agency for International Development, the Centers for Disease Control, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, the Department of Energy, the Department of Education, and the Department of Health and Human Services, the Times reported.

Amanda Scales was named chief of staff for the Office of Personnel Management, a former employee of Musk’s AI company who now holds a high-level position at the powerful agency that oversees federal hiring.

Scott Langmack, a businessman with a background in real estate technology, was sent to DOGE’s position at the Department of Housing and Urban Development.

Marco Elez, a software engineer and former X employee who was given access to the Treasury Department’s payment system by Musk. He resigned from DOGE in February over a history of racist social media posts, but was quickly reinstated after Vice President JD Vance came to his defense and is now a federal financial system receiver, having previously worked at X, SpaceX, and xAI.

Gavin Kliger, a software engineer with no government experience, was quickly promoted to Musk’s inner circle.

He clashed with security officials at the USAID and attempted to access sensitive taxpayer data from the Internal Revenue Service.

He currently works for the Office of Personnel Management, the U.S. Agency for International Development, and the IRS.

Justin Monroe is listed as a “professional” by the Office of Personnel Management, and previously worked as a security director at SpaceX.

He is joining the FBI’s Office of Personnel Management, Federal Bureau of Investigation, a federal agency, the Times reported.

The New York Times reported that it tried to contact each DOGE employee on the 49-person list by emailing them with names and address patterns that matched other known email addresses, along with verified email addresses and social media accounts, but none of them responded to requests for comment from the Times.

The Yomiuri reported on the 27th that <Musk speaking at President Trump’s first Cabinet meeting in Washington on the 26th> and <Trump said, “Anyone who has a complaint will be kicked out,” referring to an email Musk sent to all employees asking them to report on their work>.

The Yomiuri reported that <The email caused confusion within the government, but it appeared to be intended to suppress the backlash against Musk. President Trump emphasized that the response of Musk’s Office of Government Efficiency (DOGE) was “of the utmost importance” and urged Cabinet members to accelerate the reduction of government employees>, and <Musk was able to attend the Cabinet meeting, although he is not a member of the Cabinet. Following President Trump's remarks, he said, "If this continues, America will go bankrupt," and requested cooperation to achieve the goal of cutting the government budget by 1 trillion dollars (about 150 trillion yen). He explained that the email sent to all employees was not intended to evaluate performance, but to investigate working conditions. On the 26th, the administration announced that it had instructed each department and agency to prepare a restructuring plan for further personnel reduction. 

 

‘Hankyung Business’ reported on the 28th with the title <“If this continues, the US could go bankrupt”...Elon Musk’s warning> and the subtitle <Trump attends Cabinet meeting, emphasizes “We must cut the federal deficit by trillions of dollars”>.
‘Hankyung Business’ reported that <“If we don’t cut spending, the US will go bankrupt.” Tesla CEO Elon Musk, who is not a formal cabinet member, attended the first Cabinet meeting since President Trump returned to the White House on February 26 and made this remark> and <At this meeting, CEO Musk continued to say, “We must move quickly to cut the federal deficit by trillions of dollars,” emphasizing, “If we don’t do that, the US could go bankrupt.” He also said, “Our goal is to reduce the deficit by 1 trillion dollars by 2026.”>

The New York Times reported with a photo that “Musk attended the first meeting of the new cabinet wearing a T-shirt that said ‘Technical Support.’”
Yomiuri published a photo of Musk speaking at the cabinet meeting wearing a hat.

See <Musk's Federal Government Dismissal of White House Staff Without Appointment of DOGE 'Violation of the Constitution', February 25, 2025>