Musk reveals mysterious DOGE team: 6 young members give up seven-figure salaries to save America
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Musk reveals mysterious DOGE team: 6 young members give up seven-figure salaries to save America
Average age 22.
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Just two weeks after Donald Trump's official inauguration, Musk-led "Department of Government Efficiency" (DOGE) has rapidly evolved from a mysterious entity into a global media sensation. What propelled it into the spotlight was a stunning move—shutting down the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), an institution with over 60 years of history.
True to its name, DOGE operates under the core principle of "streamlining and efficiency," employing highly disruptive methods. The entire department consists of six young individuals aged between 19 and 25, three of whom are still university students. They have been directly entrusted with critical engineering roles tasked with reducing government expenditures. For Musk, this young elite team is not only the backbone of DOGE but also a testing ground for transforming future government operations.
According to WIRED magazine, 19-year-old Edward Coristine is the youngest among these "young faces." He is now involved in reforming American corporate sectors and long-standing government institutions. While his exact responsibilities remain unclear, he has already been hailed as an "expert" in his field.
In addition, 21-year-old Akash Bobba, 22-year-old Ethan Shaotran, and 23-year-old Luke Farritor are also part of the team. Reports indicate they have obtained "A-suite level clearance," granting them access to top-tier government offices along with unrestricted entry to all physical spaces and IT systems.
The oldest member is 25-year-old Berkeley graduate Gavin Kliger, who, although not confirmed to hold the highest security clearance, has demonstrated significant authority.
Lastly, Gautier Cole Killian has been appointed as a member of the Digital Government Expert Group (DOGE) and is reportedly currently serving as a "volunteer."
Following widespread media criticism yesterday about the youthfulness of these appointments, Musk issued a statement regarding these selections.
Musk wrote on X: "It’s true, as reported by the media, that DOGE possesses the world’s best software engineers."
25-year-old Gavin Kliger
According to The New York Times, 25-year-old Kliger was the account holder behind a controversial internal email sent by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).
The Berkeley alumnus instructed all USAID staff not to return to their Washington headquarters on Monday.
Meanwhile, up to 600 employees reported being locked out of their work computer systems, unable to access office platforms—a situation strikingly similar to the mass account suspensions and access restrictions during Elon Musk's acquisition of Twitter (now X).
After the incident, Kliger published a paid article on Substack titled "Why DOGE? Why I Left a Seven-Figure Salary to Save America."
23-year-old Luke Farritor
Luke Farritor has prior ties with Musk, having interned at SpaceX before taking on his new role.
Farritor dropped out of the University of Nebraska to work for Nat Friedman, a Silicon Valley entrepreneur behind GitHub.
After Friedman was later appointed Secretary of Energy and Environment, he described Farritor as a "national treasure."
In 2024, the young man gained acclaim for using artificial intelligence to help decipher a damaged ancient scroll from Pompeii, a document so badly degraded that scientists had failed for centuries to decode it. Farritor earned a portion of a $700,000 prize for this achievement.
19-year-old Edward Coristine
The youngest member of Musk's elite team is just 19 years old and a student at Northeastern University in Boston.
Reports indicate that after graduating high school last summer, Coristine interned for three months at Musk's Neuralink. Little is known about Coristine's role at DOGE, though he is listed as an "expert."
WIRED cited sources saying Coristine has been calling department staff, asking them to "review their own code and justify their work."
The report stated he appeared in conference calls with General Services Administration staff, yet no one knew who he was or why he was there.
Coristine comes from a business family and is the heir to his father's popcorn brand, Lesser Evil. He previously worked as part of the brand's team. Until recently, Coristine used the social media handle "@EdwardBigBaller," according to reports.
21-year-old Akash Bobba
Bobba is another "expert" within the department and is currently studying at the University of California, Berkeley. According to his previously deleted LinkedIn profile, Bobba served as an investment engineering intern at a hedge fund.
Prior to that, he interned at Meta and Palantir—founded by Peter Thiel, a 2016 MAGA donor. Just six years ago, Bobba organized a local Model UN event in Princeton Junction, New Jersey. His father is a computer science academic.
22-year-old Ethan Shaotran
Shaotran founded Energize AI, a company offering scheduling assistants for professionals. The startup received a $100,000 grant from OpenAI in 2023.
The 22-year-old said in September last year that he was a senior at Harvard University and reportedly conducting research on autonomous vehicles at the school's computing lab.
Musk is famously attempting to develop self-driving cars at Tesla's headquarters.
Shaotran is also a member of the Harvard Mountaineering Club and once worked as a dive master during a gap period in Hawaii.
He shares a unique connection with Musk, having participated in Musk's xAI "hackathon." His team used xAI's Grok to generate plausible responses from X followers to a hypothetical question, ultimately finishing as runners-up.
24-year-old Gautier Cole Killian
Killian previously worked as an engineer at Jump Trading, a firm specializing in high-frequency financial trading and algorithms. He is now reportedly a "volunteer" at the Office of Digital Government, though his specific position remains unclear.
The 24-year-old is a graduate of McGill University.
Their rise marks an unprecedented experiment—using an extremely lean, highly technical team to overhaul massive government institutions. Whether this will become a revolution in administration, completely颠覆ing traditional bureaucracy, or merely a short-lived and controversial political spectacle, remains to be seen.
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