Who wants to lead the Department of Government Efficiency?
With the departure of Elon Musk and his right-hand man Steve Davis from government, administration officials and members of the controversial cost-cutting effort have been in detailed discussions this week about who will functionally be in charge of it, according to four people familiar with the talks.
Debate about who should take charge has spread through the White House, DOGE and Silicon Valley. In the first days after Mr. Musk’s departure, it centered on the billionaire Joe Gebbia, one of Mr. Musk’s close friends and a board member at his automaker, Tesla.
Mr. Gebbia joined DOGE in February and had been under consideration to effectively take over Mr. Musk’s signature government project, according to a half-dozen people briefed on the conversations. They spoke on the condition of anonymity to disclose private talks.
But Mr. Gebbia, who rose to prominence in Silicon Valley when he co-founded Airbnb, began telling others that he was not interested in a role in which he alone would lead DOGE, according to some of the people. That is in part because of the intense scrutiny that would come with a formal role in charge of it.
The current plan is for a small council of advisers, including Mr. Gebbia, to oversee DOGE, according to some of the people. The Airbnb co-founder has expressed interest in this broader leadership team.
Another member of DOGE, the investment banker Anthony Armstrong, could join this leadership platoon, the people said. In 2022, Mr. Armstrong, then at Morgan Stanley, worked on Mr. Musk’s deal to buy Twitter.
The elevation of Mr. Gebbia and Mr. Armstrong would place allies of Mr. Musk partly in charge of the project, despite the Tesla chief’s fight with President Trump. Neither Mr. Gebbia nor Mr. Armstrong replied to requests for comment.
Harrison Fields, a White House spokesman, said that Mr. Gebbia “is not interested in, nor is he taking” the specific role that on paper oversees the cost-cutting effort, called the U.S. DOGE Service administrator. Neither Mr. Musk nor Mr. Davis held that role while leading the initiative, and it has been occupied by a former health care investment executive named Amy Gleason.
Mr. Fields said that Mr. Gebbia would “continue serving American taxpayers by improving the usability of government websites.” He did not comment on other leadership roles that Mr. Gebbia had considered. The cost-cutting work would proceed “under the direction of the president, his cabinet and agency heads,” Mr. Fields said.
The management of Mr. Musk’s effort to slash bureaucracy has been unusually informal. Even when Mr. Musk was in good standing, the White House resisted acknowledging who actually ran DOGE.
On paper, Mr. Musk was not even a part of the organization, although Mr. Trump regularly referred to him as its head. Mr. Musk embraced the role, wearing a T-shirt labeling himself “The Dogefather.” Mr. Davis, a Musk loyalist who worked for the billionaire at several of his companies, acted as a day-to-day leader. Ms. Gleason was named as the acting administrator in February, but members of the project saw her as far less of an authority than Mr. Musk and Mr. Davis.
Still, Mr. Musk weathered reputational damage while leading the effort. Protests against his federal cuts sprung up outside Tesla dealerships, and the company’s stock has declined about 15 percent this year. The backlash has made filling his shoes an unappetizing prospect for other business leaders.
Mr. Gebbia and Mr. Armstrong have already been among the more visible members of Mr. Musk’s cost-cutting initiative, appearing on television to defend its work.
In a volunteer role at the Office of Personnel Management, Mr. Gebbia has overseen an overhaul aimed at solving one of the most intractable problems in the federal bureaucracy: the paper-based retirement system for its employees. Mr. Gebbia said he would modernize the retirement process.
Mr. Armstrong was an early member of DOGE, joining the personnel office shortly after Mr. Trump’s inauguration. He left that role in April but remained in government service at the Department of Homeland Security, according to one person familiar with the arrangement and internal records reviewed by The Times. A spokeswoman for the department did not respond to requests for comment.
To some extent, neither Mr. Gebbia nor Mr. Armstrong can replicate Mr. Musk, with his wealth and public platform. Mr. Musk has often used X, his social media service, to influence political change and to punish critics. Mr. Musk also maintained a close relationship with Mr. Trump, which Mr. Armstrong and Mr. Gebbia do not have.
Mr. Musk’s allies would also be taking over his effort to reduce federal spending at a precarious moment. There is concern within the organization that some members of the group may leave, either because they are following Mr. Musk back into industry or because they expect to be targeted by Mr. Trump if his feud with Mr. Musk continues, according to people close to the effort.
On Mr. Musk’s last day in Washington last month, DOGE members threw him a large party to celebrate his accomplishments, two people familiar with the gathering said. But some in DOGE are angry at Mr. Musk, seeing his attacks on Mr. Trump as a move that could backfire on anyone with a perceived loyalty to the billionaire, according to a person familiar with their sentiments. Even some of Mr. Musk’s friends are worried about his actions causing a backlash against DOGE.
Several members of the initiative have already left with Mr. Musk, including Mr. Davis; James Burnham, the group’s top lawyer; and Katie Miller, Mr. Musk’s empowered political aide.
That leaves Mr. Gebbia and Mr. Armstrong among the most senior leaders. Mr. Gebbia’s focus on the technical effort digitizing the government’s retirement process — a project widely supported by members of both political parties — has helped to shield him from the controversy surrounding some of DOGE’s other initiatives, such as cutting foreign aid efforts and slashing the federal work force.
Some members of the DOGE team are enthusiastic about Mr. Gebbia’s potential leadership role because of this technical background, one of the people said. Since leaving Airbnb in 2022, he has focused more on other interests, such as his partial ownership of the San Antonio Spurs, a new startup he founded called Samara and his board seat at Tesla.
Mr. Gebbia lives in the Austin area, as does Mr. Musk. Also like Mr. Musk, Mr. Gebbia once described himself as a Democrat; he has said he moved rightward in large part because of his positions on health-related issues. Mr. Gebbia’s interest in the “Make America Healthy Again” movement has drawn him close to Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the health and human services secretary.
Mr. Armstrong also comes from Silicon Valley. Before working as a Morgan Stanley banker specializing in tech companies, he held roles at Credit Suisse and at a firm in Qatar. Mr. Musk has had a long relationship with Morgan Stanley, and Mr. Armstrong’s work on the acquisition of Twitter put him in even closer touch with Mr. Musk.
In a joint television interview this year to promote the overhaul effort, Mr. Armstrong sat immediately to Mr. Musk’s right. He said that DOGE was using a “scalpel, not hatchet.”
“There’s a very heavy focus on being generous, being caring, being compassionate and treating everyone with dignity and respect,” Mr. Armstrong said, emphasizing that some of the departures of federal employees had been voluntary.
Mr. Musk then chimed in: “Basically, almost no one has gotten fired. That’s what we’re saying.”
Eli Murray contributed reporting.
