The Department of Government Efficiency at Elon Musk’s request highlights the efforts being put forth by President Donald Trump to combat waste and scams in the country’s social insurance programs. Three individuals with expertise in private equity and finance have been sent to the Social Security Administration by Elon Musk.
According to people familiar with the moves who spoke on condition of anonymity about the moves, those tapped for the task are  , Antonio Gracias , of , Valor Equity Partners, who also served on the board of , Tesla Inc.  , and was an early investor in , SpaceX , — two of Musk’s companies.
The agency’s and court documents confirm those names, which underscore the significance that Musk’s government’s Social Security organization has placed as a point of departure.
Trump appointed Leland Dudek, a middle-level anti-fraud expert, as Social Security’s acting commissioner next month, bypassing over 150 higher-ranking bosses at the company.
According to a sworn statement released on Friday by Tiffany Flick, the original company chief of staff who retired when Dudek was promoted, Dudek had cooperated with DOGE and helped bring Russo and Coulter into the organization.
Russo arrived on February 3 and “introduced himself as a DOGE consultant to several employees on numerous occasions,” according to Twist. He currently serves as the organization’s key information agent. Additionally, Russo hired Akash Bobba, a former volunteer at Peter Thiel’s, Palantir Technologies Inc., to analyze information in terms of Social Security and Medicare.
Twist, who claimed his history check was delayed for a few days, said Bobba’s training was strange. She claimed that she was under pressure from Russo and Boring Co. and Steve Davis, who both work for DOGE, to obtain Bobba certifications by midnight on February 10 at noon. Contrary to what she said, Bobba was sworn in over the telephone.
Flick claimed that she wasn’t aware of what DOGE was up to, but that it appeared to have to do with common fraud claims that she thought were “invalid.”
The Social Security Administration, a spokeswoman for the organization, did not respond to inquiries about DOGE’s operate at the organization. Additionally, Russo, Gracias, Coulter, Bobba, and Davis did not respond to emails asking for opinion.
Trump has cited Social Security as the main illustration of what he sees as a government that is rife with fraud, squander, and abuse, claiming that people of unusual ages, including millions allegedly over 100 years old, are still collecting agency checks.
I won’t touch Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, or any of these. In an interview that was broadcast on Sunday, Trump told Fox Business,” We’re going to find scams out of there.” You notice where I frequently discuss it? We have people who are all 250 centuries old, which is a lot of scams.
Dudek has consistently refuted that assertion. Although a collection of people with Social Security and Medicare information lacks the dates of death for millions of records, he said, that doesn’t mean those people aren’t in a separate databases of recipients.
Under Trump, the organization is currently going through a restructuring, with job cuts and workplace cuts in the works. These changes have alarmed Democrats and Republicans who view them as a danger to a benefits program that is well-known in the United States.
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