GoKawiilFourteen months ago, WIRED introduced the world to a cadre of young, inexperienced technologists who were working with Elon Musk’s newly formed, so-called Department of Government Efficiency. These workers, many of them between the ages of 19 and 24, were given the keys to the US government. They were also quickly the subject of controversy, as they laid waste to government agencies with little rhyme or reason. When Musk departed DOGE, many of the people who constituted DOGE’s early strike force dispersed.
But as the dust has settled, it’s clear that DOGE’s efforts have caused lasting damage in both large and small ways—from the more than 300,000 federal workers fired to the destruction of the US Agency for International Development to even just increased wait times for assistance on the Social Security Agency’s phone lines.
Yet its members have been given positions of increased responsibility, both inside the government and out, despite the fact that DOGE’s own members described the organization as “chaotic” and the group failed to achieve many of its goals.
Musk’s DOGE may no longer exist as it did a year ago, but its impact continues to ripple across the government. Just as Musk used allegations of fraud and waste as a way to cut government jobs and cripple whole government agencies, the Trump administration has recently maintained that it has continued taking aim at “waste, fraud, and abuse.” While some of DOGE’s operatives have remained in government, ascending to powerful positions within the administration, others have moved to the private sector. In some cases, those moves were back to companies that maintain strong connections to Musk or other players in his Silicon Valley universe.
WIRED identified 10 of these people, some of whom remain in the spotlight and others who have quietly slipped back to private life. These people were selected based on the following criteria: If their titles, roles, or details had changed in government, if WIRED could identify their current work, and if WIRED had not previously noted where in government or the private sector they had moved to.
The individuals below constitute a telling snapshot of where DOGE members have landed, and where they continue to exert influence.
Got a Tip? Are you a current or former government employee who wants to talk about what's happening? We'd like to hear from you. Using a nonwork phone or computer, contact the reporter securely on Signal at vittoria89.82.
Edward “Big Balls” Coristine, National Design Studio
Edward Coristine was one the earliest—and youngest —members of DOGE. He joined the organization at just 19 years old with no prior experience in government. Coristine, who used the internet moniker Big Balls (including on LinkedIn), interned at Musk’s computer-brain interface company, Neuralink, and worked for a startup that hired former blackhat hackers.
At the height of DOGE, Coristine worked across several agencies. At the Social Security Administration (SSA), a whistleblower alleged that Coristine was part of a team of engineers who sought to upload sensitive data to an unsecured cloud server; at the General Services Administration, he sat in on calls where workers were forced to defend their jobs; he was also part of the team that helped shut down the US Agency for International Development (USAID). He appeared at half a dozen other agencies as well, including the Office of Personnel Management (OPM), the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, the State Department, the Department of Homeland Security, Health and Human Services, and the Department of Education.
... continue reading