Terminating hundreds of contracts in 18 days, Musk took six post-00s to 'create chaos in the heavenly palace'

In the morning of February 3rd Washington time, the headquarters of the United States International Development Agency (USAID) was closed, and the once bustling office area fell silent. Just the night before, officials from the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) led by Elon Musk officially took over this international aid agency with more than 60 years of history and announced plans for complete closure. USAID employees received emails stating that, except for key personnel, all other staff would transition to remote work. At the same time, the USAID official website was taken offline, official social media accounts were deleted, and the agency’s operations came to a standstill.

Musk said on social media that he has discussed the matter with President Trump and has been fully authorized to close USAID. He claimed that the organization is an “extreme left-wing criminal organization” and must be completely disbanded.

Elon Musk and Trump co-founded the ‘Government Efficiency Department’ (DOGE) to promote radical reform under the guise of ‘streamlining government’, with the core goal of cutting government spending, digitizing the bureaucratic system, and using algorithms to replace human decision-making. The high-profile shutdown of the USAID action has also revealed the true face of the previously mysterious DOGE team, and this may be just the beginning as the power map of the US federal government is rapidly being reshaped.

Composition of the team: the average age of the “Six Little Tech Geniuses” is 22 years old.

The DOGE team consists of 6 technical elites aged 19-25, all of whom have no government experience, but are closely associated with Musk’s enterprises (such as SpaceX, Neuralink) or Silicon Valley capital (such as Peter Thiel).

Source Network

Gavin Krieger (25): Krieger graduated from the University of California, Berkeley with a degree in electrical engineering and computer science, and worked as a senior software engineer at Databricks, an American AI data analytics company, and is an expert in artificial intelligence and big data analysis. Krieger was tasked with writing executive orders and ensuring they would take effect quickly within the government, and he wrote the email to all USAID employees that they would not have to return to headquarters on Monday. He also directly drafted funding review orders for the U.S. Treasury Department, participated in OPM’s mass layoffs program, and was responsible for setting “rehire criteria” for civil servants that would require future government employees to be approved by DOGE.

Luke Farrell (23): Farrell dropped out of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and later worked for Silicon Valley entrepreneur Nat Friedman behind GitHub. He interned at SpaceX, writing software for pumps, valves, and other components that help fuel rockets. Farrell is currently listed as an ‘executive engineer’ in the Office of the Secretary at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), personally overseeing USAID’s digital blockade operation, with the next target set on the system of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services responsible for contracts.

Edward Kristin (19 years old): Kristin is the youngest, just graduated from high school, studying mechanical engineering and physics at Northeastern University in Boston, USA. He worked at Musk’s brain-machine interface company Neuralink for three months last summer, and his specific responsibilities are currently unclear. Kristin once used a non-governmental Gmail to join a conversation of employees of the General Services Administration of the United States, asking them to check the code they had written and prove the reasonableness of their work, which caused dissatisfaction among federal employees.

Akash Bubba (21 years old): Bubba comes from the University of California, Berkeley, and was formerly an investment engineering intern at Bridgewater Associates. He previously interned at Meta and Palantir, a US software service provider founded by MAGA sponsor Peter Thiel, specializing in artificial intelligence, data analysis, and financial modeling. He is responsible for designing algorithms to monitor the flow of government funds, and the “Real-time Fiscal Expenditure Monitoring System” he leads allows for the real-time freezing of federal “inefficient expenditures” without congressional review.

Ethan Showtland (22 years old): Showtland is a senior majoring in computer science at Harvard University. He is the only one in the team with experience in AI entrepreneurship. The AI company Energize AI founded by him received a $100,000 grant from OpenAI. He once won second place in a hackathon competition held by Musk’s AI company xAI. Showtland is in charge of the AI government program for DOGE, aiming to replace the government’s traditional human decision-making mechanism with algorithms, automating most administrative approvals, budget evaluations, and even congressional reports.

Gautier Cole Killian (24 years old): cracked the security system of the Ministry of Finance to obtain payment network access. Killian graduated from McGill University and has strong ability in financial data processing. He worked as an engineer at Jump Trading, a company specializing in high-frequency financial trading and algorithms. Killian’s main task is to help the DOGE team crack the security defenses of the Ministry of Finance, enabling them to access the government payment network and directly retrieve millions of transaction records bypassing security checks. Killian is also one of the few young people who have obtained high-level access to the White House, and Musk has a great deal of trust in him.

With the joint efforts of these six individuals, DOGE completed an administrative restructuring that the US government had not achieved in decades in just two weeks. Their actions were extremely efficient, with each person responsible for multiple tasks and working around the clock. Some team members worked 24/7, sleeping in the office when tired, to conduct a comprehensive audit of the deep-rooted US federal agencies. Musk spoke highly of them, praising them as the ‘future of the new government’ on social media.

The White House launches a ‘Silicon Valley-style lightning war’

Since Trump took office on January 20th, the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) led by Musk has launched a series of rapid reforms:

On January 20, the Chief Diversity Officer Executive Committee (CDOEC) was closed;

On February 3, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) was closed;

The Ministry of Education may be cut (the DOGE team has started to review the Ministry of Education’s contracts and financial data, and plans to eliminate “non-essential expenses,” suggesting that the Ministry of Education may be the next target for cutting).

The Department of Labor and the Department of Health and Human Services are potential targets (the DOGE team has started collecting their financial data and may take further action in the future).

The New York Times revealed that, under the direction of Trump, the Musk team is using extraordinary means to systematically take over US federal agencies. The most controversial USAID shutdown event is just the prelude to this profound transformation - in fact, there were signs of the agency’s closure before. In the past half month, over 70% of USAID departments have been successively dismantled, with over a thousand regular employees and contract workers being forced to be dismissed or suspended indefinitely. Its digital portal is completely paralyzed, social media updates have stopped, and even the nameplate of the agency’s headquarters has been quietly removed.

According to the official website of USAID, all directly employed personnel of USAID will be on administrative leave starting at 11:59 PM on Friday, February 7th, Eastern Time.

This systematic takeover is spreading at an astonishing speed. The DOGE team under Musk’s command not only quickly took control of the USAID operation center, but also infiltrated core departments such as the Treasury Department, the Office of Personnel Management (OPM), and the General Services Administration (GSA) in synchrony. Several chief security officers, chief financial officers, and senior executives of key departments have been collectively removed from their positions, and a large number of senior civil servants have been sidelined. In stark contrast, hundreds of technically savvy individuals with mysterious connections to Musk, lacking government work experience, are taking up key government positions through special channels, bypassing standard security checks to directly access confidential databases.

Especially controversial is the penetration of DOGE into the financial payment center. This financial lifeline, which oversees the distribution of social security, medical assistance, civil service salaries, and corporate subsidies, has always been operated by professional finance officials. However, the DOGE team recently broke through traditional constraints, not only gaining real-time monitoring access to the fiscal payment system, but also initiating the establishment of a “non-essential expenditure” screening mechanism, preparing to implement intelligent cuts to federal welfare programs.

Musk claimed on social media that there are substantial ‘illegal payments’ in the federal government’s daily expenses, including foreign aid, social welfare, academic research funds, etc., while DOGE aims to cut $4 billion in daily expenses. On February 6, DOGE announced that 78 contracts in the categories of DEI, non-performing assets, media, and consulting were terminated, including a contract for ‘Underground Water Exploration and Evaluation in the Islamic Republic of Mauritania.’ The total savings amount to approximately $110 million.

Of course, there are also some changes that are both funny and ridiculous, especially in the area of gender issues that Chinese people generally cannot understand. On February 6th, DOGE official tweet stated, ‘The Social Security Administration has terminated the contract for the ‘Gender X Initiative Mark’ and removed all gender ideology content from public-facing applications. This saves over $1 million and complies with the president’s executive order’ (see the picture below).

![18 days terminated hundreds of contracts, Musk brought 6 post-00s ‘Monkey King’ (https://img.gateio.im/social/moments-9843d222a5b6f2e4c28ad7621a141226)

In the image, the URL change related to the online application page for social security has been adjusted to ‘/sex’ instead of ‘/gender’. Although the wording of the application form itself has not changed, still asking ‘What is your gender?’ and providing ‘Male’ and ‘Female’ options, the official terminology has shifted from ‘gender’ to ‘biological sex’, disregarding gender identity. This aligns with the executive order signed by Trump on January 20, 2025, titled ‘Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth in the Federal Government’. The order defines sex as binary, male and female, and requires federal agencies to use ‘sex’ instead of ‘gender identity’, cease funding gender confirmation care, and prohibit transgender individuals from using facilities in federally funded single-sex facilities based on their gender identity.

Image source: NEW YORK POST, Trump stated that he only supports two genders, male and female.

As DOGE gradually penetrates into the core of government agencies, the balance of power is increasingly tilting. In internal communications, civil servants have been told that they must accept “government efficiency reforms”, otherwise they may face the risk of dismissal or being transferred to marginal positions. Some employees of the Ministry of Finance have even received warning emails, implying that their positions may be eliminated. Meanwhile, Musk has ridiculed government workers on social media, calling them “lazy” and encouraging them to resign proactively, suggesting that only those who are “willing to adapt to the new system” can continue to stay.

Musk’s plan goes far beyond cutting costs and cleaning up officials. His goal is to establish a new government model - one that is dominated by tech entrepreneurs and governed by a governance system assisted by algorithms and artificial intelligence. He has appointed a team composed of former Tesla, xAI, and SpaceX employees to develop AI for government management, enabling automatic budget review, project approval, and policy implementation analysis in the future.

In the next step, DOGE is considering dissolving the US Department of Education through executive action. Officials have discussed an executive order that would revoke all functions of the US Department of Education that are not explicitly listed in regulations, or transfer some functions to other departments. It is worth mentioning that Trump mentioned in an interview with Musk in August last year that if he is re-elected as the President of the United States, he will close the US Department of Education.

A power crisis tearing the US political arena apart?

As the influence of DOGE sweeps through the political arena like a hurricane, the voices of opposition are also rising.

The sudden closure of USAID has not only caused a stir in the United States, but also triggered widespread concerns in the international community. The agency manages about 40 billion US dollars in funds annually, involving over 100 countries worldwide and covering multiple areas such as humanitarian aid, development support, and health projects. Its abrupt shutdown has left many countries and aid organizations without assistance, and some emergency aid projects are even at risk of interruption.

Meanwhile, Treasury Secretary Scott Besent, upon taking office, handed over access to payment system data to Musk and his DOGE team. This move has sparked widespread controversy, with critics pointing out that it could expose sensitive information of tens of millions of citizens and businesses, jeopardizing the financial security of Americans, and even threatening the stability of national infrastructure and personal privacy.

DOGE has taken control of the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) and the General Services Administration (GSA) without proper review or authorization, and the legality and qualifications of its series of personnel appointments have quickly raised questions and criticism from the outside world. Generally, the formulation of federal policies requires layers of approval within government agencies and is ultimately decided by members of the Cabinet and the President. However, Musk and his core team have bypassed this process, forming an informal decision-making group led by tech elites, entrepreneurs, and young engineers.

In response, Democratic Senator Chuck Schumer announced that he would work with House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries to introduce legislation to counter the “illegal intervention” of DOGE. At the same time, multiple lawsuits against Musk have been filed in federal courts, alleging that DOGE officials accessed classified information without authorization, violated government procurement regulations, and abused executive orders to reduce federal spending.

![18 days to terminate hundreds of contracts, Musk and 6 post-00 youngsters ‘make a scene in the Heavenly Palace’(https://img.gateio.im/social/moments-2258f187ca8fa90d01fcfbc4c1cb8fe9)

Image Source: TVBS NEWS, Democrats are opposing Musk’s reform.

On February 6th local time, the US Department of Efficiency led by Musk (DOGE) encountered a setback - Federal Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly issued a temporary injunction prohibiting the Treasury Department from providing data from its payment system to external parties. As a result, Musk himself will be unable to review the data retrieved from the payment system.

As if one misfortune is not enough, just hours after the judge’s ruling, DOGE’s 25-year-old programmer Marko Elez suddenly resigned after it was discovered that he had made racist comments in his dormant social media account.

Behind Musk’s strong actions, it is inseparable from the strong support and trust of President Trump. In the White House, Musk not only has a separate office, but also frequently attends meetings with senior officials. Trump has publicly stated multiple times that he is “full of confidence in Musk’s decisions.” In terms of government operation, Musk attempts to abandon the traditional bureaucratic system and instead adopt an efficient model similar to Silicon Valley companies. Many senior government officials have expressed concerns about this, believing that such reforms may lead to an excessive concentration of power in the hands of private capital, undermining government transparency and accountability mechanisms. But under Trump’s protection, despite some obstacles, Musk’s reform efforts are still unstoppable.

Reform is always a war without gunpowder, which may establish a subversive global government management model or become a victim of power struggle. If the opposition forces of the Democratic Party continue to grow or strong opposition forces emerge in the judicial system, the reform of DOGE may be slowed down. However, judging from the current efficiency, Musk’s actions are much faster than the slow-moving traditional administrative system, shaping a technology-driven and efficiency-oriented ‘corporate’ government. Is this adventure of Musk and six young people a genius innovation or a dangerous game? The answer can only be verified by time.