The establishment of Elon Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) relied on a recruitment campaign carried out, in part, by young software engineers fanning out across online chat groups and Discord servers, according to three sources and chat logs reviewed by WIRED. Some of the engineers are associated with data analytics firm Palantir or its cofounder and board of directors chair—and Musk ally—Peter Thiel.
As DOGE staffers—many of them young and with little or no government experience—continue to gain access to sensitive data across about a dozen government agencies, this is the first look at some of the networks from which the agency has recruited, and who they relied on to enlist talent.
In online chat groups linked to Palantir alumni and SpaceX interns, Musk’s space company, as well as in a Discord server associated with a military artificial…
