Turning Point USA

Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) is facing media backlash over the number of young professionals on the team, with the individuals being branded as “inexperienced” due to their age.

Upon taking office, President Donald Trump tasked Musk to oversee DOGE in its efforts to reduce the size of the federal government cut wasteful spending, and modernize federal technology to improve efficiency.

A recent Wired report identified six young men between the ages of 19 and 24 by name who are playing key roles in Musk’s initiative. The report detailed their backgrounds, including experience as engineers at Neuralink and Meta, and one who previously studied computer science at Harvard while founding an AI startup. Despite their technical expertise, critics have labeled them as inexperienced.

Media scrutiny has led to targeted attacks against DOGE staff. The Wall Street Journal unearthed deleted social media posts from one of the young aides, leading to his resignation. US Attorney for DC Ed Martin addressed these attacks last week, stating that the Department of Justice is investigating potential legal violations against DOGE employees.

“Our initial review of the evidence presented to us indicates that certain individuals and/or groups have committed acts that appear to violate the law in targeting DOGE employees,” Martin said. “We are in contact with FBI and other law-enforcement partners to proceed rapidly. We also have our prosecutors preparing.”

President Trump has defended Musk’s hires, emphasizing the need for intelligence and technical expertise within the federal government.

“They’re very smart people,” Trump said in regards to Musk’s team. The president noted that he hasn’t met Musk’s staff yet but that, “They work, actually, out of the White House as smart people, unlike what they do in the control towers. We need smart people. We should use some of them in the control towers, where we were putting people that were actually intellectually deficient. That was one of the qualifications is you could be intellectually deficient.”

“We need smart people. Some are young and some are not young. Some are not young at all. But they found great things. Look at the list of things. I’ll … maybe I’ll do it tomorrow. I’ll read off a list of 15 or 20 things that they found inside of the USAID. It has to be corrupt,” Trump added.

Musk has been vocal about his hiring philosophy, prioritizing technical skill over credentials. Back in January, Musk posted online about what he was looking for in a candidate to join his team.

“If you’re a hardcore software engineer and want to build the everything app, please join us by sending your best work to code@x.com,” Musk posted on X last month. “We don’t care where you went to school or even whether you went to school or what ‘big name’ company you worked at. Just show us your code.”

Musk has also said that DOGE has some of the “world’s best software engineers.”

DOGE has already begun taking control of federal agency systems to review inefficiencies in government spending. It has assumed oversight of systems within the Office of Personnel Management, the General Services Administration, and the Treasury Department’s payment system.

A White House spokesperson told Fox News, “DOGE is fulfilling President Trump’s commitment to making government more accountable, efficient and, most importantly, restoring proper stewardship of the American taxpayer’s hard-earned dollars.”