Move over “Big Balls,” because a slew of new Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) staffers have been publicly identified, and just like their homie, they’re all relatively young and brilliant.
First up is Kendall Lindemann, 24, a former star swimmer at the University of Tennessee who previously worked for a healthcare firm founded by senior DOGE staffer Brad Smith.
“Lindemann graduated from the University of Tennessee’s business college in 2022,” according to Business Insider. “She worked for McKinsey for about two years, according to her LinkedIn profile, and in 2024 left for Russell Street Ventures, the health industry investment firm run by Smith, the senior DOGE official.”
Next up is Austin Raynor, a 36-year-old lawyer who previously worked for Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas.
Appearing on NTD News in November, he explained how then-President-elect Trump could successfully upend birthright citizenship once inaugurated.
“Raynor, a graduate of the University of Virginia’s law school, clerked for Justice Clarence Thomas for the Supreme Court term that started in October 2016 and spent time as an associate at Sullivan & Cromwell,” according to Insider.
“During Trump’s first term, he served as an assistant to the solicitor general. He has argued in front of the Supreme Court at least eight times. He was most recently a senior attorney and special counsel for the Supreme Court practice at the Pacific Legal Foundation, a libertarian organization,” Insider’s reporting continues.
Next up is Adam Ramada, a 35-year-old investor whose own fire reportedly bought a stake in a SpaceX supplier last year.
“Ramada is a Miami venture capitalist who donated more than $1,000 to Republican fundraising committees last year,” Insider notes. “One of his companies, Spring Tide Capital, invested in Impulse Space, which was founded by a SpaceX employee and has contracted with SpaceX.”
Next up is 37-year-old tech startup worker Kyle Schutt.
“Schutt was most recently the chief technology officer at Kerplunk, an AI interviewing software startup, and has a Ph.D. from Virginia Tech,” according to Insider.
Other new DOGE staffers include Jacob Altik, a 31-year-old University of Michigan Law School graduate; Keenan Kmiec, a 45-year-old lawyer who previously clerked for Chief Justice John Roberts; and Stephanie Holmes, 43, who reportedly handles DOGE’s HR work.
The public reveal of these new additions come amid the furor over DOGE’s top staffers being as young as 19.
WATCH: @CMSmedile, VP of Coign, exposes why legacy media is going after young @DOGE engineers.
“People who enjoy big government and have been proponents of it for far too long don’t like that these guys are coming in to mess with it.” pic.twitter.com/6gvMRYWIH2
— coign. (@coigncard) February 4, 2025
But writing this week for City Journal, Danny Crichton of the Manhattan Institute argued that it doesn’t make sense to complain about the staffers’ ages because “everything” in D.C. “is run by twentysomethings—from congressional staffers and judicial clerks to the crowds of advisors arriving with each new administration.”
“Young workers solve a critical workforce problem for government leaders,” Crichton explained. “These are punishing jobs that feature around-the-clock hours, de minimis pay, domineering and impetuous bosses, essentially no HR support, and the possibility of getting instantly fired as a scapegoat if anything goes wrong. At their best, these jobs offer a rare experience; at their worst, they can entail burnout and disgrace.”
“It’s no wonder, then, that experienced professionals, parents with children, and anyone who wants a private-sector salary tends to move on. Thus, tens of thousands of twentysomethings run critical functions of the U.S. government today—as they have back to the days of the Founding Fathers themselves,” he added.
Young DOGE engineers are nothing to fret about, writes @DannyCrichton. Tens of thousands of twentysomethings run critical functions of the U.S. government today—as they have back to the days of the Founding Fathers themselves. https://t.co/FZHV4MHh3B
— City Journal (@CityJournal) February 8, 2025
As for how these relatively young recruits were found, a Wired magazine exclusive claims Musk and other top engineers/staffers used “online chat groups and Discord servers” to find them. Discord is a voice, video, and text chat app for community discussions.
“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 intelligence program, the engineers said they were looking for people willing to spend six months in Washington, DC, cutting federal spending—which accounts for around a quarter of the US gross domestic product—by a third,” Wired reported.
Writers and editors can be contacted at [email protected] with feedback, tips, or corrections.
V. Saxena is a staff writer with a decade of experience as a professional writer, and a lifetime of experience as an avid news junkie. He holds a degree in computer technology from Purdue University. Saxena also contributes to BizPac Review.
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