The young techies behind DOGE are a lightning rod for criticism but also a youth magnet for the GOP

CHICAGO (AP) — To those concerned about billionaire Trump adviser Elon Musk’s access to sensitive government data, his tear-it-down band of young techies doing that work is an unregulated threat to privacy. The view on the right is much different.

Voices influential in conservative politics describe the crew of engineers, most of whom are in their early 20s, as among the world’s best minds sent to save the U.S. government from bureaucratic bloat.

It comes at a moment when young progressives have criticized the Democratic Party for sidelining them and as the party’s hold on younger voters is slipping, particularly among young men. Republicans are using the contrasting images as a marketing strategy.

Charlie Kirk, founder of the group Turning Point, which has organized voter turnout efforts for Republicans, called them “young prodigies” and “all-stars” with IQs that “would melt the charts”

“This is a Gen Z, millennial takeover of the federal government,” Kirk said on his Feb. 4 podcast. “And we always thought it was coming from the left. But this is the geriatric, the kind of nursing home regime that has been pushing the country into oblivion. Now the young guns are taking over the country for the better.”

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In the weeks since President Donald Trump’s return to the White House, Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, has burrowed rapidly into federal agencies, reshaping the government with few discernible limits and seizing sensitive taxpayer data.

Musk, the world’s richest man, has called the DOGE team “some of the world’s best software engineers.” In a recent interview with Fox News Channel host Sean Hannity, Trump lauded Musk’s DOGE staffers as “very brilliant young people.”

“He attracts a young, very smart type of person,” Trump said of Musk. “I call them high-IQ individuals.”

Many of the DOGE engineers who have been identified in media reports have been linked to Musk’s companies and some to Silicon Valley billionaire and longtime Musk associate Peter Thiel, according to the technology magazine WIRED. One resigned and then was quickly rehired amid controversy over since-deleted racist social media posts. The Wall Street Journal initially linked the 25-year-old staffer, Marko Elez, to an account that posted “I was racist before it was cool” and “Normalize Indian hate.”

Kirk and other conservative podcasters have celebrated the young engineers for lending their talents to the Trump administration. Podcast host Jen Horn said “these kids … are literally just living and breathing these numbers” before her co-host Katie Gorka responded by saying, “I’ve often thought we’re going to be saved ultimately by these kids” during a Feb. 4 edition of the “Happy Women” podcast.

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy sparred with Hillary Clinton on Musk’s social media site X over the Trump administration’s actions and the plan to have DOGE help upgrade aviation safety.

“They have no relevant experience,” Clinton said in response to Duffy’s post about getting help from Musk’s team. “Most of them aren’t old enough to rent a car.”

Duffy responded sharply, saying, “We’re moving on without you because the American people want us to make America’s transportation system great again. And yes, we’re bringing the 22-year-olds with us.”

Republicans’ elevation of Musk’s engineers is a reflection of how they were able to chip away at the younger demographic in last year’s election.

Trump’s Democratic opponent in 2024, then-Vice President Kamala Harris, only narrowly won among voters under 30, with nearly half supporting Trump, according to AP VoteCast, a survey of more than 120,000 voters in the election. That was down considerably from 2020, when Democrat Joe Biden won about 6 in 10 voters under 30 in a matchup against then-President Trump. Other age groups also moved toward Trump last year, but the swing among the youngest voters was the most dramatic.

For Alex Dwyer, the 28-year-old chairman of the Kansas Federation of Young Republicans, watching the celebration of the young DOGE crew has been exciting after spending much of his adulthood feeling that young people were being overlooked in the workplace and in government.

“DOGE is showing that our talents and abilities are finally being recognized as having value,” said the Wichita-based financial analyst. “... The party has finally woken up that if you want to appeal to the youth, you have to involve them in the party.”

Trump’s campaign was especially effective in outreach to young men such as Dwyer who were concerned about the economy and were feeling disaffected by the political gains of women and so-called “culture wars,” said Melissa Deckman, CEO of the Public Religion Research Institute and author of the book “The Politics of Gen Z.”

By looking to alternative media such as right-wing podcasts and social media sites that give a platform to far-right views, the Trump campaign met young men where they are. Deckman said that the celebration of DOGE on social media and podcasts builds on this strategy by repeating the message that young men are being prioritized.

“Historically, you think of the GOP being the party of old fuddy-duddy white guys not passing the baton, and then suddenly there’s this cultural shift to highlighting the contributions of younger people,” she said. “... Meanwhile, when given the chance to pass the torch, Democrats lately have not been very successful in doing that, and young people are fed up.”

Sunjay Muralitharan, national president of College Democrats of America, was skeptical that DOGE, which he called an “unconstitutional threat to American democracy,” would attract more young people to the Republican Party.

“Most young people can see through this surface-level pandering,” he said. “The image of the richest man in the world gutting vital agencies speaks more here.”

There also have been young people who have been making an impact in the Democratic Party, including gun control activist David Hogg, who was named vice chair of the party in elections this month, and Florida Democratic Rep. Maxwell Frost, the youngest member of the U.S. House.

“Democrats have plenty of young people in consequential jobs,” said John Della Volpe, director of polling at the Harvard Kennedy School Institute of Politics. “They’re just not as good at letting us know about it.”

He said watching the DOGE engineers have a real world impact can be an important signal to young people. That could further hamper Democratic efforts to recruit a younger generation that already was questioning what the party had delivered for it.

“Republicans are seeing a weakness in Democrats through young people, and they’re taking advantage of it,” he said.

Basil Smikle, a Democratic political strategist and professor at Columbia University’s school of professional studies, said many disaffected young men in particular may see DOGE as evidence that they can have power. He urged Democratic leaders to step out of the way of young people and diversify their messengers.

“If you don’t, Republicans are going to go back to the same playbook and beat us every time,” he said.

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