DOGE Team Member Details Backlash After Leaving Harvard to Work for Agency

“I dropped out of Harvard and came here to serve my country. It was a shame to see the lost friendship,” the staff says.

A Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) staff said on May 1 that he dropped out of Harvard to join the advisory board and later lost friends at his previous school and was facing social expulsion.

Doge leader Elon Musk and his team discussed the findings after auditing various federal agencies for an interview that aired Thursday evening, along with Fox News host Jesse Watters.

Ethan, a Doge member, said he dropped out of Harvard and joined the advisory board. This is what President Donald Trump was created by an executive order earlier this year to find waste, fraud and abuse in the federal government.

Ethan said he was threatened and lost a friend after joining Doge.

“The young people at (Doge) have been given email threats from reporters and the public. Speaking for myself, I have dropped out of Harvard University and come here to serve my country.

“Most of the campus hates me now, but fundamentally, I hope that through conversations like this, people will understand that reform is really necessary.”

Earlier this year, sources familiar with Doge’s work, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they didn’t have permission to speak to the media, have entered an era when several younger members of the Doge team faced threats after various reports revealed their names to the public.

Sources said federal law enforcement was dispatched to protect the families of Doge staff members after their names were leaked to the media.

Some anonymous users of social platform BlueSky have created a post that discloses the names and faces of Doge employees.

“If you break the law by doxxing these people and doing that by blackmailing them, they should be thrown into prison,” said Rep. Derrick Van Olden (R-Wis.), who leads the House of Representatives’ defense and veteran issues portfolio, “If you doxx these people and do it and threaten them, they should be thrown into prison.”

“I don’t mean prison, I don’t mean fines,” he added. “Those who are making these death threats need to go to prison, or they won’t stop.”

Ed Martin, a US lawyer for the District of Columbia, wrote in an open letter to Steve Davis, Musk and Dozi recruiter, that people who “have discovered that they had broken the law or even just acted unethical” were pursued in the name of accountability “until the end of the earth.”

On Thursday, Doge member Ethan said he was inspired to join Doge in pursuit of government reform.

“I think the value of this and the impact here is much more vast than what you can learn in a computer science classroom,” he said.

Harvard has sued the Trump administration after the president freezes $2 billion in funds, accusing the university of not being sufficient to counteract anti-Semitism on campus, and not eliminating its diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs.

On Wednesday, Trump suggested that Harvard University has not received government grants. This suggested that the administration had not received government grants in response to its refusal to comply with the requirements it said was necessary to eliminate discrimination.

Harvard accused the Trump administration of forcing them to allow micromanagement of academic issues in the threat of endangering “the institution’s ability to pursue medical breakthroughs, scientific discoveries, and innovative solutions.”

TJ Muscaro contributed to this report.