By BYRON TAU, JOSHUA GOODMAN, GARANCE BURKE and BRIAN SLODYSKO
WASHINGTON (AP) — On the rooftop patio of the Common Companies Administration headquarters, an company staffer not too long ago found one thing unusual: an oblong gadget connected to a wire that snaked throughout the roof, over the ledge and into the administrator’s window one ground under.
It didn’t take lengthy for the worker — an IT specialist — to determine the gadget was a transceiver that communicates with Elon Musk’s huge and personal Starlink satellite tv for pc community. Involved that the gear violated federal legal guidelines designed to guard public information, staffers reported the invention to superiors and the company’s inner watchdog.
The Starlink gear raises a number of questions on what Musk and his effectivity czars are doing at GSA, an obscure company that’s taking part in an outsized position within the Trump administration’s quest to slash prices and convey the federal authorities to heel.
Amongst different clues that GSA is a essential cog in Musk’s said efforts to slash billions of {dollars} in federal spending: individuals with ties to the entrepreneur or his corporations maintain key jobs on the company. Its appearing administrator is a Silicon Valley tech government who has experience in rolling out synthetic intelligence instruments and whose spouse as soon as labored for Musk at his social media firm, X.
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FIRESTONE, COLORADO – MAY 12: Dylan McCurry provides contemporary crated carrots to different greens and noodles whereas making a spicy rooster Yakisoba model bowl within the kitchen at Teriyaki Insanity on Might 12, 2021 in Firestone, Colorado. DylanÕs father Tim McCurry owns the franchise in Firestone and plans on opening two extra quickly. One in Longmont and one within the Brighton space. The spicy bowl is a buyer favourite that has hand trimmed, contemporary, all pure rooster teriyaki, stir-fried of their signature house-made spicy sauce and comes with a alternative of white rice, brown rice, fried rice or noodles and steamed or stir-fried veggies. (Picture by Helen H. Richardson/The Denver Submit)
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FIRESTONE, COLORADO – MAY 12: Dylan McCurry provides contemporary crated carrots to different greens and noodles whereas making a spicy rooster Yakisoba model bowl within the kitchen at Teriyaki Insanity on Might 12, 2021 in Firestone, Colorado. DylanÕs father Tim McCurry owns the franchise in Firestone and plans on opening two extra quickly. One in Longmont and one within the Brighton space. The spicy bowl is a buyer favourite that has hand trimmed, contemporary, all pure rooster teriyaki, stir-fried of their signature house-made spicy sauce and comes with a alternative of white rice, brown rice, fried rice or noodles and steamed or stir-fried veggies. (Picture by Helen H. Richardson/The Denver Submit)
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An engineer at Tesla, the billionaire’s electrical automobile firm, runs the GSA’s know-how division. And one in every of Musk’s trusted lieutenants helps to spearhead the work of downsizing the federal government’s actual property footprint.
GSA oversees lots of Uncle Sam’s actual property transactions, gathering and paying lease on behalf of virtually each federal company. It helps handle billions in federal contracts. And it assists different companies in constructing higher web sites and digital instruments for residents.
It’s so necessary as a result of it’s “a choke level for all companies,” mentioned Steven Schooner, a George Washington College legislation faculty professor who makes a speciality of authorities contracting. “They’ll, in impact, cease all civilian companies from buying, interval. That’s all the pieces.”
In a press release in early March, GSA mentioned it deliberate to eliminate “non-core property” and welcomed “artistic options, together with sale-lease backs, floor leases and different types of public/personal partnerships.”
The seek for these cuts has engulfed the complete 12,000-person company. On the helm of that push is the GSA’s appearing administrator, Stephen Ehikian, the tech government whose spouse labored for X.
“GSA was constructed for this second,” Ehikian informed staff final month in a gathering, a video of which was seen by The Related Press.
“This company is the spine of federal authorities operations,” mentioned Ehikian, who’s looking for to broaden automation — by way of using synthetic intelligence — of many GSA features. “We actually have an effect on the administration’s mandate proper now, which is round effectivity.”
Unloading actual property
One other shut Musk adviser — Nicole Hollander — is driving the initiative to unload the federal government’s actual property. Her husband, Steve Davis, is appearing because the de facto chief of the Musk-inspired Division of Authorities Effectivity.
Hollander, who studied enterprise and actual property at George Washington College, is a licensed property supervisor in Washington, in response to LinkedIn. Her profile additionally lists her as an worker of X since 2023.
In early March, the GSA actual property division launched an inventory of a whole lot of government-owned or leased properties it sought to promote in a frenzied rush.
The record drew sharp criticism from Democrats and civil society teams as a result of it proposed the sale of the Justice Division headquarters and included a minimum of one undisclosed Central Intelligence Company facility. GSA rapidly withdrew the record.
That didn’t stall DOGE’s fireplace sale. Within the presentation seen by the AP, Ehikian mentioned the company has canceled greater than 680 leases, listed or offered a minimum of 32 properties value $185 million and minimize greater than $50 billion in contracts.
Hollander has largely operated behind the scenes. She not often seems in Zoom conferences, in response to staff. Paperwork obtained by the AP present spreadsheets she creates are stripped of her title and changed with a extra generic “GSA management.”
The AP additionally obtained copies of some occasion invites on Hollander’s calendar. They confirmed Hollander had a number of conferences with business actual property and companies companies, together with a brokerage agency and an actual property consulting firm that helps corporations economize their area. She additionally took conferences with a consortium of Washington know-how corporations.
Hollander didn’t reply to a request for remark despatched over LinkedIn or by way of a GSA spokesperson.
It’s not the primary time that Hollander has led a cost-cutting marketing campaign for Musk. A lawsuit introduced by fired Twitter staff in 2023 alleged that Hollander and Davis have been a part of a “cadre of sycophants” who have been significantly zealous in implementing Musk’s mandate overhaul of the social media firm.
The go well with claimed the pair, following their boss’ orders, circumvented San Francisco constructing and security codes, ignored their obligation to pay distributors and landlords and downsized with out regard to the turmoil it brought on staff or prospects.
The couple, the lawsuit alleged, additionally lived at Twitter headquarters with their month-old little one, mirroring Musk, who has a status for dwelling at his firm workplaces. That sample seems to be repeating at GSA: Hollander has put in cots on the company’s sixth ground, in response to staff.
Attorneys for Musk and X have moved to dismiss the lawsuit, arguing that the Delaware federal court docket lacks jurisdiction and the lawsuit is legally groundless.
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FILE – Elon Musk attends the finals for the NCAA wrestling championship, Saturday, March 22, 2025, in Philadelphia. (AP Picture/Matt Rourke, file)
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FILE – Elon Musk attends the finals for the NCAA wrestling championship, Saturday, March 22, 2025, in Philadelphia. (AP Picture/Matt Rourke, file)
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‘Transfer Quick and Make Modifications’
One other worker put in by the Trump administration at GSA labored for Musk at Tesla.
Shortly after taking on GSA’s know-how unit, Thomas Shedd informed his workforce the purpose was to “transfer quick and make modifications,” in response to a transcript of the February assembly obtained by the AP. That’s a variation on Fb founder Mark Zuckerberg’s motto of transferring quick and breaking issues.
Shedd quickly started demanding entry to delicate techniques that allow the general public to speak or work together with authorities companies, in response to staffers who spoke to the AP on situation of anonymity as a result of they feared reprisal.
Shedd’s request prompted pushback from current GSA workers. One worker resigned quite than give Shedd entry, in response to 404 Media.
He additionally informed workers he wished to consolidate all the federal government contracts in a centralized database to extra simply determine which of them to get rid of, in response to a transcript of the assembly. It’s not clear if he achieved that purpose. Shedd didn’t reply to emails looking for remark.
He and different GSA officers have additionally sought to rely extra closely on synthetic intelligence. In March, staff got a demo of a brand new inner AI chatbot that’s designed to extra speedily determine contracts and actual property that may be jettisoned. Authorities companies like GSA have been hesitant to deploy AI in such methods as a consequence of data-security and privateness considerations, in response to present and former officers.
Starlink thriller
It’s not identified what position — if any — Starlink is taking part in in GSA’s technological evolution.
On the GSA roof, staff discovered a minimum of two transceivers, together with the one with a wire operating to the administrator’s workplace. It’s not clear why the company is utilizing Starlink. The community supplies web service however just isn’t usually permitted to be used in most authorities laptop techniques.
IT staffers, who reported the invention to superiors, have been involved that the units weren’t licensed for use at GSA and DOGE may be using them to siphon off company information, in response to inner emails obtained by the AP and a GSA worker who spoke on situation of anonymity out of concern of reprisal.
GSA’s IT workers opened an investigation to see if the terminals have been a safety menace, and an worker filed a grievance with the GSA’s inspector basic, the emails present. The standing of these probes couldn’t be decided.
The AP obtained images — taken by a GSA worker — of the transceivers. And an AP staffer, utilizing a telephoto lens, confirmed {that a} wire runs from the roof to a window to the administrator’s workplace. NBC reported that a number of DOGE staffers figuring out of GSA had begun utilizing Starlink terminals in February. It’s unclear in the event that they’re the identical terminals referred for investigation by IT workers in March.
A GSA spokesman confirmed the presence of Starlink transceivers however mentioned they weren’t linked “to GSA’s inner community, nor was there a safety breach.”
To many veterans of the company, the irony of DOGE’s slash-and-burn method to GSA is that it’s jeopardizing one of many company’s longstanding missions: enhancing authorities effectivity.
The company, for instance, had an in-house consulting store that throughout the first Trump administration targeted on enhancing authorities companies, particularly these counting on know-how. Amongst its initiatives, the crew helped create techniques to permit People to file taxes on-line and was working to enhance on-line passport renewal.
Within the early weeks of the second Trump administration, DOGE officers gutted the crew. Shedd defended that transfer, telling staff in a gathering that the crew was eradicated as a result of its work was not cost-effective, in response to a transcript of his remarks.
Any discount in headcount may additionally jeopardize the federal government’s means to police contracts as soon as they’re issued to maintain prices down.
Such selections have baffled those that have tracked GSA’s work.
Amira Boland, a behavioral scientist at GSA throughout the first Trump administration, mentioned that trimming authorities was a good suggestion however described a few of DOGE’s cuts as “reckless.”
“There’s actually paperwork that must be eradicated,” Boland mentioned, “however you need to know the stakes you’re taking part in with.”
Goodman reported from Miami and Burke from San Francisco.
Contact AP’s international investigative crew at Investigative@ap.org or https://www.ap.org/ideas/
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