He’s been identified as one of the most influential deputies among billionaire Elon Musk’s team of young DOGE engineers and enforcers who are slashing through the federal bureaucracy.
But even Musk, who has gone on private sector firing sprees before lending his talents to President Donald Trump, has said his aide Steve Davis is best taken in moderation.
‘Steve is like chemo,’ Musk told a Trump transition meeting, according to the New York Times. ‘A little chemo can save your life; a lot of chemo could kill you.’
Davis had a hand in the setup before Musk’s infamous ‘fork in the road’ email to federal workers giving them a sudden option to take ‘deferred resignation’ or face the axe. He has tried to penetrate the Social Security Administration, amid Musk’s claim that dead people were getting benefits (experts said Musk’s claims misinterpreted agency data).
And he has helped implement Musk’s shock-and-awe tactics in the private sector.
One prominent progressive figure who used to play evening games in Davis’s Washington, DC apartment when he was the only employee in town for Musk’s SpaceX says he can no longer recognize his friend.
He described Davis as Musk’s ‘fixer,’ but no longer socializes with him since Davis followed Musk to Texas for an array of projects.
‘A tragedy in this moment is that Steve’s loyalty to Musk is blinding him from seeing what’s before his eyes: The rules of the DOGE game are ridiculous. They increase inefficiency, and they make people’s lives worse,’ Green wrote in an op-ed in Rolling Stone after the Times piece was published.
Davis, 45, has ‘effectively’ become the leader of DOGE, according to the Times, with authority surpassing that of acting administrator Amy Gleason.
(Musk may be the real head, but the government in court filings has stated that he is merely a special government employee and advisor to President Trump).
According to Green, Davis used to say ‘I know nothing about politics,’ although he impressed Musk by reportedly finding a way to shrink the cost of a $120,000 item down to $3,900.
‘(Whether that new part ultimately transferred costs to customers is unreported),’ Green wrote.
When he was slashing through Twitter staff, Davis reportedly slept in the office along with his wife and baby, the New York Post reported at the time.
Now that he is overseeing government staff cuts, ‘Mr. Davis is so loyal to Mr. Musk that he and his partner, Nicole Hollander, 42, who joined the General Services Administration to cut federal real estate costs, have set up a base of operations on the agency’s sixth floor in Washington,’ the Times reports.
It said the office is guarded by a full security detail.
Along the way to Musk’s side, Davis also opened a bar and a frozen yogurt shop called Mr. Yogato.
He moved to Pennsylvania when Musk began pouring millions to help get Trump elected, and is credited with helping conceive of a petition that paid battleground voters $47 to sign it.
His name is high up on a list of Musk aides who top House Democrats inquired about in a new FOIA request seeking information on DOGE. It seeks email communications and other information on Musk and 41 other personnel.
Now, Davis is a sidekick to Musk, who routinely flies on Air Force One, weekends at Mar-a-Lago with the president, and is by his side in the Oval Office.