Elon Musk's Next Target: Government Buildings
Elon Musk appears to have his next target for cost-cutting: the General Services Administration.
Mr. Musk visited the agency's headquarters in Washington on Thursday afternoon, according to three people briefed on his activities who insisted on anonymity, and met with the acting administrator of the agency, Stephen Ehikian. Mr. Musk, joined by one of his young children, arrived shortly after noon and spent a few hours at the agency, with several black S.U.V.s parked out front.
The so-called Department of Government Efficiency, President Trump's new cost-cutting group led by Mr. Musk, has so far focused on terminating leases of what it has called 'mostly empty' federal offices, which are managed by the General Services Administration. On Monday, the group said the agency had already terminated three leases.
'These are the first steps to right size the Federal real estate portfolio of more than 7,500 leases,' the group wrote in a post on X, Mr. Musk's social media platform.
Mr. Musk's visit to the General Services Administration could presage more cost-cutting efforts focused on federal real estate. The agency also plays a role in federal contracting and in providing technology services across the federal government.
This week, engineers at the G.S.A. were asked to submit a recent 'technical win' to Thomas Shedd, a Tesla engineer who was named the agency's director of 'Technology Transformation Services.' Tapping the agency's technical talent could allow the cost-cutting effort to advance its stated goal of modernizing government systems.
Mr. Ehikian, a Trump appointee, told workers in an email on Tuesday that, in addition to terminating three leases, two of the agency's properties would be listed for sale. Ending the leases would save about $11 million and was a 'first step' in cutting real-estate expenditures, according to the email.
Steve Davis, an executive at Mr. Musk's tunneling start-up, the Boring Company, has led the billionaire's work at the Department of Government Efficiency and has spent much of his time focused on the G.S.A. But the appearance on Thursday was Mr. Musk's first known in-person visit to the agency.
Mr. Davis played a key role in Mr. Musk's cost-cutting efforts at X, formerly known as Twitter, after the billionaire's 2022 acquisition of the social media company. Mr. Davis was an ever-present figure at its San Francisco offices, overseeing layoffs and at times even sleeping in the building. Mr. Davis was joined by his wife, Nicole Hollander, who managed the reduction of X's real-estate footprint.
Mr. Davis and Ms. Hollander have G.S.A. email accounts, two of the people said.
The couple are part of a cadre of Silicon Valley executives who have joined Mr. Musk in Washington, many as part of his cost-cutting effort. Mr. Ehikian comes from Silicon Valley himself, having sold two companies to Salesforce. Precisely what Mr. Ehikian and Mr. Musk discussed on Thursday was not immediately clear.
The G.S.A. did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Mr. Musk's movements in Washington are being closely watched given his highly unusual and empowered role in Mr. Trump's administration. Last Friday, Mr. Musk visited the Office of Personnel Management, which functions as a de facto human-resources agency for the federal work force. It is currently being led by tech executives, including Amanda Scales, who once worked for Mr. Musk at his artificial intelligence company, xAI, and Brian Bjelde, a longtime human resources executive at Mr. Musk's rocket company, SpaceX.
A few days later, the Office of Personnel Management unveiled a series of drastic changes that bore the unmistakable imprint of Mr. Musk.
The agency sent a mass email to federal employees, setting requirements for them to work from the office and to meet new performance standards. If employees did not want to comply, they could resign, the email said — echoing an offer that Mr. Musk made to employees at Twitter shortly after his 2022 takeover. The emails even shared a subject line: 'Fork in the Road.'
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