By Alexandra Alper and Raphael Satter
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – One of the people working with billionaire Elon Musk in his efforts to overhaul the U.S. government is a Berkeley-educated computer scientist who has boosted white supremacists and misogynists online.
Gavin Kliger lists his job on LinkedIn as “Special Advisor to the Director” at the Office of Personnel Management, which has been spearheading Musk’s efforts to shrink the federal workforce. His USAID email address was copied on a message reviewed by Reuters that was sent to staffers at the international aid agency on Monday. It urged them to stay home while the agency was being shut down.
He graduated in 2020 from the University of California, Berkeley with a 3.95 grade point average and degrees in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, according to his LinkedIn profile. Reuters confirmed his attendance at Berkeley, but was unable to verify other details in his profile.
Kliger is one of about a dozen men identified by Reuters and other news outlets who have been recruited by Musk and his DOGE office to reshape the federal government. Reuters could not determine the importance of Kliger’s role at OPM.
In social media posts between October 2024 and January, Kliger has voiced controversial views and reposted content from white supremacist Nick Fuentes and self-described misogynist Andrew Tate.
An OPM spokeswoman declined to comment on Kliger’s posts. Kliger did not respond to multiple requests for comment via email and text. Following Reuters’ request for comment on Thursday evening, public access to Kliger’s X account was blocked.
In response to a post about New York Mayor Eric Adams possibly shutting down a migrant shelter in November, Kliger wrote: “Just leave them be for a few more months. Will be much more convenient to deport them all if they are in one spot.”
Kliger has reposted comments from white supremacist Fuentes, who has at times been banned from social media platforms including Facebook, YouTube and Twitter for hate speech.
Kliger shared a December 4 post from Fuentes’ X account. Kliger has since unshared the post, but Reuters examined a copy of the original repost via the Internet Archive.
In the post on X, Fuentes mocks a post praising a photo of an apparently white couple pictured with two light-skinned children and a dark-skinned baby. In his post Fuentes referred to “adopted Black kids”, denigrating the apparent interracial adoption. He also used the word “huzz”, a pejorative term for women. Reuters could not immediately establish the identity or ethnicity of the people depicted. Fuentes did not respond to a request for comment on the post by email.
Kliger has also reposted social media influencer and self-described misogynist Andrew Tate.
The British-American former kickboxer is being investigated by Romanian prosecutors for human trafficking, trafficking of minors, sexual intercourse with a minor and money laundering and has since founded a nativist British political party. Tate has denied wrongdoing.
The post, shared by Kliger, exhorts foreigners to “respect British culture, standards of hygiene and social norms. You operate within our parameters … Problem? leave … Multiple complaints of the contrary? Visa revoked.”
Another Department of Government Efficiency staffer, Marko Elez, quit on Thursday amid questions from the Wall Street Journal about links to a deleted social-media account that advocated for racism and eugenics, according to the Journal’s subsequently published story. Reuters could not determine how Elez, Kliger, or any of the individuals working with Musk to slash government and staffing, were selected for their jobs.
A White House official told Reuters on Wednesday that Musk and his engineers have appropriate security clearances and are operating in “full compliance with federal law, appropriate security clearances, and as employees of the relevant agencies, not as outside advisors or entities.”
(Additional Reporting by Tim Reid in Washington and Julia Harte in New York; Reporting by Alexandra Alper; Editing by Chris Sanders and Daniel Wallis)
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