Elon Musk Chief Nerd's Elaborate $1,000 Troll Scam
Among Elon Musk's geek army is trolling his new fans by charging $1,000 to check out a manifesto about why he joined DOGE - just to find the post is blank.
Gavin Kliger, 25, is among six baby-faced boys with little-to-no federal government experience handpicked by the 'First Buddy' to sow havoc in the civil service.
He was the one who sent a company-wide email sent out to staff members at USAID telling them not to come into the company's Washington DC headquarters on Monday.
Kliger sent out the guideline from a USAID email address he was offered with as part of high-level access to its systems, along with fellow DOGE nerd Luke Farritor.
While the personnel were kept home, DOGE gained access to the company's IT system, developing security, and classified materials, and began dismantling it.
Just hours before he sent the email, Kliger made a post on his Substack page titled: 'Why DOGE. Why I quit a seven-figure wage to conserve America.'
Unlike the rest of his Substack, the post was 'subscriber just' with a $1,000-a-month charge - or $10,000 for a whole year - to access a single word of it.
However, those who were curious adequate to spend the remarkable fee discovered there wasn't even that - the post was totally blank.
Gavin Kliger, 25, is among 6 baby-faced kids with little-to-no government experience handpicked by Elon Musk to sow havoc in the civil service
Kliger made a post on his Substack page titled: 'Why DOGE. Why I gave up a seven-figure income to conserve America'. Despite a $1,000 paywall, it is entirely empty
'Poetically blank, please reevaluate your life choices,' one discuss the post read.
Kliger furthered his fancy trolling with an unusual voicemail greeting that pointed anyone who called his authorized contact number to the post.
'I simply wrote a gorgeous Substack on this, the Weekly Byte, if you simply go there, it's behind the paywall, but I believe it will respond to that concern for you ... it's respectable,' he said.
The one-minute welcoming was an extended version of the prank where the owner of the phone pretends to respond to, but it is in fact taped.
Kliger first pretended he was driving through a tunnel and having problem hearing the call, then eventually exclaiming, 'They said what? No, no, I don't believe that's right.'
The tape-recorded message then made its pitch for the caller to read his Substack.
Despite its name, the Substack was not upgraded weekly, and just has two other posts - both of which are free to check out.
Despite its name, Kliger's Substack was not upgraded weekly, and only has 3 posts
Unlike the rest of his Substack, the post was 'subscriber only' with a $1,000-a-month cost - or $10,000 for a whole year - to access a single word of it
They are both strident defenses of Donald Trump's most controversial cabinet nominations - Matt Gaetz and Pete Hegseth.
Gaetz was nominated for attorney-general but withdrew after a damning House report found he paid for sex with 17-year-old woman and many other misbehaviors.
Kliger's post entitled 'The Curious Case of Matt Gaetz: bytes-the-dust.com How the Deep State Destroys Its Enemies' portrayed Gaetz as an innocent victim who was 'framed'.
His other post, 'Pete Hegseth as Secretary of Defense: The Warrior Washington Fears', was a passionate defense of the former Fox News host's nomination filled with regular Trump-ally talking points.
Hegseth was directly validated by the Senate regardless of his history of alcoholic abuse and claims of sexual assault and harassment.
Kliger's claim that he left a 'seven-figure task' to join DOGE is likewise dubious as his personal sector work history didn't consist of such a role.
His latest task, according to his LinkedIn, was as a 'senior software engineer' at Databricks, a cloud computing company in San Francisco, from May 2020 to last month.
Salaries for that position at Databricks vary from $102,000 to $308,000 a year according to Certainly, while Glassdoor puts the top end at $321,000, including reward.
Kliger was the one who sent out a company-wide email sent out to workers at USAID telling them not to come into the company's Washington DC head office on Monday
The Berkeley graduate apparently instructed all staff members at the agency not to return to Washington head office on Monday
Kliger graduated from the University of California, Berkeley, in 2020 and interned at Twitter in 2019 - well before Musk's takeover in 2022.
Musk last month appointed him an unique adviser to the director for details innovation at the Office of Personnel Management, where many other Musk lackeys were installed.
The Tesla owner has actually essentially taken control of the OPM, along with the General Services Administration, through his management of DOGE.
Kliger's now-deleted Github from his time at Berkeley claims he is an Eagle Scout, National Merit Scholar, National AP Scholar, a black belt very first dan in Taekwondo, and an accomplished pianist.
'I wish to do work that will influence the future,' it read.
'Whether that suggests developing software, researching system deployment, or operating in some other sphere, I know that I will contribute insight and asteroidsathome.net creativity towards satisfying the difficulties I deal with.
'In my extra time, I delight in playing the piano and clarinet and going to music shows at Berkeley. One of my favorite leisure activities is playing online blitz chess.'
Kliger's dad, Larry Kliger, is president of Lawrence Allen & Associates, a commercial realty company.
Musk last month selected Kliger an unique consultant to the director for details innovation at the Office of Personnel Management, where numerous other Musk lackeys were installed
Who are Musk's other geeks?
Musk enlisted a performers of boys aged 19 to 25 - 3 of whom are believed to still remain in college - to fill high-powered engineering roles and cut expenses.
At just 19, Edward Coristine is the youngest of the fresh-faced lot taking on business America and longstanding federal government institutions.
According to WIRED, he's been called an 'professional' in his field, and specifics about his role aren't yet clear.
Akash Bobba, 21, Ethan Shaotran, 22, and Luke Farritor, 23, together with Coristine, have reportedly been given A-suite level clearance for their work, indicating they can work out of the company's top flooring with access to all physical spaces and IT systems.
Musk's DOGE has actually been quickly growing in power and broadening its remit, most just recently securing clearance to access to restricted parts of the General Services Administration structures and IT systems.
These systems store sensitive data including social security numbers, addresses and contact details.
Elon Musk got a performers of boys aged 19 to 25 - three of whom are believed to still remain in college - to fill high-powered engineering functions and cut expenses
Finally, Gautier Cole Killian has been called for his role with DOGE, which is supposedly on a 'volunteer' basis at this phase.
After widespread criticism about the men's youth, Musk released a statement about the visits.
'Time to admit: Media reports saying that DOGE has a few of world's finest software engineers remain in fact true,' Musk composed on X.
Luke Farritor, 23
Luke Farritor has a known link to Musk currently, having interned for SpaceX prior to landing his new gig.
Farritor, dropped out of the University of Nebraska in order to start working for Nat Friedman, the Silicon Valley business owner behind GitHub.
Friedman explained Farritor as 'a national treasure' after his consultation with DOGE was revealed.
He won part of a $700,000 reward in 2024 after utilizing AI technology to help figure out a 2,000 year old document - part of the Vesuvius scrolls from Pompeii - which researchers had been attempting, and failing, to resolve for centuries.
The charred scroll was believed burnt beyond acknowledgment.
Luke Farritor has a recognized link to Musk currently, having interned for SpaceX prior to landing his brand-new gig
Edward Coristine, 19
The youngest of Musk's elite team is simply 19 and a trainee at Northeastern University in Boston.
Coristine apparently interned at Musk's Neuralink for three months last summer, after graduating high school.
Little is understood about Coristine's function at DOGE, nevertheless he is noted as an 'professional.'
WIRED cited sources declaring Coristine has actually been carrying out calls with personnel in the department and making them 'discuss code they had actually written and justify their jobs.'
Employees were presumably confused by his addition in the meetings, and later revealed concerns that they were not properly briefed on his identity or role, even throughout the call.
Coristine's father, Charles, is the president of empire, LesserEvil. Coristine once worked as an employee for the brand.
Up till just recently, Coristine supposedly utilized a social networks handle named '@EdwardBigBaller.'
The youngest of Musk's elite squad is just 19 and a trainee at Northeastern University in Boston
Akash Bobba, 21
Bobba is another 'expert' within the department still studying at the University of California, Berkeley.
According to a former LinkedIn account, which has given that been erased, Bobba was a financial investment engineering intern at a hedge fund.
He had actually also formerly interned for Meta and Palantir - who was founded by 2016 MAGA donor, Peter Thiel.
Just 6 years back, Bobba was the organizer behind the Princeton Junction, New Jersey, local design United Nations. His dad is an academic in computer system science.
Bobba spoke at his graduation ceremony from West Windsor-Plainsboro South High School in July 2021, wiki.rrtn.org telling his schoolmates to 'value the complexity in life'.
" We live in an age where simpleness rules supreme, where 30-second TikToks and 280-character tweets pertain to define our identities,' he said.
'This increasing desire to streamline even the most intricate stories into astonishing tidbits, perpetuates misinformation and in the process divides the neighborhoods, families, and relationships we treasure.
'What's the service, you might ask? Seek pain.'
Bobba is another 'expert' within the department still studying at the University of California, Berkeley
Ethan Shaotran, 22
Shaortran founded Energize AI - a scheduling assistant for experts. The start-up earned a $100,000 grant from OpenAI in 2023.
The 22-year-old said in September he was a senior at Harvard University, and was working in the school's computing laboratory on autonomous cars.
Musk is famously attempting to establish self-driving cars at his Tesla headquarters.
Shaortran is part of the Harvard Mountaineering Club and worked as a scuba divemaster in Hawaii over a gap year.
He also has a link to Musk, having participated in his xAI 'hackathon'. He and his team were runner ups after they utilized xAI's Grok to produce plausible actions from X followers to a hypothetical concern.
Shaortran established Energize AI - a scheduling assistant for professionals. The startup made a $100,000 grant from OpenAI in 2023
Gautier Cole Killian, 24
Killian was working as an engineer at Jump Trading, which specializes in high-frequency financial trades and algorithms.
Now, he is supposedly working as a 'volunteer' with DOGE, although in what capacity remains uncertain.
The 24-year-old graduated McGill University.
Killian was working as an engineer at Jump Trading, which concentrates on high-frequency financial trades and algorithms
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Musk's DOGE boasts sweeping power
Musk is leading a remarkable civilian review of the federal government with Trump's contract.
'It ended up being obvious that it's not an apple with a worm it in,' Musk said in a live session on X Spaces early Monday.
'What we have is simply a ball of worms. You've got to generally get rid of the entire thing. It's beyond repair.'
Musk just recently hinted he was likewise the mastermind behind Trump's choice to purge federal staff members by posting a symbolic photo on X harkening back to his notorious Twitter cleanse.
At the time, he sent a letter to staff titled: 'A Fork in the Road.' The exact same title was used in Trump's current email proposing generous lay-off bundles
Musk later on shared on X that he commissioned an art work of a massive fork standing in the road, showing it was all connected.
Musk does not hold elected office, but on Monday was officially selected a 'special civil servant' by the White House.
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