Education and career
Kliger attended UC Berkeley, graduating in 2020. [3] Kliger's LinkedIn lists him as later working as a software engineer at LinkedIn and Databricks. [3]
On February 2, 2025, Wired reported Kliger was among a group of 19- to 24-year-old engineers to be appointed to Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). [3] [4] [5] The same day, Kliger posted an article in his online newsletter titled "Why DOGE: Why I gave up a seven-figure salary to save America". [6] [7]
Before 1:00 AM on February 3, 2025, Kliger sent an email from a United States Agency for International Development (USAID) email address to all USAID employees ordering them to work from home, and not to come into the office. [8] [9] [10] Kliger has no prior experience at the agency or in government. The move was criticized by USAID personnel and Democratic politicians, including Senator Chris Coons, who described the Trump administration as "trying to gut the agency altogether." [9] [1]
On February 6, Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) staff were told by email that DOGE members (including Kliger) entered the agency building and would require access to CFPB data, systems, and equipment. [11] Kliger was warned about potential conflicts of interest arising from his stock portfolio containing a number of companies which would potentially benefit from any mass layoffs at the CFPB and advised to divest from those positions. Kliger declined to divest his positions, [12] including ones where divestment would be mandatory for a CFPB employee. [13] Kliger was accused of yelling at CFPB staff he kept for a 36-hour shift. [14] [15] A mass firing in mid April attempted to reduce the bureau's headcount by approximately 86%, but it has been halted in court. [16] [17] Kliger conducted the mass layoffs, which included the ethics lawyers who warned him against financial conflicts of interest. [12] [18]
In February, Kliger began working at the United States Department of Agriculture to cut the budget and staff among his other appointments. [19]
Kliger also began working at the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) in February. [20] He sought individual level tax information but was blocked from accessing it by IRS administrators, he was allowed access to anonymized data under a working agreement. [21] In April 2025, Wired reported that two DOGE members, Sam Corcos and Kliger, were planning to run a hackathon with the goal of creating an API to interconnect all IRS databases. [22]
In April, Kliger began work at the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). [23] [24]
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