<div class="css-s99gbd StoryBodyCompanionColumn" data-testid="companionColumn-0"><div class="css-53u6y8"><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">A private equity investor who is one of Elon Musk’s closest confidants has taken a new role in the Social Security Administration, a development that could be politically combustible given the program’s popularity with voters and Mr. Musk’s apparent intent to make major changes at the agency.</p><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">The investor, Antonio Gracias, who has served on the boards of Mr. Musk’s businesses Tesla and SpaceX, has started a job at the administration as part of the <a class="css-yywogo" href="https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/28/us/politics/musk-federal-bureaucracy-takeover.html" title="">Musk-led cost-cutting effort</a> known as the Department of Government Efficiency, according to documents seen by The New York Times and two people informed about his appointment.</p><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">Of the <a class="css-yywogo" href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2025/02/27/us/politics/doge-staff-list.html" title="">more than 50 people</a> who have joined Mr. Musk in Washington, almost none have as extensive a history with him as Mr. Gracias. The men met around two decades ago and in that time, Mr. Gracias has become one of Mr. Musk’s most trusted advisers.</p><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">The involvement of such a close ally with the Social Security Administration suggests that Mr. Musk has made overhauling the agency a priority; in recent weeks, the tech billionaire has regularly talked about supposed fraud inside the system. Two weeks ago, he <a class="css-yywogo" href="https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/03/us/politics/elon-musk-joe-rogan-podcast.html" title="">referred to Social Security</a> as “the biggest Ponzi scheme of all time,” and this week he <a class="css-yywogo" href="https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/11/us/politics/musk-doge-social-security-entitlement-spending.html" title="">claimed that fraud in the program</a> and other major entitlement spending was “the big one to eliminate.”</p></div><aside aria-label="companion column" class="css-ew4tgv"></aside></div><div data-testid="Dropzone-1"></div><div class="css-s99gbd StoryBodyCompanionColumn" data-testid="companionColumn-1"><div class="css-53u6y8"><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">Republicans have long eyed privatization or cuts to Social Security, but have avoided following through out of fear of political blowback. Even as top Republicans argue that they simply want to strengthen the program’s finances, Democrats have <a class="css-yywogo" href="https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/05/us/politics/musk-social-security-democrats.html" title="">spied a political opportunity</a> in Mr. Musk’s potential shake-up at the agency.</p><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">Nine DOGE members have arrived at the Social Security Administration in recent days. They include Mr. Gracias and two other men who work at his investment firm, Valor Equity Partners — Jon Koval, a vice president on the investment team, and Payton Rehling, a data engineer — according to documents seen by The Times.</p></div><aside aria-label="companion column" class="css-ew4tgv"></aside></div><div data-testid="InteractiveBlock-3"><section class="interactive-content interactive-size-scoop css-kqcwdy" data-id="100000010033603" data-source-id="100000010033603" data-testid="inline-interactive" id="federal-workers"><header class="css-obecq5 interactive-header" id="interactive-header"><h2 class="css-4hk76s interactive-headline" id="interactive-headline">Are you a federal worker? We want to hear from you.</h2><p class="css-1qa9noj interactive-leadin" data-testid="leadin" id="interactive-leadin">The Times would like to hear about your experience as a federal worker under the second Trump administration. 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