Antonio Gracias

Antonio Gracias says the federal government makes Twitter look like “the JV league” beside “the NBA,” yet roughly 15% of $7 billion could be cut without touching core entitlements. He argues the obstacle is political will: every removed dollar comes from an NGO or “Beltway consultant,” while about 88% of departing employees accepted voluntary packages worth roughly nine months’ severance.

DOGE’s operating thesis is that transparent service metrics matter more than financial compensation incentives. At Social Security, Gracias found an empty headquarters and a field office with 20 people waiting while only seven of 25 windows were staffed; through his and the interim administrator’s efforts, employees returned to offices, website-uptime metrics were published, and, he says, no field offices were closed.

The talent model combines Elon Musk’s recruiting pull with a national mission. Gracias called the young recruits “10x engineers”: one left Harvard with two classes remaining, while another rising executive left KKR. He endorsed a third class of federal worker—alongside career and political staff—serving for 130 days as an SGE or for several years as an engineer.

Manual sampling has found people from DHS work-authorization records who registered and voted, but Gracias carefully separated reported arrests and an indictment from his belief that they represent “the tip of the iceberg.” He said an engineer using SQL can identify roughly 10–20 cases per state in a day; he explicitly declined to estimate the iceberg’s total size.

Gracias argues voter administration should pursue a “zero-defect system,” because every illegal ballot “nullifies the vote of an American citizen.” His proposed infrastructure is REAL ID plus the federal SAVE citizenship database; after API pricing reportedly rose from about $1 to $3 and change and states stopped using it, Secretary Noem signed a policy memo making access free.

His immigration position couples a controlled border with sensible legal pathways for both skilled and unskilled labor. With roughly 7 million job openings and GDP framed as workers multiplied by productivity, he wants skilled immigration and practical work permits for farms, food service, and restaurants. “When a country opens its borders, this country loses its sovereignty,” he said, while adding “compassion” to his team’s values of focus, intensity, and discipline.

🔗 Original source & video: Antonio Gracias: DOGE updates, Voter fraud, Finding ‘Big Balls’ | All-In Live from Miami