Antonio Gracias
KEY THREATS:
Deportation industrial complex Gutting the government Manufacturing Misinformation Key Musk ally The first leader of DOGE’s “immigration task force” was a natural pick. Antonio Gracias isn’t just a long time investor in Elon Musk’s companies, but a close friend and fixture on his vacations and - reportedly - drug trips. The private equity and venture capital billionaire is perhaps the only person that Musk trusts enough to stop him from tweeting by locking his phone in a hotel safe.
Gracias made nearly half his wealth from Tesla shares, and has long been returning the favor to Musk. Once a Biden and Clinton donor, this son of immigrants spent the first half of 2025 leading attacks on immigrants and Social Security through DOGE. After building up the deportation machine and slashing the Social Security Administration, he’s now returning to the private sector, where he can further profit off the system he helped rig.
NET WORTH
CEO
Valor Equity Partners
OTHER COMPANIES
LINKED TO
Elon Musk, Peter Thiel, David Sacks, Rahm Emmanuel, Donald Trump
AGE
55
STATE
IL
PART OF
Political Ideology
Anti-Immigrant Conspiracist
- Spread falsehoods about undocumented immigrants in relation to voting, Social Security, and other public services.
Controversies
- Tesla’s board in 2021 amidst criticism that he was too personally close to Elon Musk to act as lead independent director, not long after a judge struck down the massive Musk compensation package Gracias helped approve
- In 2023 Gracias and other Tesla directors returned $735 million in stock compensation to settle a shareholder lawsuit accusing them of overpaying themselves
- Gracias and other Tesla directors were sued by Tesla shareholders who accused the board of overpaying for SolarCity, another Musk company; the company settled the claims against Gracias and the other directors (aside from Musk) for $60 million
- Gracias claimed to have found “thousands” of non-citizens voting, but could ultimately only produce 57 potential cases in the entire country to be referred for investigation. Only 4 of these were tried.
Obscene Spending
- Paid in excess of $13.6 million to purchase the entire third floor of a luxury Chicago condo building, replete with home gym, home theater, wine room, and eight heated garage spaces.
- Splits time between the DC Metro Area, Chicago, and the adjoining penthouses he owns in Miami
Enabling:
Deportation Industrial Complex
Despite having no government experience, Gracias was appointed by Musk to DOGE to head the “immigration task force,” which aims to remake the entire asylum process. This includes installing DOGE members across other departments, including the Department of Homeland Security, the Social Security Administration (SSA), and the Department of Health and Human Services, in order to weaponize confidential data against immigrants. At one point, this meant classifying 6,000 immigrants as dead in the SSA file in order to cut off access to credit cards and bank accounts and induce “self deportation.”
An early investor in the company that became Paypal, Gracias has also used his ties with Peter Thiel, Musk, Trump, and other far right figures to publicly spread disinformation about immigrants. At a campaign rally with Musk in Wisconsin, he claimed to have found massive numbers of undocumented immigrants voting—but could only provide 57 potential cases, only 4 of which were tried. He made similar claims about “millions” of social security numbers being issued to non-citizens, to help justify his other top target.
Destruction of Social Security
Gracias has enabled DOGE’s chainsaw approach to laying off federal employees, with a particular focus on the Social Security Administration. In February, this meant new plans to cut about 7,000 SSA jobs, or 12% of its workforce, despite it already being understaffed.
DOGE’s moves to fire SSA workers, close SSA field offices, and force through other sweeping changes will make it much harder for recipients to receive their social security payments on time, or at all. While Gracias was publicly spewing disinformation about undocumented immigrants and social security, he was working behind the scenes to cut phone service for seniors, increase wait times, cause huge payment delays, and make support unreachable for seniors.
