Nate Cavanaugh

Nate Cavanaugh
President of the United States Institute of Peace
De facto, unlawful
In office
March 28, 2025 – May 19, 2025
Preceded byGeorge Moose
Personal details
Born (1996-05-28) 28 May 1996
EducationIndiana University Bloomington (dropped out)

Nate (Nathan) Cavanaugh is an American tech entrepreneur who was a member of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) in the second administration of Donald Trump.[1][2][3] In 2025, Cavanaugh led the US Institute for Peace and co-led the National Endowment for the Humanities with Justin Fox. [4][5][6] In his role as a DOGE staffer, he was responsible for terminating nearly all of the grants at the National Endowment for the Humanities and is the subject of a lawsuit filed in 2026.[7][8][9]

Career

Education and founding of Brainbase

Cavanaugh was a 19-year-old student at Indiana University when he co-founded Brainbase, an intellectual property management platform. He then dropped out of college. In 2021, Cavanaugh was named to Forbes 30 Under 30 Enterprise Technology list for his role as Brainbase co-founder.[10][1][11][12] Cavanaugh is the son of Pat Cavanaugh, founder of Ready Nutrition.[11]

Second Trump administration

On March 12, 2025, Cavanaugh and fellow DOGE employee Justin Fox began overseeing the Department of Government Efficiency’s work with the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) after its chair, Shelly C. Lowe, left at President Donald Trump's direction and NEH general counsel Michael McDonald became acting chair.[13][14][15]

Under Cavanaugh and Fox's leadership of the NEH, DOGE used ChatGPT to identify grants that were in violation of Trump's executive orders related to DEI, ultimately terminating 97% of the agency's grants within 22 days.[16][17]

In March 2025, after Cavanaugh was appointed president of the US Institute for Peace, he transferred ownership of the headquarters building to the General Services Administration.[6][18][19] On May 18, Cavanaugh's appointment was ruled unlawful by Judge Beryl Howell.[20][21][22]

Cavanaugh was deposed on January 23, 2026, as part of a lawsuit brought by the American Council of Learned Societies, the American Historical Association, and the Modern Language Association against the Trump administration in connection with his role in the termination of NEH grants.[23][8][24] Videos of Cavanaugh and Fox's depositions went viral.[25]

In subsequent court filings, the plaintiffs and NEH produced additional materials describing DOGE's involvement in grant terminations.[26][27][16]

Discovery materials in the lawsuit state that Cavanaugh, as part of a small DOGE team including Fox, advised NEH leadership on identifying previously awarded grants for possible termination under Trump administration executive orders and that DOGE staff used spreadsheet keyword searches and the ChatGPT language model to help flag projects for review.[9] Cavanaugh admitted that the DOGE team was not successful in reducing the deficit, but that he did not regret harming the livelihood of those whose grants he was involved in terminating. [28]

On March 13, 2026, judge Colleen McMahon of the Federal District Court in Manhattan ordered the viral videos of Fox and Cavanaugh's depositions to be taken down, ordering the scholarly groups "take any and all possible steps to claw back” the videos.[29] Ten days later, Judge McMahon lifted her order, ruling that the risk of "embarrassment and reputational harm" was not enough to overcome the public interest in Cavanaugh's and Fox' s descriptions of their official conduct.[30]

References

  1. ^ a b Forrest, Jack (April 2, 2025). "IU dropout, DOGE worker now leads federally funded institute". Indiana Daily Student. Retrieved March 12, 2026.
  2. ^ "The People Carrying Out Musk's Plans at DOGE". The New York Times. June 16, 2025. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved March 12, 2026. Date reflects final update
  3. ^ O'Kane, Sean; Rollet, Charles; Bellan, Rebecca; Davis, Dominic-Madori; Bort, Julie (March 26, 2025). "19 founders and VCs working with Elon Musk's DOGE". TechCrunch. Retrieved March 12, 2026.
  4. ^ Bond, Shannon (May 20, 2025). "DOGE has tried to embed beyond the executive branch. Some targets have pushed back". NPR. Retrieved March 13, 2026.
  5. ^ "Who is Nate Cavanaugh? DOGE official now running US Institute of Peace". Newsweek. March 31, 2025. Retrieved March 12, 2026.
  6. ^ a b Barrett, Brian (April 1, 2025). "Federal Judge Allows DOGE to Take Over $500 Million Office Building for Free". Wired. ISSN 1059-1028. Retrieved March 12, 2026.
  7. ^ "American Historical Association (March 7, 2026). Nathan Cavanaugh Deposition in ACLS-AHA-MLA Lawsuit About the NEH, Part 5 of 6". YouTube. Retrieved March 13, 2026.
  8. ^ a b "ACLS-AHA-MLA Lawsuit: Discovery Materials". American Council of Learned Societies. Retrieved March 12, 2026.
  9. ^ a b "Major Update in our NEH Lawsuit". American Historical Association. March 7, 2026. Retrieved March 13, 2026.
  10. ^ "Nate Cavanaugh". Forbes. Retrieved March 12, 2026.
  11. ^ a b "Brainbase CEO Nate Cavanaugh on Striking Out as a Young CEO - dot.LA". dot.la. Retrieved March 12, 2026.
  12. ^ Walker, Isaac (May 21, 2025). "DOGE and the deficits of an engineering education". www.wbur.org. Retrieved March 14, 2026.
  13. ^ Schuessler, Jennifer (March 7, 2026). "When DOGE Unleashed ChatGPT on the Humanities". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved March 12, 2026.
  14. ^ Schuessler, Jennifer (March 12, 2025). "Chair of National Endowment for the Humanities Leaves at Trump's 'Direction'". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved March 12, 2026.
  15. ^ Johansen, Ben; Cai, Sophia; Sentner, Irie (April 16, 2025). "DOGE comes for the little guy". Politico. Retrieved March 12, 2026.
  16. ^ a b Custer, Sara. "How DOGE Gutted the NEH in 22 Days". Inside Higher Ed. Retrieved March 12, 2026.
  17. ^ DOGE staffer who flagged grants for ‘DEI’ struggles with definition. The Independent. March 11, 2026. Retrieved March 12, 2026.
  18. ^ Klee, Miles (April 1, 2025). "Meet the Silicon Valley Zealot Leading the U.S. Institute of Peace". Rolling Stone. Retrieved March 12, 2026.
  19. ^ Asher-Schapiro, Avi; Bing, Christopher (August 22, 2025). "DOGE Targeted Him on Social Media. Then the Taliban Took His Family". ProPublica. Retrieved March 13, 2026.
  20. ^ Fields, Gary (May 19, 2025). "Judge bars Trump administration from shutting peace institute that sought to end violent conflicts". Associated Press. Retrieved May 19, 2025.
  21. ^ Lee, Ella (May 19, 2025). "Judge deems DOGE takeover of US Institute of Peace 'null and void'". The Hill. Archived from the original on May 20, 2025. Retrieved May 19, 2025.
  22. ^ Barrett, Brian. "DOGE Loses Battle to Take Over USIP—and Its $500 Million Headquarters". Wired. Retrieved March 13, 2026.
  23. ^ American Historical Association (March 7, 2026). Nathan Cavanaugh Deposition in ACLS-AHA-MLA Lawsuit About the NEH, Part 5 of 6. Retrieved March 12, 2026 – via YouTube.
  24. ^ "Reed, Warren, Wyden Urge Investigation to Determine if DOGE Employees' Committed Criminal Violations of Federal Ethics Laws | U.S. Senator Jack Reed of Rhode Island". May 29, 2025. Retrieved March 13, 2026.
  25. ^ Binder, Matt (March 13, 2026). "Former DOGE employees give an inside look at the Elon Musk-led agency". Mashable. Retrieved March 13, 2026.
  26. ^ Algemeiner, The. "DOGE Staffers Used ChatGPT to Cut Holocaust History Grants During Counter-DEI Purges: Lawsuit". Algemeiner.com. Retrieved March 13, 2026.
  27. ^ Societies, American Council of Learned. "Discovery Released in Lawsuit by Humanities Groups Reveals ChatGPT-Powered Process by DOGE in Cancelling Grants for Schools, Libraries, and Community Organizations". Retrieved March 13, 2026.
  28. ^ News, A. B. C. "2 DOGE staffers say 'no' regrets for people losing income, didn't reduce the deficit: Depositions". ABC News. Retrieved March 23, 2026. {{cite web}}: |last= has generic name (help)
  29. ^ Weiser, Benjamin; Schuessler, Jennifer (March 13, 2026). "After DOGE Deposition Videos Go Viral, Judge Orders Them Taken Down". The New York Times. Retrieved March 13, 2026.
  30. ^ Charalambous, Peter (March 23, 2026). "Judge allows release of deposition videos of 2 former DOGE staffers". ABC News. Retrieved March 24, 2026.
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