As billionaire Elon Musk leads the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) that’s cutting federal funding to nonprofit organizations, international development and other agencies, he’s seemed to heed a Utah software engineer’s recommendations.
Jennica Pounds, who until recently was posting anonymously on social media platform X as @DataRepublican, has garnered attention from him and other political officials, as reported by Rolling Stone.
She also co-owns Spirits of the Wasatch Distillery in Salt Lake City with her husband, a former officer for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, as reported in a Feb. 15 article by Utah Stories that profiles the business. As of Friday, the “Our Story” webpage on the distillery’s website appeared to have been removed.
According to Rolling Stone, the software engineer, who is deaf, shared her identity publicly on Feb. 25 after a Facebook user said he identified her through the Deaf community.
The Rolling Stone piece points out how, on X, Musk has frequently quoted the @DataRepublican account and encouraged people to follow it. In one instance, the piece points out, Pounds said she found “a quick billion” in federal spending DOGE could slash, and Musk responded, “noted.”
The suggested cut, the piece states, was of funds headed to organizations such as Global Refuge, a nonprofit that works to help immigrants and refugees in or headed to the U.S. get settled once here.
A few days later, Musk said DOGE was “rapidly shutting down” payments to Global Refuge, according to Rolling Stone.
The Rolling Stone piece notes the large amount of attention she’s garnered from news networks, podcasters and elected politicians; it identified Vice President J.D. Vance among her followers, and Utah Sen. Mike Lee, who is especially active on X, has reposted content from her account several times, calling her “inspiring.”
But despite her popularity, and the praise she’s received for the data she’s shared, the Rolling Stone article said some of the information she’s offered has led to false conclusions.
In one instance, the piece pointed out how Pounds’ website, which allows people to search for financial information about charities and the officers of nongovernmental organizations — DataRepublican.com — seems to have led people to think that U.S. Agency for International Development dollars were paid to Jeffrey Epstein, the financier accused of child sex crimes. In reality, the data pointed to a different person with a shared name.
Before apparently resigning from her position last month to focus on DOGE, the Rolling Stone piece says Pounds had been in a senior-level role since 2023 at Upstart, a lending company that uses artificial intelligence and has ties to right-wing billionaire Peter Thiel. Upstart has reportedly run into issues regarding regulations with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which has been a target of DOGE’s cost-cutting efforts.
Her former employer wasn’t involved in her work as DataRepublican, Pounds told Rolling Stone.
When The Salt Lake Tribune reached out for comment this week, Pounds’ “media and security” representative said she has “had to discontinue all media interviews for the immediate future.”
An email sent to Spirits of the Wasatch Distillery was answered by Brent Pounds, who is Jennica’s husband according to the Utah Stories article.
“Jennica’s activities as DataRepublican (small r) have no connection with the distillery or our staff,” he said, referring to DataRepublican’s account by its full display name.
He added that he forwarded other “questions to her and she will hopefully be able to respond soon, but is currently out of town.”
— Tribune staff writer Shannon Sollitt contributed to this report.
