DOGE Is, Well, Dead. Officially
Photo: ANI
WASHINGTON, DC – The notorious DOGE is no more. It is dead.
President Donald Trump’s once-celebrated Department of Government Efficiency, unveiled with spectacle and Silicon Valley star power, has quietly dissolved several months before its mandate was set to expire. The abrupt end marks a retreat from one of Trump’s most theatrical promises: to shrink Washington’s bureaucracy with the speed and ferocity of a start-up.
“That doesn’t exist,” Office of Personnel Management Director Scott Kupor told Reuters when asked about DOGE’s status. With that blunt assessment, the administration’s silence on the unit’s fate snapped into focus.
Launched in January as a centerpiece of Trump’s second-term agenda, DOGE stormed into federal agencies with mission statements that mixed tech-era bravado and Trump-era politics. Staff arrived with orders to pare back budgets, eliminate programs, or realign them with the president’s priorities. For a time, it was among the most visible and controversial initiatives in Washington. People lost jobs as everyone looked askance at a job that needed to be done but was being done with brutality.
DOGE’s swagger came largely from its leadership. Elon Musk, who spearheaded the department in its early months, used his X platform to broadcast its work and once wielded a chainsaw as a metaphor for cutting government jobs.
Despite DOGE’s claims that it slashed tens of billions in government spending, the unit never produced detailed public records to substantiate the savings. Outside financial analysts at their most charitable have repeatedly said the numbers could not be verified while some others have bluntly stated that it made no major difference.
In fact, Trump officials have also lifted the freeze on hiring. Those that have been fired…many have returned.
The department’s fade-out began after Musk’s public feud with Trump in May, followed by Musk’s departure from Washington.
DOGE’s legacy has nonetheless reverberated beyond Washington. Several states, including Florida and Idaho, are pursuing DOGE-style units of their own, hoping to replicate the model of aggressive government streamlining, with or without the chainsaws and the social-media theatrics.
