When Donald Trump took office, he established the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) and subsequently appointed Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy to lead the new agency.
Ramaswamy bowed out almost immediately, and Musk left several months later, a move that coincided with a significant rift between him and Trump.
Now, DOGE has been dissolved, despite months still remaining in its mandate.
The idea of DOGE was not a new concept, as similar entities have also been proposed by several of Trump's predecessors in the White House.
While other presidents toyed with the idea, Trump made it a reality with an executive order issued on his first day in office.
The order, in part, stated that DOGE’s purpose was: “This Executive Order establishes the Department of Government Efficiency to implement the President’s DOGE Agenda, by modernizing Federal technology and software to maximize governmental efficiency and productivity.”
We all loved the idea, but it just did not work out as everyone had hoped.
DOGE came out firing, exposing all kinds of waste and fraud in the government, but not much was being done about it.
Some of the efforts at reform were blocked by Democrats, and other issues that could have been addressed via spending bills were largely ignored. For instance, billions are still going out to universities that already have massive endowments.
After Musk left, he stated, “I was disappointed to see the massive spending bill, frankly, which increases the budget deficit, not just decreases it, and undermines the work that the DOGE team is doing.”
He was referring to the big, beautiful bill, on which many conservative fiscal hawks also voiced strong disagreement.
Office of Personnel Management (OPM) Director Scott Kupor has confirmed that DOGE no longer exists as a “centralized entity.”
In Trump’s initial declaration, he had approved DOGE to operate through July 2026, so many were stunned to hear that the agency had already been dissolved with comparatively little show for its efforts.
DOGE claimed that it slashed “tens of billions” in expenditures, but we were told initially that upwards of $2 trillion would be cut.
I find it very unsatisfying that I was right about DOGE from the outset. While I had initially applauded the idea, I also know all too well how the government works. To that point, I stated that I would be surprised if DOGE slashes any more than $500 billion from spending. As it turns out, even that was high. Honestly, I would not be surprised to eventually learn that DOGE ended up costing more to operate than it ultimately saved taxpayers. It was nothing more than a high-priced political stunt that epically failed.
