DOGE Disbands Months Early In Quiet End For Controversial Agency

By Chris Spiker From Daily Voice

The Department of Government Efficiency has quietly shut down, ending billionaire Elon Musk's controversial organization that laid off hundreds of thousands of federal workers.

Reuters first reported the end of DOGE on Sunday, Nov. 23. The organization that was never approved by Congress was launched in January as part of President Donald Trump's efforts to gut federal agencies.

The office dissolved eight months before Trump originally said it would end in July 2026, leaving its remaining duties to the US Office of Personnel Management.

"That doesn't exist," OPM director Scott Kupor told Reuters when asked about DOGE's status.

Kupor said that DOGE's government-wide hiring freeze has also ended.

"There is no target around reductions," he said.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk and President Donald Trump during a White House meeting on May 30, 2025.

Wikimedia Commons - The White House

Kupor posted on social media after Reuters' report.

"DOGE may not have centralized leadership under [the US DOGE Service]," he wrote. "But, the principles of DOGE remain alive and well: de-regulation; eliminating fraud, waste and abuse; re-shaping the federal workforce; making efficiency a first-class citizen; etc. DOGE catalyzed these changes; the agencies along with [OPM] and [the White House Office of Management and Budget] will institutionalize them!"

DOGE made sweeping cuts during the early months of Trump's second term to restructure or virtually eliminate agencies. The moves sparked widespread backlash against Musk, who was DOGE's de facto leader until the end of his contract in late May.

Musk heavily promoted DOGE during its peak, once raising a chainsaw over his head at the Conservative Political Action Conference and declaring, "This is the chainsaw for bureaucracy." Tesla, whose CEO is Musk, has seen cratering sales and massive protests due to DOGE's cuts, along with Musk's advocacy for far-right causes.

"Tesla Takedown" protesters demonstrate in Minneapolis as a Tesla car passes by them.

Wikimedia Commons - Chad Davis

DOGE claimed to cut tens of billions in federal spending, well short of Musk's trillion-dollar promises made while campaigning for Trump in 2024. Reuters said it's impossible for outside financial experts to verify DOGE's savings claims because it didn't provide detailed public accounting of its work.

Edward Coristine, a 19-year-old who gained infamy for his "Big Balls" nickname, is among the DOGE staffers who have joined the National Design Studio, a group Trump created and run by Airbnb co-founder Joe Gebbia, who also served on DOGE. The studio has begun redesigning federal websites to fit Trump's agenda.

Even as Trump continued to refer to DOGE in the past tense, his administration avoided publicly confirming that the office had disbanded.

"President Trump was given a clear mandate to reduce waste, fraud, and abuse across the federal government, and he continues to actively deliver on that commitment," White House spokesperson Liz Huston told Reuters.

Early in 2025, Musk said that he aimed to "delete the mountain" of federal regulations, with DOGE pushing both deregulation and the use of artificial intelligence to overhaul government operations. The White House budget office has now tasked former DOGE representative Scott Langmack with using AI tools to identify regulations to eliminate, according to his LinkedIn page.

At least 26 states have created their own versions of DOGE, according to the Economic Policy Institute.