President Donald Trump‘s signature government-slashing task force has quietly collapsed – eight months before its mandate expired – despite months of boasting from Trump, Elon Musk, and top administration officials.
The Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, which once stormed federal agencies with sweeping cuts and headline-grabbing stunts, has now effectively ceased to exist.
Asked about DOGE’s status, Office of Personnel Management (OPM) Director Scott Kupor delivered the first official confirmation of its demise: ‘That doesn’t exist.’
It is no longer a ‘centralized entity,’ Kupor added, in the first public comments from the Trump administration on the end of DOGE.
The agency that was set up in January made dramatic forays across Washington in the early months of Trump’s second term to rapidly shrink federal agencies, cut their budgets or redirect their work to Trump priorities.
The OPM, the federal government’s human resources office, has since taken over many of DOGE’s functions, according to Kupor and documents reviewed by Reuters.
At least two prominent DOGE employees are now involved with the National Design Studio, a new body created through an executive order signed by Trump in August.
That body is headed by Joe Gebbia, co-founder of Airbnb, and Trump’s order directed him to beautify government websites.
Donald Trump’s signature government-slashing task force has quietly collapsed – eight months before its mandate expired – despite boasting from Trump, Elon Musk and top officials
Musk, who led DOGE initially, regularly touted its work on his X platform and at one point brandished a chainsaw to advertise his efforts to cut government jobs
Gebbia was part of billionaire Elon Musk’s DOGE team while DOGE employee Edward Coristine, nicknamed ‘Big Balls,’ encouraged followers on his X account to apply to join.
The fading away of DOGE is in sharp contrast to the government-wide effort over months to draw attention to it, with Trump, his advisers and cabinet secretaries posting about it on social media.
Musk, who led DOGE initially, regularly touted its work on his X platform and at one point brandished a chainsaw to advertise his efforts to cut government jobs.
‘This is the chainsaw for bureaucracy,’ Musk said, holding the tool above his head at the Conservative Political Action Conference in National Harbor, Maryland, in February.
DOGE claimed to have slashed tens of billions of dollars in expenditures, but it was impossible for outside financial experts to verify that because the unit did not provide detailed public accounting of its work.
‘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,’ said White House spokeswoman Liz Huston.
Trump administration officials have not openly said that DOGE no longer exists, even after Musk’s public feud with Trump in May. Musk has since left Washington.
Trump and his team have nevertheless signaled its demise in public since this summer, even though the president signed an executive order earlier in his term decreeing that DOGE would last through July 2026.
A worker removes the US Agency for International Development (USAID) sign on their headquarters in February in Washington, DC
United States Agency for International Development (USAID) supporters hold banners as workers retrieve their personal belongings from the USAID’s headquarters in Washington
In statements to reporters, Trump often talks about DOGE, opens new tab in the past tense.
Acting DOGE Administrator Amy Gleason, whose background is in healthcare tech, formally became an adviser to Health and Human Services Secretary Robert Kennedy in March, according to a court filing in addition to her role with DOGE.
Her public statements have largely focused on her HHS role.
Republican-led states, including Idaho, opens new tab and Florida, meanwhile are creating local entities similar to DOGE.
A government-wide hiring freeze – another hallmark of DOGE – is also over, Kupor said.
Trump on his first day in office barred federal agencies from bringing on new employees, with exceptions for positions his team deemed necessary to enforce immigration laws and protect public safety.
He later said DOGE representatives must approve any other exceptions, adding that agencies should hire ‘no more than one employee for every four’ that depart.
‘There is no target around reductions’ anymore, Kupor said.
By May, more than 200,000 federal workers had been laid off and roughly 75,000 had accepted buyouts.
The organization said these cuts saved billions of dollars in expenditure, but it was impossible for experts to authenticate these claims because of the lack of public accounting.
DOGE staff have also taken on other roles in the administration. Most prominent is Gebbia, whom Trump tasked with improving the ‘visual presentation’ of government websites.
Musk left the agency in May after falling out with Trump
Shortly after Trump’s election Musk said he had a mandate to ‘delete the mountain’ of government regulations
So far, his design studio has launched websites to recruit law enforcement officers to patrol Washington, DC, and advertise the president’s drug pricing program.
Zachary Terrell, part of the DOGE team given access to government health systems in the early days of Trump’s second term, is now chief technology officer at the Department of Health and Human Services.
Rachel Riley, who had the same access according to court filings, is now chief of the Office of Naval Research, according to the office’s website.
Jeremy Lewin, who helped Musk and the Trump administration dismantle the US Agency for International Development, now oversees foreign assistance at the State Department, according to the agency’s website.
Musk shortly after Trump’s election said he had a mandate to ‘delete the mountain’ of government regulations.
He made undoing government regulations and remaking the government with AI two key tenets of DOGE, in addition to eliminating federal government jobs.
The administration is still working toward slashing regulations.
The White House budget office has tasked Scott Langmack, who was DOGE’s representative at the Department of Housing and Urban Development, with creating custom AI applications to pore through US regulations and determine which ones to eliminate, according to his LinkedIn profile.
Musk, meanwhile, has reappeared in Washington. Last week, he attended a White House dinner for Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
