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Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency will be dissolved eight months ahead of schedule, ending President Donald Trump’s broader efforts to reduce the size and spending of the federal government.
Office of Personnel Management (OPM) Secretary Scott Cooper said the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) “doesn’t exist” and is no longer a “centralized organization,” according to a new report from Reuters, even though President Trump, 79, signed an executive order at the beginning of his term that would end DOGE until July 2026.
DOGE took an unprecedented effort to rapidly reorganize the government by reducing federal workforces, as President Trump said DOGE’s goal was to create a “smaller government with more efficiency and less bureaucracy.”
OPM, the federal government’s human resources office, then took over many of DOGE’s functions, according to documents reviewed by Kupor and Reuters.
The outlet also reported that at least two prominent DOGE employees, including Airbnb co-founder Joe Gebbia, are currently involved in the National Design Studio, a new government agency created by President Trump in August by executive order aimed at improving government websites.
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From the start of President Trump’s second term until May, the 54-year-old Musk served as a White House adviser leading DOGE, an effort to drastically cut back on government areas the administration deemed unnecessary.
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DOGE was known as the United States Digital Service (USDS) until it was renamed during Trump’s second term administration. It was created by former President Barack Obama’s administration to “change the government’s approach to technology,” according to its official website.
The organization claimed to have cut tens of billions of dollars in spending from the federal government, but outside sources never verified that claim because DOGE did not provide detailed public accounting of its activities.
“This is a chainsaw for bureaucracy,” Musk said of DOGE in February while holding a chainsaw over his head at the Conservative Political Action Conference in National Harbor, Maryland.
“President Trump has a clear mandate to reduce waste, fraud, and abuse across the federal government, and we continue to aggressively implement that commitment,” White House press secretary Liz Houston told Reuters.
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Another feature of DOGE was its mandate to freeze and reduce government employment. On his first day in office, President Trump said he would ban federal agencies from hiring new employees, except for immigration and some public safety agencies. But Coupole told Reuters that “there are no longer any targets for reductions.”
In February, more than 20 civil servants resigned from DOGE in a joint resignation letter obtained by PEOPLE, refusing to use their technical expertise to “dismantle critical public services.”
Twenty-one employees, including engineers, data scientists, designers, and product managers, submitted their resignations to White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles.
“We do not intend to use our skills as engineers to compromise core government systems, compromise Americans’ sensitive data, or dismantle critical public services,” they wrote. “We do not intend to lend our expertise to implement or justify DOGE’s actions.”
On May 28, Musk announced on XPost that he was stepping away from his government role as DOGE’s top advisor.
“As my term as a special public servant comes to a close, I want to thank President @realDonaldTrump for the opportunity to cut wasteful spending,” he wrote at the time. “@DOGE’s mission will only strengthen over time as it becomes a way of life across government.”
Musk’s resignation came a day after he criticized Trump’s budget agenda, describing him as “disappointed” in Trump’s “big, beautiful bill.”
The bill, passed by the House of Representatives on May 22, pays for some of the tax cuts and military spending by cutting some federal health and energy programs. But the national deficit was poised to rise by an estimated $3.8 trillion, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office.
Musk has since reappeared in Washington, D.C. Earlier this week, Musk attended a White House dinner with Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman along with Trump. The two also attended a memorial service for right-wing activist Charlie Kirk on September 21st.
