US President Donald Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) has disbanded with eight months left to its mandate, ending an initiative launched with fanfare as a symbol of Trump’s pledge to slash the government’s size, but which critics say delivered few measurable savings.
“That doesn’t exist,” Office of Personnel Management director Scott Kupor told Reuters this month when asked about DOGE’s status.
Elon Musk in March spruiking his position as head of the Department of Government Efficiency.Credit: AP
The department was no longer a “centralised entity”, Kupor added, in the first public comments from the Trump administration on the end of DOGE.
The agency, 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, a co-founder of Airbnb, and Trump’s order directed him to beautify government websites. Gebbia was part of billionaire Elon Musk’s DOGE team.
The decline 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.