When Donald Trump launched DOGE in January, Elon Musk’s team appeared to want to reshape government by force, by squeezing budgets, merging services, and expanding the list of agencies required to review their mission. These ambitions no longer have anything to do with today’s reality: according to Jason Kupor, system personnel director, DOGE “no longer exists” as a centralized structure.
The contrast is stark to the first months of the program, where Trump, his advisers and several ministers stepped up online messaging to promote DOGE. Musk, then a prominent figure, regularly used his platform to glorify his work, even going so far as to brandish a chainsaw at the conservative conference CPAC, explaining that it symbolized the fight against bureaucracy. DOGE claims to have saved tens of billions of dollars, a figure that can never be verified by outside specialists due to the lack of a detailed balance sheet.
However, in the White House, we continue to ensure that the promise to reduce “waste, fraud and abuse” remains at the heart of the president’s actions. But on the ground, several signals have been indicating for several weeks that DOGE is on the verge of extinction, despite a decree signed earlier in the mandate regulating its survival until the summer of 2026.
Trump never announced the end of DOGE
Trump never officially announced the end of the entity, although he briefly broke with Musk last spring, but he now considers it a passing phase. The massive federal hiring freeze, a key DOGE marker, has also been lifted. Kupor detailed that there is no longer a layoff quota, contrary to initial instructions which only required the recruitment of one agent for every four departures.
Many former DOGE members have gained strategic positions in the federal apparatus. Joe Gebbia, co-founder of Airbnb, now heads the National Design Studio, a structure created by decree in August and responsible for improving the appearance of government sites. Two former DOGE employees joined him. Other figures have also moved into key responsibilities: Zachary Terrell now serves as director of technology at the Department of Health, Rachel Riley heads the Office of Naval Research, and Jeremy Lewin oversees foreign aid at the State Department, according to the official website.
At the same time, the government continues to take several measures to reduce spending. The White House has entrusted Scott Langmack, a former DOGE representative at the Department of Housing, with the development of an artificial intelligence tool intended to analyze regulations and identify which ones should be removed.
