Doge has been Doge’d. Elon Musk’s once fearsome US Department of Government Efficiency (Doge) has been shut down eight months before its contract officially ends in July 2026. What was supposed to be an organisation that exploded traditional ways of running the federal government has turned into a damp squib.
Doge was established by President Trump on the first day of his second term in office. Headed by Tesla chief Musk and entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy (who resigned early on to run for governor of Ohio), it struck the kind of fear into government bureaucrats that a visit from the Red Guards might instill during Mao’s Cultural Revolution. Musk’s minions rampaged through government offices, whether it was the US Institute of Peace or the Wilson Center. The idea was that the bastions of the liberal establishment would not simply be purged but permanently abolished.
The Trump administration is trying to put the best face possible on its dissolution
Now, Musk’s efficiency office has been disbanded. ‘That doesn’t exist’ as a ‘centralised entity’, Office of Personnel Management Director Scott Kupor stated over the weekend. Hasta la vista, in other words. After Musk torched, or appeared to torch, his relationship with Trump in May, Doge began to sputter. The Trump administration is trying to put the best face possible on its dissolution. On social media Kupor declared, ‘Doge may not have centralised leadership under @USDS,’ Kupor said, in a reference the The United States Digital Service:
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.
Yeah, right. The truth is that a government-wide freeze on hiring is over and the federal deficit has reached a record $38 trillion (£29 trillion) in the past month. The Congressional Budget Office estimates that Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill will add over $3 trillion (£2.3 trillion) to the deficit and that the deficit for this fiscal year will run to $1.8 trillion (£1.4 trillion). The only mitigating factor has been a de facto tax hike by Trump, who has imposed punitive tariffs.
If the debt remains, so does the insalubrious legacy of Doge. One is the agencies that it either denuded or shuttered during its brief but chaotic existence. Take the Kennan Institute, which was formerly housed in the Wilson Center on the Washington Mall. I recently visited its new headquarters on K Street – a one-room office. The institute will make a comeback, but closing down the Wilson Center was symbolic of Doge’s march of folly through Washington.
Another inadvertent legacy of Doge is actually diametrically opposed to its mandate – the expansion of big government in the form of National Guard troops stationed in a variety of American cities. When Doge staffer Edward ‘Big Balls’ Corisine was attacked by ten juveniles near Dupont Circle in Washington, DC in early August, Trump responded by stationing the National Guard in Washington and other cities. But this initiative, too, appears to be ebbing as Trump refrains from sending in troops to New York City and a federal judge blocks his deployment of the National Guard in Washington.
As he focuses on becoming the world’s first trillionaire, Musk, who attended the White House dinner for Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman last week, appears to have put the entire episode in the rearview mirror. Once upon a time he called himself the President’s ‘First Buddy’. Then came the feud with Trump. Now the reconciliation?
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