DOGE Has Officially Been DOGE’d — Trump Administration Confirms Department No Longer Exists
(photo credit: Evan Vucci for AP)
DOGE is done.
The Department of Government Efficiency, which aimed to cut federal bloat and was spearheaded by Tesla boss Elon Musk during his time at the White House, has been closed down by President Donald Trump’s administration, according to a Reuters report on Sunday.
“That doesn’t exist,” office of personnel management (OPM) director Scott Kupor told the outlet earlier this month, when he was asked about DOGE.
Kupor added DOGE was no longer a “centralized entity” — it’s more of an idea now.
DOGE’s scrapping comes after it was started on President Trump’s first day back in Washington, D.C. earlier this year. The department’s goal, Musk said, was to significantly reduce the “tyranny of the bureaucracy” by eliminating a massive amount of government spending.
Musk said DOGE was looking to cut $1 trillion to $2 trillion in annual spending; ultimately the department cut around $150 billion by the time he exited in late May. His efforts with DOGE — as well as his teaming up with Trump — led to a number of incidents where Tesla cars were attacked and damaged.
Tesla’s stock price also took a huge hit earlier this year, dropping from $379 per share to start 2025 to $225 per share by mid-March; the company’s stock has rebounded since then, trading around $391 per share.
The man behind X and SpaceX seemed to leave the Trump Administration on good terms, with the president commending his efforts as he gave him a gold key to the White House.
“Elon gave an incredible service,” Trump said during his farewell to Musk. “[There’s] Nobody like him, and he had to go through the slings and arrows, which is a shame, because he’s an incredible patriot.”
Their relationship went sideways soon after, when Musk accused Trump of withholding files on dead sex criminal Jeffrey Epstein because it would make the president look bad.
They appear to have patched things up recently, though; the pair were seen talking at Charlie Kirk’s memorial service in September, and Musk joined Trump and other business leaders and celebrities at the White House for an event honoring Saudi leader Mohammed bin Salman last week.
Still, DOGE is toast — about eight months before its planned termination date of July 4, 2026.
