The Department of Government Efficiency, also called DOGE, has been shut down even though it still had eight months left in its original plan. This department was launched with a lot of excitement earlier this year. It was supposed to help cut costs, shrink federal agencies and make the government run faster and cheaper. It was also promoted as an important part of President Donald Trump’s promise to trim the size of the government.
But the department’s actual work was hard to measure. There were no clear reports or public details to show what it had really achieved. Now the Office of Personnel Management, or OPM, has taken over most of what DOGE was supposed to do.
Scott Kupor, who leads OPM, confirmed that DOGE is gone. When asked about it, he simply said, “That doesn’t exist.” He added that it is no longer a centralised unit. This was the first open confirmation from the administration that DOGE has been dissolved.
DOGE started in January and immediately began trying to cut budgets, reduce staff and align government agencies with Trump’s goals. With the shutdown of DOGE, OPM is now reorganizing those responsibilities. Documents seen by Reuters show that many tasks have already been moved around among different government agencies.
Two former DOGE workers have now joined a new group called the National Design Studio. This team was created by an executive order and is led by Joe Gebbia, one of the co-founders of Airbnb. The studio’s goal is to make government websites look better and work better. Gebbia had earlier worked with Elon Musk when DOGE was first created.
The end of DOGE is surprising because the department had received huge attention when it first started. Trump, his advisers and cabinet members spoke about it often on social media. Elon Musk, who played a big role in starting DOGE, once called it “the chainsaw for bureaucracy” during a political event while holding an actual chainsaw.
Even though DOGE is gone, the administration says the effort to reduce government rules is still going on. Scott Langmack, who represented DOGE at the housing department, is now working on new artificial intelligence tools to examine federal regulations.
Many former DOGE members are now in major roles in other government departments. Zachary Terrell is now the chief technology officer at Health and Human Services. Rachel Riley is leading the Office of Naval Research. Jeremy Lewin, who worked on restructuring USAID, is now in charge of foreign assistance at the State Department.
The White House says it is still focused on making the government more efficient. A spokesperson said that Trump was clearly instructed by voters to reduce waste, fraud and abuse in the government and that he is continuing to work on that. Musk had earlier described his approach by saying he had a mission to “delete the mountain” of government regulations.
