Over the weekend, Reuters reported that the Trump administration’s Department of Government Efficiency, which was once helmed by billionaire Elon Musk before he flamed out with Trump in May, is no more.
Office of Personnel Management director Scott Kupor told Reuters that DOGE “doesn’t exist,” adding that it’s no longer a “centralized entity.”
Adding to the drama, three days before Reuters published its story, Politico reported that “former and current DOGE employees” — it’s unclear what their exact job titles are or were — fear that they’re at risk of prosecution, now that Musk has fallen out of favor with Trump and left the government.
Staffers have “lived with the ever-present threat of backlash — public scrutiny, upset Cabinet officials, even the prospect that someone might assert criminal charges against them,” Politico notes.
“Guys, seriously,” one DOGE leader warned his colleagues during an early June event that was “something akin to a wake,” per the publication. “Get your own lawyer if you need it. Elon’s great, but you need to watch your own back.”
The latest news that DOGE has been disbanded almost served as an admission that the White House was abandoning Musk’s frequently revised promises of excising trillions of dollars from the federal budget. That’s despite Kupor later tweeting that the “principles of DOGE remain alive and well: deregulation; eliminating fraud, waste and abuse; re-shaping the federal workforce; making efficiency a first-class citizen; etc.”
DOGE leaves a trail of chaos and tragedy behind. With the help of a ragtag band of teenagers and other underqualified lackeys who were tasked with doing the dirty work, Musk took a figurative — and in some ways, literal — chainsaw to federal government agencies.
While it remains murky whether the group’s agents could face criminal charges for their actions, their unorthodox methods have been heavily criticized. DOGE operatives accessed highly sensitive personal information earlier this year, raising the alarm bells among lawmakers. Some did so even before completing their background checks and being granted access.
At the height of its destructive influence in Washington, DC, DOGE laid waste to USAID, an international development agency that typically spends tens of billions of dollars on aid across the world. Officials warned at the time that shutting USAID was poised to kill “thousands, if not hundreds of thousands.”
Amid ongoing backlash, much of which was squarely aimed at Musk and his businesses, DOGE’s political influence started to wane. In March, a physical altercation between treasury secretary Scott Bessent and Musk signaled a major turning point, as the Trump administration started to push out the billionaire’s allies.
Musk officially left his post, showing up with a literal black eye at his goodbye party in the Oval Office on May 27.
During a major internal struggle over the direction of DOGE that followed, dozens of employees left, as Politico reports. Some were pushed out, while others were disillusioned and left on their own accord. According to a White House shutdown plan, 45 DOGE employees remained as of October.
While some current staffers fear for their future job prospects, it’s unclear whether current or former DOGE operatives will ever be held to account, let alone prosecuted.
And the ghost of DOGE’s past lingers on in Washington, DC. Office of Management and Budget director Russell Vought has continued where Musk left off, using the recent government shutdown as an opportunity to further pull funding for approved programs, per Politico.
Musk even got an invite to a formal White House dinner with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman this month, indicating he may have buried the hatchet with Trump.
Current and former DOGE members also reunited in Austin over the weekend to discuss the future of the group, according to Politico — so it’s possible that this isn’t the last we’ve heard of this particular cursed era of American history.
More on DOGE: This DOGE Operative Got a Huge Surprise Once He Was Actually Inside the Government
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