Elon Musk’s notorious Department of Government Efficiency is alive and well and hiding inside a Trump administration outfit producing some of his bigger duds, according to a new Washington Post report.
DOGE allies have remained within the National Design Studio, the outfit designed by the White House to pump out government websites and “brand initiatives,” inside sources told the Post.
“Two people close to DOGE, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss private conversations, said the design outfit, led by Airbnb co-founder Joe Gebbia, serves as the spiritual successor to its work,” the Post reported Saturday.
“With about 100 people and weekly meetings focused on efforts such as TrumpRx and the design of the new food pyramid, they represent an evolution of the DOGE mission, but a significant culling of its mandate.”
The National Design Studio’s mandate mirrors that of DOGE, which promised tech upgrades that would provide better services at lower costs, the Post notes.
But just this week TrumpRX was subjected to a scathing takedown as analysts revealed it had failed in its promise to lower costs by offering fewer than 12% of the more than 800 brand-name drugs made by participating pharmaceutical companies.
“Most of these companies are doing this for a small number of products and in a limited setting,” Dr. Ben Rome, a health policy researcher, told NPR. “They’re not engaging to do this on a large scale.”
And, late last year, experts warned the National Design Studio was creating government websites that could leave gaping security holes despite their sleek appearance.
“The sites coming out of the National Design Studio might look slick at first glance — if not to everyone’s taste — but if the office’s early projects are a tell, pushing this aesthetic at a large scale could risk breaking federal disability laws and compromising the security of Americans’ personal data,” experts told NOTUS in December.
The Washington Post also reports the scaled down DOGE hasn’t been able to meet its own deadlines on the redesign of the federal retirement online portal.
“Although the young technologists had hoped to be done with the project in a few months, it took them longer than expected,” the Post reported.
Their work represents “a far cry from Musk’s chainsaw-wielding approach” with Gebbia pitching President Donald Trump on “design” and “aesthetics,” according to the report.
Outside the studio, DOGE also maintains a presence.
“There ‘are still an exceptional number that remain today and are more quietly operating behind the scenes,’ said one staffer at the Transportation Department, speaking on the condition of anonymity for fear of retribution,” the Post reported.
“At the General Services Administration, Thomas Shedd, a former Tesla engineer who at one point led Technology Transformation Services, has not left, even though he no longer appears to have any official job at the agency and is listed as a special government employee, according to a GSA employee who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak on the matter.”
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