The Trump administration’s high-profile Department of Government Efficiency, known as DOGE, has quietly dissolved with eight months remaining on its original mandate, federal officials confirmed Monday.
Office of Personnel Management Director Scott Kupor told Reuters earlier this month that the once-touted initiative no longer exists as a centralized entity.
"That doesn’t exist,”"Kupor said when asked about DOGE’s current status. "It is no longer a centralized entity."
Kupor said the Office of Personnel Management has absorbed many of DOGE’s core functions.
The unit, launched in January with Elon Musk at the helm, had been tasked with slashing federal spending, shrinking agencies and eliminating jobs under an executive order that set a July 2026 expiration.
DOGE’s demise marks a stark contrast to its splashy debut.
Musk famously brandished a chainsaw at the Conservative Political Action Conference in February, declaring, "This is the chainsaw for bureaucracy," as he vowed to cut government waste.
The initiative claimed tens of billions in savings, but independent experts could not verify the figures because DOGE never released detailed public accounting.
White House spokeswoman Liz Huston defended the president’s record.
"President Trump was given a clear mandate to reduce waste, fraud and abuse across the federal government, and he continues to actively deliver on that commitment,” Huston told Reuters.
Key DOGE personnel have scattered across the administration.
Airbnb co-founder Joe Gebbia now leads the new National Design Studio, created by Trump executive order to overhaul government websites.
Former DOGE staffers Zachary Terrell and Rachel Riley hold top technology posts at Health and Human Services and the Office of Naval Research, respectively.
Jeremy Lewin, who helped dismantle the U.S. Agency for International Development, now oversees foreign assistance at the State Department.
The government-wide hiring freeze Trump imposed on his first day in office has also ended.
"There is no target around reductions anymore," Kupor said.
Musk departed the administration in May after a public feud with Trump and has since returned to Washington only for social events, including last week’s White House dinner for Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
Bottom line: the Department of Government Efficiency, once billed as the centerpiece of President Trump’s drive to shrink Washington, is no more — its mission folded into existing agencies with little public explanation eight months before its charter was set to expire.
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