Elon Musk and Donald Trump fell out in the summer. (archive image)
Evan Vucci/AP/dpa
The US government has surprisingly ended the government streamlining agency led by Elon Musk. The project had caused massive political tensions, staff cuts and international criticism since the start of President Donald Trump’s second term.
The US government has quietly and without public announcement ended the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) – the cost-cutting project that President Donald Trump declared to be the central driver of his government reforms at the beginning of 2025. This was reported by the news agency Reuters, citing statements by Scott Kupor, Director of the US Office of Personnel Management (OPM).
Kupor told Reuters that DOGE “no longer exists as an independent agency”. Most of the functions had been integrated into other government agencies. He later qualified the account on X, but did not dispute any facts. Instead, he emphasized that the basic principles of the project – less bureaucracy, more efficiency – would be continued.
The project had attracted attention from the outset: entrepreneur Elon Musk, appointed by Trump as a “special advisor”, had masses of civil servants laid off, programs cut and entire authorities restructured. His goal: to reduce the budget deficit by one trillion dollars by the end of September 2025.
According to media reports at the time, however, Musk clearly failed to achieve this goal. While DOGE talks about savings of 214 billion dollars on its website, several audit reports have shown that some of these sums are inflated or mathematically questionable.
DOGE’s interventions had far-reaching consequences
The interventions had far-reaching consequences both at home and abroad. The de facto closure of the development agency USAID in the summer of 2025 was particularly serious. An internal memo warned of hundreds of thousands of additional deaths worldwide – for example due to the discontinuation of malaria programs, vaccination campaigns or HIV treatments. An estimate by epidemiologist Brooke Nichols from Boston University already puts the potential impact at over 600,000 deaths.
Musk’s guidelines also caused a traffic jam at home: staff cuts at the Social Security Administration (SSA) led to massive delays in pension and disability applications.
Musk was only in office for 130 days as an external government employee. His mandate expired at the end of May. Shortly before this, the relationship with President Trump publicly broke down: Musk’s demand for a single large budgetbill(“One Big Beautiful Bill”) met with resistance in the White House.
DOGE tasks are to be “institutionalized”
After his departure, numerous DOGE executives also left the service. Some moved to newly founded Trump projects such as the “National Design Studio”, others to government departments.
According to Kupor, some of the most drastic DOGE measures – including the nationwide hiring freeze – have since been lifted. However, the most important elements would be transferred to regular government departments and “institutionalized”.
The White House declined to comment further to Reuters.
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