Tech billionaire Elon Musk is throwing cold water on a new report that the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) has been officially dissolved with eight months left on its charter.
Reuters reported Sunday that the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) has taken over many of the agency’s functions, months after Musk, who spearheaded it as a special government employee, had to step down from the initiative under the terms his contract.
Scott Kupor, the director of OPM, later clarified in a post on X that while DOGE “may not have centralized leadership,” he maintained that “the principles of DOGE remain alive and well.” Kupor added that his department and the Office of Management and Budget will institutionalize changes proposed by DOGE in carrying on its legacy.
Musk — who had regularly posted about the work of DOGE on social media, even once holding up a chainsaw to tout his cuts to the federal government — is now speaking out about DOGE’s apparent demise.
“Reuters lies relentlessly,” Musk posted on X Tuesday.
Musk was responding to a similar claim from the official account for DOGE, which called the report “fake news.”
“President Trump was given a mandate by the American people to modernize the federal government and reduce waste, fraud and abuse,” the agency wrote in a post on Monday. “Just last week, DOGE terminated 78 wasteful contracts and saved taxpayers $335M.”
“We’ll be back in a few days with our regularly scheduled Friday update,” the account added.
In January, Trump established DOGE through an executive order in an effort to “maximize governmental efficiency and productivity” and “bring accountability and transparency to federal spending” in the shrinking of the size of the government and spending. Ahead of its creation, Musk claimed the department could trim at least $2 trillion from the federal budget, but moved the target closer to $1 trillion ahead of the president’s inauguration in January.
According to DOGE’s website, the agency had since secured an estimated $214 billion in savings as of Oct. 4. The number is the result of the termination of 13,440 contracts, 15,887 grants and 264 leases, though the estimates have fluctuated over time.
According to a letter from Kupor last Friday, the government has also hired around 68,000 employees this year, while approximately 317,000 people departed.
The mission of DOGE became a flashpoint in the recent bitter feud between Musk and Trump, with the Tesla CEO claiming the president’s “big, beautiful bill,” passed earlier this summer, did not align with DOGE.
“I was disappointed to see the massive spending bill, frankly, which increases the budget deficit, not just decreases it, and undermines the work that the DOGE team is doing,” Musk said during an interview with CBS Sunday Morning in May.
He added: “I think a bill can be big or it can be beautiful, but I don’t know if it can be both. My personal opinion.”
Musk quietly appeared at the White House last week, with Trump referencing the world’s richest man several times during a speech at the U.S.-Saudi Investment Forum.
“You’re so lucky I’m with you Elon,” Trump said at one point. “I’ll tell you. You are — has he ever thanked me properly?”