We still don’t really know what Elon Musk’s Doge actually did

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2025/dec/30/elon-musk-doge-impact-us-government?referring_host=Reddit&utm_campaign=guardianacct

35 comments

  1. *From The Guardian:*

    When [Elon Musk](https://www.theguardian.com/technology/elon-musk) vowed late last year to [lead](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/nov/12/trump-appoints-elon-musk-government-efficiency-department) a “department of government efficiency” (Doge), he [claimed](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/feb/11/elon-musk-trump-doge) it would operate with “maximum transparency” as it set about saving $2tn worth of waste and exposing massive fraud.

    Today, with Musk out of the White House, Doge having cut only a tiny fraction of the waste it promised, and dozens of lawsuits alleging violations of privacy and transparency laws, much of what the agency has done remains a mystery.

    The effects of Doge’s initial blitz through the federal government – which included dismantling the US Agency for International Development ([USAID](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/usaid)), embedding staffers in almost every agency and [illegally firing people en masse](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/feb/10/elon-musk-doge-agency-illegal) – are still playing out. Contrary to Musk’s promises, Doge’s success is vague and tough to quantify. Measuring the full impact and determining [whether the agency even exists](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/nov/23/trump-musk-doge-reportedly-disbanded) as a centralized entity anymore is difficult, complicated by an ongoing effort from the government to block disclosure of documents, which is itself a symptom of the chaos that the department created.

    Although the disarray and destruction left by Doge is evident across the globe, we still do not really know exactly how the agency operated and its true effects. Instead, humanitarian aid organizations are still trying to assess the extent of the damage that Doge created while [ethics watchdogs](https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2025/jan/23/elon-musk-doge-conflict-interest) have launched lawsuits trying to compel more transparency out of the government.

    [*You can read the full story for free at this link.*](https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2025/dec/30/elon-musk-doge-impact-us-government?referring_host=Reddit&utm_campaign=guardianacct)

  2. It eliminated the regulatory bodies that were trying to stop him from posting lies about his companies to pump up the stock price.

  3. He validated for me that federal government jobs are impactful and efficient. Read ‘Who is Government’ by Michael Lewis; very good book regarding the importance of government jobs to our democracy and society.

  4. We know what we it did, but the media won’t explicitly say it. They just keep dropping kernels and letting people with half a brain piece it al together. This way they avoid being sued by Trump for reporting the truth.

    DOGE ransacked government agencies investigating Musk and his friends, stole the private data of every citizen, cost the taxpayers billions, eviscerated the efficiency of the government (like conservatives love to do), and allowed Musk to win future contracts to win more contracts. DOGE was the price Trump paid for Musk’s help with the election.

  5. My take is that he gathered all the data he could on citizens, companies, industries so his different companies can profit from it. And that specifically ensured he gathered data and private information on competitors.

    In the end, DOGE could very well have been a diversion attempt to get media attention focused on Musk while Project 2025 could be implemented with little to no attention.

    So Project 2025 profited from attention being on DOGE, and Musk profited from DOGE.

  6. He stole all the data.

    And he left enough backdoors in every government system to be able to pwn them whenever, at will.

    And he took truckloads of money, but that was just for shits ’n ’giggles.

  7. Stole our personal data for the purposes of making money and political retribution. At the same time, they wrecked government efficiency as much as possible.

    This isn’t complicated.

  8. yes, we do. you are too scared to say it, and the world suffers for it.

  9. Financial regulator here: we know what he did.

    Good luck out there everyone.

  10. I know one thing it did. It stole jobs from hard-working Americans and wrecked the livelihoods of people that worked their ass off every day just to appease some lunatic psychopath who gets off on hurting people.

  11. The DOGE project was almost certainly a data heist and an internal sabotage. It was an attack on the country as a whole. The immigrants that are actually harming America are the billionaire immigrants.

  13. He stole social security data, went after people who didn’t give him government grants and were suing him, eliminated a lot of our soft power outreach, created future terrorist by killing their family by starving them to death while the food rotted, fucked over farmers, made government even less efficient, put Americans out of jobs, was a Nazi, and etc.

  14. If only we had a fucking congress, you know to do a fucking congressional investigation?

  15. They stole the information they wanted, pretended to “reform” the government by firing a bunch of people they had no legal right to fire, then left.

  16. They stole everyone’s information including the government. It was a hostile move.

    Musk needs to be tried for high treason.

  19. Harvested data, fucked shit up, then closed shop. Probably installed backdoors into every system

  20. We know exactly what it did. It ended a dozen active investigations into his companies for fraud and negligence, and he stole tons of secret data, almost certainly top secret data, as well as data on every American citizen for his own profit plan. He belongs in prison more than most of the Trump administration, and that’s saying something. There has never been corruption like this in the USA in the entire history of the nation.

  22. Waste, fraud, and, abuse. That’s what they did to the American people.

  23. We know what they did, feed every single document into Grok.

  24. Except, we do.

    It was entirely a data heist and then subsequent data destruction/creation of backdoor hacks for future data heists.

    It had nothing to do with budgets whatsoever. It was entirely a ploy to cripple future Presidents from using congressionally approved agencies to their full potential.

  25. He fired people. That’s all he knows how to do. It works well in business. He’s touted as a genius who makes what is referred to as tough decisions. Such actions don’t have the same results in government.

  26. It covered up Elon’s crimes, removed competition for him and he stole contracts.

  27. Stole our data and ended investigation involving him. Now we all know.

  29. They fired four of my friends, and killed the grants funding the work and studies of several more. I know that for sure.

  30. we do know he stole all of our data and opened backdoors for himself and Russia, and shut down agencies going against him

    but yeah it’s a mystery

  31. Yes, we do. Elon sent his employees into all goverment offices where they downloaded the entirety of the available data sets, and then they took that data back to Elon so he can use it for his own personal interests and self-enrichment.

    And that’s the BEST CASE scenario.

  32. Yes, we do know. DOGE went out of it’s way to attack, and defund agencies that were actively investigating Musk or had fined Musk for violating laws. If you think it was anything more complicated than that you’re looking too hard.

  33. Killed 600,000 people and counting with the illegal destruction of USAID

  34. Defrauded American tax payers and killed a bunch of people whilst also destroying billions in jobs and taxes. Ya know a bunch of really cool fun stuff. The best part is it’s truly unquantifiable at this point. We won’t know for a decade or so how much damage he truly did.

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