Elon Musk might try to take credit, but in fact it was Arkansas Gov. Sarah Sanders who came up with that whole DOGE thing.
At least, that’s what a confusing executive order the governor’s office sent out this morning appears to be saying.
The announcement isn’t particularly gripping. It’s about a plan to consolidate information technology under the state’s Department of Transformation and Shared Services as part of Arkansas Forward, Sanders’ government efficiency initiative. The order will centralize IT administration, move duties around and change some department names in order to “modernize and enhance efficiency, security and oversight of statewide information technology services,” it says.
You can read the nuts and bolts of it here. But it’s the indirect claim that Sanders blazed a trail for Musk that caught our eye. This contention comes in the second of the executive order’s seven whereases:
WHEREAS: I initiated the Arkansas Forward project in January of 2024 to find efficiencies and savings across state government—a process that has been replicated in large part by President Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency;
The assertion that the Trump administration is following her lead is an audacious one, but Sanders has never been shy about staking a claim to national relevance. Recall her stunts sending Arkansas National Guard troops to the southern border or her recent insistence that Arkansas is “the vanguard of the national conservative revolution.”
And she and Musk have some things in common. Like DOGE, which is often criticized for its dishonesty and lack of transparency, Sanders is well-practiced at dodging public accountability and exaggerating her own accomplishments.