The Department of Government Efficiency

Piece by Ryan Spacek

Photo: WGBH

On his first day in office, President Donald Trump signed an executive order turning the United States Digital Service (a federal technology department created by Obama) into the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). This transformation consists of broadening the department’s scope, focusing on not just government technology but also government spending and the workforce. This department is led by Elon Musk, who is currently the world’s richest man and a major Trump ally. Vivek Ramaswamy, one of the Republican presidential candidates last year, was supposed to lead the department with Musk, but he left DOGE as he is now planning to run for governor of Ohio. 

What will it do?

When Trump announced the idea of DOGE, he said it would “provide advice and guidance from outside the government”. However, making it a government office defeats the purpose. When the Department was created, Musk and Ramaswamy jointly announced the cutting of billions of dollars from the federal budget and a streamlining of the government bureaucracy to make domestic affairs more efficient. Other than that, the public knows very little about what this new department will actually do because Trump, Musk, and other people involved have not made statements regarding its purpose (other than a few of Musk’s posts on X regarding cost cuts). All we know is that it is meant to “implement the President’s DOGE agenda… to maximize governmental efficiency and productivity”, per the executive order.

Elon Musk’s Role

Elon Musk has a lot to do with the creation of DOGE and many of the ideas brought forward by the Trump administration. Musk is unable to actually run for office because he was born in South Africa and is therefore not a natural-born citizen. Musk has been designated by Trump as a “special government employee”, which means that he is employed by the federal government for an unspecified amount of time. However, despite his government position being considerably lower than Trump’s, Musk seems to be calling a lot of the shots. After acquiring X (formerly Twitter) in 2022, Musk gained a lot of control over certain aspects of the media. In fact, Musk’s account @DOGE on the platform is the main way information is getting out about the new department. The account is mainly full of posts about the DOGE cost-cutting measures and posts promoting the Trump agenda, including a recent post about renaming the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America. 

The internet is the main channel used by Musk to spread the popularity of DOGE. Even the name DOGE itself was picked for that reason. Before the Department was created, doge was a popular internet meme featuring a Shiba Inu dog which inspired a meme cryptocurrency (or “memecoin”) that was promoted by Musk himself. Memes have actually been a large part of Musk and DOGE’s awareness campaign to appeal to the wider internet audience. The DOGE website itself has cycled through multiple memes behind the caption “Department of Government Efficiency - The People Voted for Major Reform”. This focus on memes is noted as positive change and a form of social modernization by supporters and called juvenile and frivolous by detractors.

What has it done already?

According to Musk’s posts on @DOGE, the new department has terminated hundreds of contracts, “saving” billions of dollars of government money. Most of these contracts were related to climate change, DEI (Diversity, Equity, Inclusion programs), or media funding. Most of these changes are controversial both inside and outside of government, bringing up a major question of whether the money gained by cutting government programs is worth the effects of not having said programs. It is still unclear what effects the DOGE cost-cutting methods will have on the future of the USA and the world. With less checks and balances on DOGE because Musk is not technically in government, he is essentially free to do whatever he wants as a private citizen. It is clear, however, that Elon Musk is rapidly gaining power within the government, for better or worse.