The Quiet Exit of Doge: What Happened?

Doge, the "department of government efficiency, " seems to have vanished without much fanfare. This happened while it still had eight months left on its contract. The group was known for making big changes in federal agencies and letting go of many workers. Scott Kupor, the head of the office of personnel management (OPM), said Doge is no longer a "centralized entity. " This news came after people had been guessing for a while that Doge was on its way out. The department was created by an executive order signed by Donald Trump on his first day in office. Tech billionaire Elon Musk and former Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy were supposed to lead the effort. They were expected to make big changes until July 24, 2026. Back in February, Musk said Doge was very transparent. But this was odd because Doge agents often did not identify themselves. They also cut agency spending without always talking to the agencies first. They did not share much about their work with the public. People started to think Doge might be gone after Politico reported in June that staffers had packed up their things at the department’s headquarters. They had been sleeping there since February. This move happened after a big online fight between Trump and Musk. Many former employees were worried about possible legal trouble because of their role in cutting government programs and jobs. By May, over 200, 000 federal workers had been laid off, and about 75, 000 had taken buyouts. Doge said these cuts saved billions, but experts could not check these claims because of the lack of public records. Trump administration officials have not said much about Doge reportedly no longer existing. But documents showed that the OPM, the federal government’s human resources office, has taken over many of Doge’s old responsibilities. Trump has also talked about Doge in the past tense, and Musk officially left Washington in May. This made people think even more that Doge was gone. Many of Doge’s key players have moved on to other jobs. Amy Gleason, the acting administrator, became an adviser to the health and human services secretary, Robert F Kennedy Jr, in March. Zachary Terrell, another senior member, is now the chief technology officer at the Department of Health. Rachel Riley has taken up the post of chief of the Office of Naval Research. One of the most notable departures was Joe Gebbia, the co-founder of Airbnb. He has since been told by Trump to make government websites look better. Since his time at Doge, Gebbia has started websites to recruit law enforcement officers to patrol Washington DC and to advertise the president’s drug pricing program.