‘That doesn’t exist’: Trump’s DOGE, earlier led by Elon Musk, reportedly disbanded ahead of schedule

The department to slash the federal government’s size was created by an executive order signed by President Trump on his first day in office after returning to the White House and the statement by the personnel management director confirmed the longstanding suspicions that DOGE was on its way out.

Tech billionaire Elon Musk and former Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy were tapped by the administration to lead DOGE and it was expected that the agency would drive “large scale structural reform” through July 2026.

In February, Musk had said, “We are actually trying to be as transparent as possible. I don’t know of a case where an organization has been more transparent than the Doge organization,” but refused to acknowledge that DOGE agents refused to identify themselves in several cases.

DOGE made extensive forays into several departments across Washington in the first few months of Trump’s second term and triggered a swift shrink in federal agencies, slashed their budgets and even redirected their work to Trump priorities. Many of DOGE’s functions have since been taken over by Office of Personnel Management, the human resource department of the federal government.

However, Trump administration officials have refrained from publicly stating that DOGE doesn’t exist anymore, even after Musk’s public feud with Trump in May. Musk left Washington since his feud with Trump.

(with inputs from Reuters)