Elon Musk once called DOGE ‘the chainsaw for bureaucracy,’ but it has quietly ceased to exist well ahead of schedule, report says

DOGE, which was once led by Elon Musk, had previously made controversial cuts, such as its high-profile effort to slash foreign aid. By contrast, its end slipped under the radar and came with eight months still left on its charter, the report said. “That doesn’t exist,” Office of Personnel Management Director Scott Kupor told Reuters when asked about DOGE’s status, adding that it’s no longer a “centralized entity.” OPM has assumed many of DOGE’s functions, according to Kupor and documentsreviewed by Reuters. “The truth is: DOGE may not have centralized leadership under @USDS. But, the principles of DOGE remain alive and well: de-regulation; eliminating fraud, waste and abuse; re-shaping the federal workforce; making efficiency a first-class citizen; etc. DOGE catalyzed these changes; the agencies along with @USOPM and @WHOMB will institutionalize them!” he wrote on X, referring to his office and the White House budget office. In a blog post on Friday detailing federal headcount plans, he said the government hired roughly 68, 000 people this year, while 317, 000 employees left the government-outperforming Trump’s goal for four reductions for every one new hire. He added that “there are no prescribed reductions in headcount.” And rather than the number of full-time employees, the focus instead is on “great service delivery with maximum efficiency.” Meanwhile, DOGE officials have taken positions elsewhere in the federal government, such as the State Department, White House budget office, Department of Health and Human Services, and the Office of Naval Research, Reuters said. That includes Airbnb cofounder Joe Gebbia, who went from DOGE to the National Design Studio, a new office where he will help beautify government websites. Then there’s Musk, who vowed to cut spending by $2 trillion and declared in February that DOGE is “the chainsaw for bureaucracy.” After serving as one of Trump’s closest advisers, the Tesla CEO engaged in a stunning public feud with the president in June over his tax-and-spending bill. It appeared Musk would be out in the cold for good, but he has recently re-entered Trump’s orbit. In September, they appeared together at Charlie Kirk’s memorial service. And earlier this month, Musk attended a White House dinner for Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. For its part, DOGE still has a website that tallies its cost-reduction efforts and claims $214 billion in savings. But a Politico analysis of DOGE’s data this summer found that its numbers are greatly exaggerated by using the maximum spending possible under each contract as its baseline. And the Partnership for Public Service, a nonpartisan nonprofit that focuses on the federal workforce, said DOGE’s cuts also incur related costs, resulting in minimal net savings. Those costs don’t include legal expenses for fighting multiple lawsuits challenging DOGE’s cuts or the lost tax revenue from IRS staff layoffs.
https://fortune.com/2025/11/23/doge-elon-musk-federal-bureaucracy-budget-cuts-opm-headcount-staffing/

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