The White House has shut down the fledgling Department of Government Efficiency, eight months before its charter was due to expire in mid-2026. Office of Personnel Management Director Scott Kupor, who claims Reuters took his comments out of context while breaking the story, clarified his position, while confirming that the department had, in fact, been shuttered.
“Good editing by @reuters – spliced my full comments across paragraphs 2/3 to create a grabbing headline[.] The truth is: DOGE may not have centralized leadership under [U.S. DOGE Service]. 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 [the Office of Personnel Management] and [the Office of Management and Budget] will institutionalize them,” Kupor posted on X.
DOGE CLOSES EIGHT MONTHS EARLY, BUT PRINCIPLES REMAIN ‘ALIVE AND WELL’
DOGE, the brainchild of Tesla CEO and 2024 Republican megadonor Elon Musk, started off with extraordinarily lofty expectations. Musk’s stated goal was to cut $2 trillion in federal spending and upend the regulatory structure within the federal government. Obviously, this was always an extremely unlikely scenario considering the fact that the last time the U.S. federal budget was balanced was all the way back in fiscal 2001.
DOGE met resistance immediately, and in short order, it was clear that the White House and most of the Republican congressional caucus prioritized their own massive spending goals over the Musk-led department’s dreams of fiscal responsibility. President Donald Trump’s massive spending package, the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, largely ignored the recommendations of DOGE, while increasing both the deficit and national debt.
What did DOGE really accomplish? The short answer is not much. The only binding, clear-cut spending reduction codified by Congress was a rescission package that clawed back previously appropriated funds, mostly used for foreign aid and public broadcasting, that saved taxpayers roughly $8.9 billion. DOGE claims to have saved far more, publishing numbers north of $200 billion on its website, through staff reductions, cancelled contracts, and asset sales, among other measures. But these numbers are disputed, to say the least. Many of the DOGE staff reductions, for instance, were reversed due to public backlash and the predictable aversion by the White House and congressional Republicans to the hard work of real fiscal reform.
Perhaps Kupor is being honest and more will come of the now-decentralized DOGE efforts in the future. But the current makeup of Congress and the fiscal priorities of the White House make lasting change unlikely.
THE END OF DOGE PROMPTS SCRUTINY OF ITS LEGACY: ‘THE SWAMP WON’
It is notable that former DOGE engineer Jennica Pounds discovered a vast network of taxpayer funding of non-governmental organizations that often directly contradict American interests. Pounds created the website datarepublican.com, where citizens can track the taxpayer funding of these organizations, and is currently writing a book on the subject. Perhaps her work can raise awareness among both voters and legislators and could eventually help rein in this egregious, often nefarious, spending.
At the end of the day, DOGE may go down as one of the largest flops in recent political history. As of now, the department’s largest accomplishment was convincing millions of independents and libertarians who value fiscal responsibility to vote for Trump last year. I still applaud the efforts of Musk and company. We are facing over $38 trillion in debt and deficits north of $2 trillion per year, and are staring down the barrel of the collapse of multiple massive entitlement programs. Any effort to reduce waste, fraud, and abuse is commendable, but until the White House and congressional leadership get serious about tackling the fiscal mess facing our nation, any attempts to enact real reform will remain largely performative.
Brady Leonard (@bradyleonard) is a musician, political strategist, and host of The No Gimmicks Podcast.
