By Tim Reid
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -U.S. President Donald Trump has regularly praised tech billionaire Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency for its role in cutting the size of the federal workforce and halting thousands of government programs and contracts.
In just three months, entire government agencies have been dismantled and hundreds of thousands of workers from the 2.3 million-strong federal workforce have been fired or have agreed to take buyouts.
Musk, the CEO of Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) and rocket company SpaceX, said on April 22 that he will soon be stepping back from DOGE, with his 130-day mandate as a special government employee set to expire at the end of May. His imminent departure raises questions about the future of DOGE, although the White House insists its work will continue.
Critics say DOGE has been given extraordinary power by Trump and that it operates with no oversight and in secret, although Musk maintains it is transparent.
WHAT IS DOGE?
DOGE was created by an executive order Trump signed on his first day in office on January 20 to "modernize federal technology and software to maximize governmental efficiency and productivity."
Despite its name, DOGE is not a government department created by an act of Congress. It is a temporary organization that took over an existing unit within the White House, the U.S. Digital Service.
Its mandate, due to expire on July 4, 2026, now far exceeds the confines of the language of the initial executive order as its staffers sweep through government departments looking for spending and staff cuts.
Musk, the world’s richest person, does not draw a government salary, the White House has said.
Facing questions from judges over who exactly is in charge of the unit, the White House named Amy Gleason, a former healthcare executive, as acting administrator.
In a court filing on March 19, Gleason said Musk does not work at DOGE. "I do not report to him, and he does not report to me. To my knowledge, he is a senior adviser to the White House," Gleason said.
However, in a speech to Congress on March 4, Trump said DOGE "is headed by Elon Musk." Musk has also appeared before Trump’s cabinet several times and at press briefings in the Oval Office to explain the work of DOGE.
The DOGE team is small, with about 79 appointed employees and 10 employees seconded from other agencies, Gleason said in her court filing.
Many of the staffers are young software engineers who are current and former employees in Musk companies. They have little to no experience inside the U.S. government.
Musk has said his goal is to find $1 trillion in savings. The federal budget is set to reach about $7 trillion this year.
WHAT IS THE FUTURE OF DOGE?
Musk is the ideological driving force behind the government overhaul. He has installed top lieutenants at key government agencies, while dispatching former engineers at Tesla and SpaceX across a swath of federal agencies to oversee deep staff cuts.
It is unclear how many will remain once Musk leaves. The billionaire has provided crucial political cover while they pursue a cost-cutting drive that has made them deeply unpopular among career staffers and triggered nationwide protests.
For now, DOGE staffers remain in place at federal agencies, often sequestered from career employees and operating in great secrecy as they access sensitive computer systems.
Cabinet secretaries will likely move to assume greater control over budgets and staffing and limit the influence of DOGE staffers once Musk leaves, two government sources with direct knowledge of the matter said.
HAS DOGE SAVED MONEY?
According to its website, the only official window into its operations, DOGE estimates it has saved U.S. taxpayers $160 billion as of April 23 through a series of actions including workforce reductions, asset sales and contract cancellations.
Yet its savings total is unverifiable and its calculations have been riddled with errors and corrections.
In the "receipts" section of its website, DOGE has repeatedly deleted some of its biggest claims to taxpayer savings. For instance, it reported one $8 billion contract that turned out to be worth only $8 million.
Musk has said DOGE will correct mistakes when it finds them.
WHAT HAS DOGE DONE?
Musk’s team has driven cuts in parts of the federal bureaucracy, hollowing out some agencies and sowing panic among much of the government workforce.
Over 260,000 federal workers have been fired, taken buyouts or retired early, according to a Reuters tally.
DOGE members have entered more than 20 government agencies, gaining access to computer systems that contain personal data of past and present federal workers and millions more Americans.
Through the Office of Personnel Management, the U.S. government’s human-resources arm, DOGE sent a buyout offer to government workers in February. About 75,000 accepted the offer, according to the White House.
A second buyout offer was sent in April. It is not known how many more government workers accepted it. More large-scale layoffs are under way at government agencies.
WHICH AGENCIES HAVE BEEN TARGETED?
The U.S. Agency for International Development, which provides a lifeline to the world’s needy, has been shuttered and thousands of its workers sent home.
Another agency, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which protects Americans from unscrupulous lenders, has also been shut down. Many CFPB employees received termination notices.
The CFPB has investigated claims about loan policies at Tesla, raising questions about conflicts of interest. DOGE has also moved into NASA, an agency where some of Musk’s companies have billions of dollars in government contracts.
Tens of thousands of workers have been targeted for dismissal at federal agencies such as the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which provides weather forecasting and climate data; the Social Security Administration, which provides benefits to retirees and the disabled; the tax-collecting Internal Revenue Service; and the Department of Veterans Affairs, which administers benefits and provides medical care for military veterans.