# Department of Government Efficiency

The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) is an initiative of the second Donald Trump administration in the United States. It was established on January 20, 2025, by an executive order which renamed the U.S. Digital Service (USDS) the U.S. DOGE Service (USDS) and created the U.S. DOGE Service Temporary Organization (USDSTO) within USDS. DOGE's stated goal is "modernizing federal technology and software to maximize governmental efficiency and productivity". Its actions have included organizing mass layoffs of federal workers, accessing data from multiple federal agencies, and terminating funding related to: diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) and climate change initiatives; foreign aid; consumer financial protection; and scientific research.
DOGE emerged from discussions between Donald Trump and Elon Musk, who was later appointed a senior advisor to the president and assumed the role of the initiative's de facto leader. Trump has publicly said that Musk is the head of DOGE, in conflict with White House court filings which deny that Musk is a DOGE employee or that he has authority to make government decisions. USDS is organized in the Executive Office of the President, and its administrator, currently Amy Gleason, reports to the White House chief of staff. USDSTO is scheduled to be terminated on July 4, 2026.
DOGE is controversial and has spawned opposition and lawsuits. Critics argue that Musk's role violates the Constitution's Appointments Clause, and legal experts have warned of a constitutional crisis. Democratic Party members challenged DOGE's authority, and some called its actions a "coup". Further criticism has focused a lack of oversight and Musk's potential conflicts of interest, as he has not divested from his companies, which have billions of dollars in federal contracts and are in active disputes with federal regulators. Musk has said DOGE is maximally transparent, yet Trump has declared DOGE exempt from public disclosure rules. The White House says that DOGE complies with federal law, and that Musk would "excuse himself" if his DOGE activities and business interests conflicted.
Independent analysis has found that DOGE's reports misaccounted tens of billions of dollars, with more than a third of canceled contracts already obligated or yielding no savings. Musk, DOGE, and the Trump administration have made multiple claims of having discovered significant fraud, none of which have held up under scrutiny. According to watchdogs, DOGE is redefining fraud to target federal employees and programs to build political support for their cuts; former Republican budget experts said DOGE cuts were driven by political ideology more than frugality. Despite widespread criticism, Trump has reiterated his support for Musk and DOGE.

## Background

Starting in 2023, Musk gave Trump and Republicans US$290 million for the 2024 election cycle, becoming the largest individual donor. In September 2024, Musk has described deregulation as the only path to his SpaceX Mars colonization program. In his November 2024 Tucker Carlson interview, he admitted: "If Trump loses, I'm fucked".
On September, 5, 2024, Trump promised to the Economic Club of New York: "at the suggestion of Elon Musk... I will create a Government Efficiency Commission tasked with conducting a complete financial and performance audit of the entire federal government and making recommendations for drastic reforms." Javier Milei revealed that, prior to the public declaration, Musk had called Federico Sturzenegger to discuss emulating his ministry's deregulation model in the United States.
The New York Times compared the project to Theodore Roosevelt's Keep Commission, Ronald Reagan's Grace Commission, and vice president Al Gore's National Partnership for Reinventing Government.

### Emergence

The project emerged from a discussion in the summer of 2024 between Elon Musk and Donald Trump, where Musk floated the idea of a "government efficiency commission". In an August 18 interview to Reuters after a campaign event, Trump said that, if elected, he would be open to giving Musk an advisory role. The next day, an X user suggested "Department of Government Efficiency"; Musk replied "That is the perfect name", and then posted "I am willing to serve", along with an AI-created image of him standing in front of a lectern marked "D.O.G.E.". The DOGE acronym refers to an internet meme, and to Dogecoin, a meme coin that Musk promotes.
On October 27, at a Trump campaign rally in Madison Square Garden, Musk stated that he believed DOGE could reduce federal government spending by $2 trillion. That figure appears higher than the federal government's total discretionary spending in 2023. On November 1, Musk mentioned that 89 years old Ron Paul could work with DOGE; Paul vowed to join; they agreed on cutting military spendings; this led nowhere.
Days after the election, a small group, including Musk, Vivek Ramaswamy, Howard Lutnick, and Brad Smith, started meeting at Mar-a-Lago. On November 12, Trump announced that Musk and Ramaswamy would lead DOGE and analogized it to the Manhattan Project. During an interview with Tucker Carlson on the same day, Musk proposed consolidating the 400 federal agencies: "99...is more than enough". On November 17, Ramaswamy stated that DOGE may eliminate entire agencies and reduce the federal workforce by 75%.
On January 2, 2025, Musk posited that DOGE had a good shot at cutting $1 trillion, but that $2 trillion was the best-case scenario. At the first cabinet meeting of the second Trump administration in February, Musk remained optimist to cut $1 trillion—15% of the budget.

### DOGE caucuses and House subcommittee

On November 19, 2024, representatives Aaron Bean (R-FL) and Pete Sessions (R-TX) launched the congressional Delivering Outstanding Government Efficiency Caucus (DOGE Caucus) to reduce waste, fraud, and abuse in the federal government. House Oversight Committee chairman James Comer (R-KY) announced plans two days later for a new subcommittee, called Delivering on Government Efficiency Subcommittee, and chaired by Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA). On November 22, Senator Joni Ernst (R-IA) was appointed to lead the corresponding Senate DOGE Caucus.
Several Democrats have expressed willingness to work with the Congressional Caucus, including Rep. Jared Moskowitz (D-FL), Rep. Tom Suozzi (D-NY), and Rep. Val Hoyle (D-OR). Other Democrats offered ideas: Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA) on agency redundancies, self-populating tax forms, fossil fuel subsidies, and IT systems; Rep. Greg Landsman (D-OH) on the size of government forms such as financial aid applications and tax returns; Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-NY) on permit processes for infrastructure and development projects; Rep. Jared Golden (D-ME) on a bill to "move all the federal agencies out of D.C." and send them to states.
On December 17, the Congressional Caucus held its first meeting, with over 60 members in attendance. It included three Democrats – Steven Horsford (D-NV), Hoyle, and Moskowitz. Lawmakers described it as largely organizational, with discussions about "worthwhile lifts", "quick wins", "lower priority", and "low-hanging fruit"; an example of a low-hanging fruit was "people going back to work". The very next day, Ernst proposed a "Drain the Swamp Act" bill, requiring executive agencies to relocate 30 percent of Washington, D.C. employees outside the D.C. metro area while restricting the ability to telework.
A few days later, Moskowitz, the only Democrat to have joined the DOGE Caucus, proposed reorganizing the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) by removing agencies such as the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the Secret Service from its jurisdiction. By February 5, Moskowitz was unsure to stay in the commission, stating: "I need to see one of my Republican colleagues in the caucus explain the point of the caucus, because it seems that Elon doesn't need them, because it seems what Elon is doing is destroying the separation of powers. And I don't think the DOGE caucus at this moment really has a purpose."
On January 23, Sen. Elizabeth Warren sent a letter to Musk with 30 recommendations to cut at least $2 trillion in federal spending.
On February 12, Karoline Leavitt asserted that the DOGE Subcommittee discovered $2.7 trillion in improper Medicaid and Medicare payments to people overseas. One day later Musk shared the claim on his social. Since then the claim has been refuted.

### Self-deletion date

On December 2, 2024, Ramaswamy posted that "Most government projects should come with a clear expiry date"; Musk replied that the final step of DOGE was "to delete itself". Trump stated that the entity's work will "conclude" no later than July 4, 2026,. This termination will coincide with a "Great American Fair" that Trump has proposed on the 250th anniversary of the United States. Trump called the promised results "the perfect gift to America".
Trump's January 20 order on DOGE (E.O. 14158) created and divided DOGE into a permanent part and a temporary part. What exactly the temporary part consists of has yet to be determined. Trump's February 26 DOGE executive order (E.O. 14222) does not stipulate any termination date.

### Ramaswamy steps away

On January 19, 2025, CBS News reported that Ramaswamy would step away from DOGE and instead run for Ohio governorship; it also reports internal friction between Ramaswamy and Musk, with Musk's supporters "privately undercutting" Ramaswamy for his perceived lack of engagement. A Republican strategist has confided that Ramaswamy was wanted out of D.C. after his post on how Americans “venerated mediocrity over excellence”. On January 20, following the second presidential inauguration of Trump, the White House confirmed that Ramaswamy would not join DOGE. On January 27, Ramaswamy denied being ousted and announced his resignation, contrasting his focus on "constitutional law, legislative-based approach" and Musk's "technology approach, which is the future approach".

### Early fraud claims

In his November 12, 2024, announcement, Trump stated that DOGE will work with the Office of Management and Budget to address what he called "massive waste and fraud" in government spending. NewsGuard identified 28 false claims made by Musk on his social since 2022 (more than half related to DOGE) and estimate that they attracted 825 million views. Less than a week in his presidency, Trump fired 17 inspectors general, whose job is to audit federal agencies.
In their February 11, 2025, joint Oval Office appearance, Trump and Musk used the word "fraud" or "fraudster" about a dozen times. Trump said DOGE discovered "billions and billions of dollars in waste, fraud and abuse" while Musk suggested that 20 million people received Social Security past age 100, which he later called "the biggest fraud in history". That claim has since been refuted; it rests on a misunderstanding of the database.
By mid-February, two judges had rebuked the Trump administration for alleging fraud without evidence. In his speech to Congress on March 4, Trump still hinted at the "dead people" claim.

## Executive orders

Trump has issued several executive orders involving DOGE:
* On January 20, executive order 14158, "Establishing and Implementing the President's 'Department of Government Efficiency'", established various DOGE entities.
* On January 20, executive order 14170, "Reforming the Federal Hiring Process and Restoring Merit to Government Service", asks his assistant for domestic policy to produce a hiring plan in consultation with the OMB director, the OPM director, and the DOGE administrator.
* On February 11, executive order 14210, "Implementing The President's 'Department of Government Efficiency' Workforce Optimization Initiative", ordered significant reductions in workforce.
* On February 19, executive order 14219, "Ensuring Lawful Governance and Implementing the President's 'Department of Government Efficiency' Regulatory Initiative", ordered the review of a wide-ranging set of laws with an eye toward rescinding many of them.
* On February 26, executive order 14222, "Implementing the President's 'Department of Government Efficiency' Cost Efficiency Initiative", issued directives to transform the registration of contracts, grants, and loans.

### United States DOGE Service

The existing United States Digital Service (USDS) would be renamed to "United States DOGE Service" and be established within the Executive Office of the President. The move to the Executive Office of the President would insulate the group from Freedom of Information Act records requests until at least 2034.
The executive order also proclaimed that the new USDS would have "full and prompt access to all unclassified agency records, software systems and IT systems" to the "maximum extent consistent with law" (E.O. 14158 Sect. 4b).

### USDS Temporary Organization

The U.S. DOGE Service Temporary Organization (USDSTO) was established within the USDS, intended to advance the president's 18-month DOGE agenda (E.O. 14158 Sect. 3b). The temporary organization will terminate on July 4, 2026 (E.O. 14158 Sect. 3b).

### DOGE agenda

The expression "DOGE agenda" is used three times in the text of the first executive order (E.O. 14158). The first (Sect. 1) is to state that DOGE is established to "implement the President's DOGE Agenda"; the second (Sect. 3b) to state that the USDSTO "shall be dedicated to advancing the President's 18-month DOGE agenda"; the third (Sect. 3c) to state that DOGE Team leads "coordinate their work with USDS and advise their respective Agency Heads on implementing the President's DOGE Agenda."
Executive order 14222 does not mention the DOGE agenda, but rather refers to a "cost efficiency initiative".

### USDS administrator

There is a USDS administrator who reports to the White House chief of staff. This administrator also heads the USDSTO (E.O. 14158 Sect. 3b).

### DOGE Teams

"DOGE Teams" will be embedded within all federal agencies, consisting of at least four employees, some of whom may be special government employees, typically including a DOGE Team lead, one engineer, one human resources specialist, and one attorney. The members of each team will be determined by the agency head in consultation with the USDS administrator (E.O. 14158 Sect. 3c).
Executive order 14222 Sect. 3a tasks DOGE teams with assisting agencies in the elaboration of "a centralized technological system" to record payment issued by the agency, along with justification by the employee who approved it; this system shall also give agency heads a kill switch to override decisions.

### Disclosure exemption

On November 2, 2024, Musk reiterated on social media a statement he repeatedly made while campaigning with Trump: "There should be no need for FOIA [Freedom of Information Act] requests. All government data should be default public for maximum transparency."
By repurposing DOGE as a temporary organization, Trump has apparently sidestepped FOIA transparency laws that apply to congressional-funded agencies such as its predecessor, the USDS, when the USDS was under the Office of Management and Budget (OMB). Special Assistant to the President and Principal Deputy Press Secretary Harrison Fields asserted that DOGE "falls under the Presidential Records Act", which would exempt USDS from disclosing its documents, communications and records to the public and in most judicial actions until at least 2034.
Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) contested this move and filed a complaint against USDS on February, 20, 2025. CREW argues that "The American people have a right to know how USDS is managing their tax dollars and their data, how it is exercising its authority to influence government operations and the extent to which it is operating outside of its slim legal mandate." On March 10, Judge Christopher R. Cooper ruled that the unprecedented authority, the unusual secrecy, and the rapid pace of DOGE justified the release of its internal documents.

## Funding

At the time of its announcement, DOGE budget was unknown, and several of the employees were expected to be unpaid volunteers. Little from its budget has been disclosed so far.
To cover for DOGE costs until January 29, 2025, $6.75 million had been apportioned to DOGE from the Information Technology Oversight and Reform (ITOR) account that funded the legacy USDS. Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-CT) observed that this was “nearly twice the annual salaries and expenses budget of the White House”. DOGE also has a Treasury account, separate from ITOR. From Jan. 30 to Feb. 8, DOGE's budget had more than doubled to $14.4 million; filings show that latest $7.7 million is reserved “for anticipated reimbursements from agencies in support of Software Modernization Initiative”.
After reviewing Office of Management and Budget records, ProPublica discovered that, by February 20, DOGE budget neared $40 million. DOGE’s funding has come from other federal agencies, in the form of transfer payments allowed by the Economy Act. This form of payment implies that DOGE has been treated like a federal agency by the Trump administration. John Lewis & Daniel Jacobson underlines the dilemma: "The Trump administration’s view is untenable. USDS is either an agency or it is not. And if USDS, as seems apparent, is doing more than advising the President and is instead wielding independent authority, then it faces a more fundamental challenge to its existence: no statute created USDS or vested it with the power it now appears to wield".
DOGE has asked the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) to pay for 20 full-time DOGE employees at the highest federal pay grade to modernize its information systems; the terms stipulate that OPM must pay each month in advance, and give DOGE access to its data and systems, as well as provide "operational and technical support". At the current employment rates, this would mean $4.1 million for the work between January 20 and July 4, 2026.
Public disclosures forms indicate that at least three DOGE employees are drawing salaries from the General Service Administration (GSA): Jeremy Lewin ($167,000), Kyle Schutt ($195,200), and Nate Cavanaugh ($120,500). According to DOGE's website, the average employee has worked at the GSA for 13 years and makes $128,565.

## Functions

DOGE is executing a plan that scapegoats diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI). It has placed on administrative leave DEI employees and shut down DEI offices in ten agencies, placed on leave employees in non-DEI roles who DOGE determined are somehow tied to DEI, and plans to initiate large-scale firings. That plan maps onto Project 2025 goals.
To execute this plan, DOGE has gained access to so many digital systems from the government that it may have reached "God Mode". Its takeover of federal government infrastructure is such that it holds information about American citizens, public properties, scientific datasets, official websites, financial records, classified data, and federal contracts; it gained the capacity to terminate programs, to destroy data, and to contact every federal employee, including judges.

### Controlling US government digital systems

Three weeks into the second Trump presidency, TechCrunch observed that DOGE had "gained unprecedented access to a swath of U.S. government departments — including agencies responsible for managing data on millions of federal employees and a system that handles $6 trillion in payments to Americans. As of March 2025, DOGE has secured access to at least seven sensitive federal databases,, and it has inserted itself into more than 20 agencies. In his March 6 Oval Office remarks, Trump warned federal officials that he and Musk and DOGE "are gonna be watching them. And if they can cut, it's better. And if they don't cut, then Elon will do the cutting."
On February 4, Charles Ezell sent a memo to agencies recommending that the role of chief information officer (CIO) be redesignated as "general" rather than "career reserved", which allows political appointees and DOGE members to control any decision related to information policy. At least three DOGE members have now been granted that role in major agencies: Gregory Barbaccia, a former Palentir employee, at OMB; OPM chose Greg Hogan, a recognized DOGE member; Ryan Riedel, previously lead network security engineer at SpaceX, at DOE. Michael Russo is now the new Chief information officer at SSA. Before that memo, Thomas Shedd, an engineer at Tesla, became the head of GSA’s Technology Transformation Services on January 24, after Steven Reilly resigned over Shedd's requests for administrative access to more than 20 government systems.
According to a document leaked to Wired, DOGE attempted to use White House security credentials to access to GSA's infrastructure, deploy an AI chatbot intended to help workers with daily tasks, read emails, listen to meetings, and remotely connect into laptops; this led an employee to exclaim: "They are acting like this is a takeover of a tech company". At the SSA, DOGE demanded access to databases with information about any holder of a Social Security number: identity, spouse and dependents, work history, banking information, citizenship, martial status, etc.; Akash Bobba, who was working on an OPM remote access, asked for "everything, including source code". The principal deputy assistant secretary for operations at HHS, Gary Rice, declared in a February 13 sworn statement that DOGE employees grafted to the agency have full access to all unclassified agency records and software and IT systems and are tasked, among other things, with the obligation to destroy or erase copied HHS data or information when no longer needed for official purposes. DOGE has been granted the use of a transfer and remote access freeware at the Labor Department.
The New York Times's investigative team recalls a story Musk told at a private party: when he took over Twitter, the key was gaining access to the company’s servers; he mused about having access to the federal government's computers; with passwords, he would trim the government. The investigative team said: "What started as musings at a dinner party evolved into a radical takeover of the federal bureaucracy."
DOGE installed a Starlink user terminal at the White House complex which raised conflict of interest concerns. In response the White House said that the terminal was donated by Starlink and approved by legal counsel and the United States Secret Service.

### Using diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) to purge federal workers

An internal DOGE report obtained by the Washington Post on February 15, 2025, outlined a three phase process by which it would lead a purge of the federal government based on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI):
* In phase one, on his first day, Trump would rescind all DEI-related executive orders and initiatives, dissolve offices at federal organizations with a DEI role and terminate their employees, ask federal websites to remove all DEI material, and terminate all DEI contracts.
* In phase two, from January 21 to February 19, the government would purge employees without any DEI role but who had been "corrupted" by it. For instance, DOGE has been searching NOAA databases to find employees associated with DEI initiatives.
* In phase three, from February 20 to July 19, DOGE would commit mass-scale firings of any employee in any part of the government who did not take part in any DEI initiative, but was nonetheless determined through unknown criteria to be "DEI-related".
Records show that those who were workshopping the plan include: Stephanie Holmes, former Jones Day lawyer, Anthony Armstrong, who helped Musk acquire Twitter, Brian Bjelde, longtime SpaceX employee, Noah Peters, involved in Project 2025, and Adam Ramada, a venture capitalist turned DOGE Team lead.

### Broadcasting the DOGE agenda

On February 11, 2025, in an Oval Office press conference, Musk claimed that DOGE's actions would be "maximally transparent", and promised to publish them on an official government website. Doge.gov went live the next day: the main page displayed its Twitter feed, a "Follow on X" button, and a few tabs; the About page linked to the first executive order. On the same day, the alternative DOGE website Waste.gov was password protected after it was revealed that its landing page showcased the generic theme of a fictional architecture firm featuring the word "diverse", in violation of Trump's executive orders. A few days later, unauthorized people posted messages on Doge.gov, reading “this is a joke of a .gov site” and "THESE 'EXPERTS' LEFT THEIR DATABASE OPEN -roro."
The Daily News observes that, as of end of February, DOGE's website does not "provide names and contact information for the officials and employees associated with its work, an organizational chart or a calendar of past and upcoming activity."
DOGE promised "receipts" on Valentine's day; they appeared on the 17th, as search results from the FPDS showing contract terminations. How DOGE calculates savings is left unsubstantiated.. Analyses found significant discrepancies in its reporting: roughly one third of canceled contracts did not yield any actual savings or were already obligated; in one case it miscounted the value of a $8 million contract it had canceled as $8 billion; $46.5 billion of its purported $55 billion savings were not linked to any specific items. According to watchdogs, DOGE is redefining fraud to target federal employees and programs to build political support for their cuts; former Republican budget experts said DOGE cuts were driven by political ideology more than frugality.
HuffPost reported on February 14 that doge.gov was displaying classified information about the staff of the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO), which designs, launches, and builds American spy satellites. Intelligence community leaders and members were critical of the publication and sharing of this information, calling it a security risk. On February 21, an NRO spokesperson told Reuters that the "data posted to the Department of Government Efficiency's website detailing headcount and total wages for the National Reconnaissance Office is not classified, but was not intended for public release".
The website and socials are complemented with Musk's media appearances, especially on Fox News where he presents talking points about the next units DOGE intends to target.
On March 13, journalists discovered that DOGE removed federal identification numbers from the publicly available source code, making their receipts hard to verify. A White House official invoked security to justify this lack of transparency.

### Implementing Project 2025

Vice President JD Vance commented that "The most important thing that [DOGE is] going to do [is not] the cost savings [but] making the bureaucracy responsive to the elected president". Vance has a longstanding collaboration with Kevin Roberts, an architect of Project 2025. Trump disavowed that project, finding some of its ideas "ridiculous and abysmal" and denying any implication.
Russell Vought, who founded the Center for Renewing America (CRA), was on Project 2025's advisory board and has also been described as a key architect of the project. No later than the summer of 2024, the CRA had started drafting executive orders, regulations, and memos consistent with Project 2025's agenda. Vought also developed a 180-day playbook, a set of actions to take in the Trump administration’s first six months, which the project described as "a comprehensive concrete transition plan for each agency."
For Rep. John Rose, only Project 2025 explains the flow of executive orders. CNN analyzed the first 53 and found that 36 followed it; Politico outlined 37 cases where the orders align with it, some nearly verbatim. The BBC suggests that, by unifying decision chains so that Trump controls independent agencies, DOGE implements the unitary executive theory advocated in Project 2025.
On his very first day, Trump restored Schedule F to speed up firing; earlier he nominated its champion, Russ Vought, to lead OMB. In multiple speeches, Vought swore to put career civil servants "in trauma". In Chapter 2 of the Project 2025's manifesto, Vought writes that OMB director's role is to "bring the bureaucracy in line with all budgetary, regulatory, and management decisions", a task he would not fulfill if "he lacks knowledge of what the agencies are doing", and so must acquire "sufficient visibility into the deep caverns of agency decision-making". As Jill Flipovic notes, "the mass firings, the power grabs, and the agency shutterings are not just Musk’s doing. They were planned and proposed well before Trump was even elected, right there for everyone to see, in Project 2025."
Ed Kilgore described Vought as the glue that ties Musk and Republicans: "OMB can exchange intel with DOGE on potential targets in the bureaucracy, while OMB will definitely guide congressional Republicans as they put together massive budget-reconciliation and appropriations bills". Wired and The New York Times report that Vought helped Musk find his way into the bureaucracy. Nine of the fifteen agencies DOGE first targeted had been identified by Project 2025 for elimination or downsizing; Bill Hoagland, former Republican staffer and director of the Senate Budget Committee for more than 20 years, considers that the DOGE playbook "has not been for the dollar savings, but more for the philosophical and ideological differences conservatives have with the work these agencies do".

## Workforce

About 20 DOGE employees work at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building. Musk has reportedly said he was sleeping there. In his March 10 interview on Fox News, Musk told Larry Kudlow that DOGE had around 100 employees and that he planned to double his staff. He also confirmed that DOGE was present in almost every agency.
Some DOGE team members, including Musk, are designated as "special government employees", an advisory role limited to a 130-day work period that can be paid or unpaid. Those who earn a substantial salary have to disclose it. Unlike federal workers, special employees are allowed to keep outside salaries and may not need to disclose conflicts of interest.
On February 25, 21 USDS employees resigned en masse. They were among the 65 US Digital Service employees who continued to work with the service when US Digital Service became the US DOGE Service. In a letter, they stated that could not honor their oath under DOGE, warned about the politicization of the department, and declared: "We will not use our skills as technologists to compromise core government systems, jeopardize Americans' sensitive data, or dismantle critical public services".
In March 2025 Musk said that the DOGE workforce was putting in 120 hours a week. This was questioned for leaving dangerously little time to sleep.

### Leadership

The DOGE administrator officially reports to the White House chief of staff. Except for Amy Gleason, the acting DOGE administrator, the leadership structure of DOGE has not been published. Sources have reported that Gleason is only the nominal leader of DOGE, and in practice Steve Davis is effectively the leader of DOGE and leads the day-to-day work.

### Elon Musk's role

In a February 17 affidavit, Office of Administration director Joshua Fischer told Judge Tanya Chutkan that Musk was not the DOGE administrator or a DOGE employee but a special government employee with no "authority to make government decisions." At a February 24 hearing, Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly questioned the constitutionality of USDS and asked the government attorney, Bradley Humphreys, about its structure. He said that it ignored Musk's role beyond that of Trump advisor.
On February 25, Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said that Musk is "overseeing DOGE" but refused to identify its administrator after being asked repeatedly. Later that day, the White House named Amy Gleason as the acting DOGE administrator; Gleason worked from 2018 through 2021 at US Digital Service. On February 28, in a case before Judge Theodore D. Chuang where Musk is accused of violating the Appointments Clause, Justice Department lawyer Joshua Gardner was unable the administrator of DOGE before Gleason.
Nevertheless, Trump declared on February 19 to have put "Musk in charge" of DOGE. In his March 4 State of the Union address to Congress, he repeated that DOGE "is headed by Elon Musk". Two days later, after that statement had been cited in lawsuits, Trump reportedly told members of his Cabinet that they rather than Musk and DOGE were to make staffing decisions for their departments, but a few hours later remonstrated "If they don't cut, then Elon will do the cutting."
On March 18, 2025, the United States District Court for the District of Maryland determined that Elon Musk was "the leader of DOGE" and was exercising the authority of its lawful administrator on a de facto basis.

### "DOGE Kids"

On February 2, 2025, Wired reported that DOGE hired software engineers aged 19–24 with no experience in government, including Akash Bobba, Edward Coristine, Luke Farritor, Marko Elez, Gautier Killian, Gavin Kliger, and Ethan Shaotran. There are reports of 15-minute video interviews DOGE members conducted without identifying themselves, with queries such as "whom they would choose to fire from their teams if they had to pick one person", and surprise code reviews, silently supervised by "extremely young men". The team has been called "Doge Kids" by officials, reporters, and social media users.
According to Brian Krebs, past deeds from these software engineers pose security risks: Coristine, the 19-year-old son of the owner of snack company LesserEvil, leaked information from the data-security company where he was interning; he managed web domains, some registered in Russia, others referencing abusive or illegal content including rape and child pornography; he mingled with 'The Com', a cybercriminal network. Amplification of extremism also raises questions: Kliger, 25, has an edgelord past, crediting Ron Unz for his political awakening and reposting the likes of Nick Fuentes and Andrew Tate, along with white supremacist memes. Elez shares similar viewpoints.
On February 18, 2025, CNN sent FOIA requests for security clearance records of DOGE team members who were granted access to sensitive or classified government networks; the response, from an OPM email address, was: "Good luck with that they just got rid of the entire privacy team". Sources told CNN that employees from the communications staff and those who handle FOIA requests were also dismissed.
On February 24, the Washington Post reported that Farritor and Kliger manually blocked multiple times payments for life critical programs that Secretary of State Marco Rubio had approved by decree.
Court documents filed on March 14 have revealed that DOGE staffer Marko Elez violated U.S. Treasury Department policy by mishandling personal information.

### Doxxing accusations

After the February 2 Wired article, names of DOGE members started to circulate; Musk accused those who did so on his social of committing a crime. The next day, interim United States attorney for the District of Columbia Ed Martin released a statement on Musk's social saying that certain individuals and/or groups have committed acts that appear to violate the law in targeting DOGE employees. Musk quoted that statement, adding "Don't mess with DOGE". On February 7, Martin sent Musk and his deputy Steve Davis a letter (also posted on his social) announcing that he had opened an investigation into government employees Musk accused of stealing property and making threats. According to New York Times reporter Ken Bensinger, Musk was attempting to describe traditional journalism as "doxxing" in order to invalidate the role of the media in government accountability.
After the names of DOGE employees began circulating on Reddit—and some users suggested violence—site administrators posted that Reddit had "seen an increase in content in several communities that violate Reddit Rules. Debate and dissent are welcome on Reddit – threats and doxing are not." The popular subreddit r/WhitePeopleTwitter was subsequently banned for three days, and a small subreddit called r/IsElonDeadYet was permanently removed.
On February 11, Musk reshared a post by Laura Loomer with screenshots that identified Judge John J. McConnell Jr.'s daughter, along with her financial disclosure forms from the department. This reshare followed McConnell's order to unfreeze federal grants. On February 12, Rep. Andrew Clyde announced that he was drafting "articles" of impeachment against McConnell, echoing Musk's claim that there "needs to be an immediate wave of judicial impeachments, not just one".

### Members

An investigation by TechCrunch categorized DOGE members as inner circle, senior figures, worker bees, or aides. The New York Times divides them into leadership, staffers, and allies. The organization extends beyond those with DOGE employee status: Musk himself isn't one, many of his allies have no government tie, and many of his associates have joined other government units.
The first executive order organizes work into small DOGE teams of "at least four employees" with one "Team Lead, one engineer, one human resources specialist, and one attorney". Few have a known contractual status. The question if a DOGE employee belongs to the permanent unit (USDS) or the temporary one (USDSTTO) has yet to be settled by the White House.
Organization members :
| Name | Title/role(s) | Unit(s) | Past work | Notes/ties | Ref. |
| Boris Akis | Recruiter | OPM | | Turkish citizenship; holds a green card; hiring vetoed by Trump; not officially involved with DOGE, but played a significant role in recruiting for DOGE | |
| Jacob Altik | Lawyer | OPM | D.C. Circuit Court (clerk for Neomi Rao); Weil, Gotshal & Manges (lawyer) | Was scheduled to clerk for Neil Gorsuch | |
| Marc Andreessen | Musk ally | | Mosaic; Netscape; Andreessen Horowitz | DOGE early recruitment; Trump transition team | |
| Anthony Armstrong | Senior advisor to the Director | OPM | Morgan Stanley (banker) | Worked on Musk's Twitter purchase | |
| Jennifer "Jehn" Balajadia | Musk aide | ED | Boring Company | Old Musk confidant and assistant | |
| Sam Beyda | | DOL | | | |
| Alexandra T. Beynon | Expert (coding) | ED | Mindbloom (engineer); Goldman Sachs | The ketamine-assisted therapy company was founded by her husband. | |
| Riccardo Biasini | Senior advisor to the Director | OPM | Boring Company; Twitter; Tesla | Involved with new government-wide email system | |
| Brian Bjelde | Senior advisor | OPM | SpaceX; Twitter | Top DOGE lieutenant | |
| Akash Bobba | Expert (coding) | OPM, GSA | Bridgewater Associates, Meta, Palantir (intern) | Berkeley student | |
| Ashley Boizelle | Attorney adviser | GSA | Amazon (corporate counsel), FCC (general counsel) | Yale Law School graduate | |
| James Burnham | General Counsel | EOP | Supreme Court (clerk for Neil Gorsuch); Jones Day (litigation partner) | High-ranking member of the first Trump administration | |
| Nate Cavanaugh | | GSA | Brainbase; FlowFi (co-CEO) | Led employee interviews | |
| George Cooper | Recruiter | | Palantir (engineer) | Hired Palantir talent | |
| Sam Corcos | | IRS | Levels (chief executive) | Interested in IRS contracts with tech vendors | [241] [242] |
| Edward "Big Balls" Coristine | Expert (coding) | DT, OPM, DOS, DHS, FEMA, USAID | LesserEvil; Path Network; Neuralink (intern); | Owns Tesla.sexy; troubled internship; tied to The Com; grandson of Valery Martynov | |
| Scott Coulter | | NASA, SSA | Cowbird Capital (founder) | Wide access to NASA's database, named in litigation | |
| Steve Davis | Musk second in command and effectively the leader of DOGE | EOP, OPM, GSA | Boring Company (CEO) | Longtime Musk confidant; Atlas Society advisor | |
| Stephen Duarte | Expert (HR) | OPM | SpaceX (human resources) | Worked with Bjelde; data analysis | |
| Leland Dudek | Acting Commissioner | SSA | Mid-level manager at the SSA (cybersecurity) | Placed on leave for breaking the chain of command to help DOGE; wrote and deleted a post on it; got promoted | |
| Stephen Ehikian | Acting Administrator | GSA | Salesforce, AI startup | Spouse worked at X; DOGE allegiance; ZBB fan | |
| Marko Elez | Expert (coding) | USDT | SpaceX (engineer); Twitter (engineer) | Fired from DOGE for past racist posts; re-hired after JD Vance's intervention | |
| Luke Farritor | Executive Engineer in the Office of the Secretary | HHS, DOS | SpaceX (intern) | Attended UNL; Thiel Fellow; helped DOGE recruitment; Vesuvius Challenge awardee | |
| Conor Fennessy | Senior adviser | ED, HHS | | | |
| Justin Fulcher | Liaison | VA | RingMD | Has access to the department's HR systems | |
| Joe Gebbia | Volunteer | | Airbnb (co-founder) Tesla (board) | Focuses on federal retirement; supports Robert Kennedy Jr | |
| Matthieu Gamache-Asselin | Senior Adviser | HHS | Facebook, Alto (co-founder) | budgeting, grants and financial management | |
| Derek Geissler | | DOL | | Has access to DOL databases | |
| Derek Glantz | | FAA | SpaceX (engineer) | Special employee for 4 days; still has an FAA email | |
| Amy Gleason | Acting Administrator of USDS and USDSTO | USDS | US Digital Service, Russell Street Ventures, Main Street Health | Reports to Susie Wiles | |
| Antonio Gracias | Musk ally | | Tesla, SpaceX (early investor) | Old Musk friend; America PAC funder; helped Trump transition | |
| Michael Grimes | | DOC | Morgan Stanley (tech investment) | Helped Twitter acquisition; expected to lead the new sovereign fund | |
| Joshua A. Hanley | | NIH | Williams & Connolly (lawyer), DOJ | Authored grant termination notices | |
| Tyler Hassen | Liaison | Bureau of Reclamation | former oil company CEO | Unsuccessfully attempted to turn on water at the Jones Pumping Plant | |
| Greg Hogan | Chief Information Officer | OPM | Comma.ai | Named in a lawsuit vs OPM; third CIO with Musk ties | |
| Nicole Hollander | | GSA | JGB Smith (real estate); Twitter | Married to Steve Davis; seeking to initiate thousands of lease cancellations on federal buildings. | |
| Stephanie Holmes | Head of human resources | | Jones Day (lawyer); Oklo (chief people officer) | Attacks corporate DEI | |
| Anthony Jancso | Recruiter | | Palantir (software engineer); AccelerateX | University College London graduate; | |
| Erica Jehling | | EPA, GSA | SpaceX (purchasing director) | | |
| Gautier "Cole" Killian | Federal Detailee | EPA, DOL | Jump Trading (engineer) | Attended McGill University in math and computer science. | |
| Thomas Kiernan | | FAA | SpaceX (software engineer) | Ethics waver; has an offical email | |
| Gavin Kliger | Senior advisor to the Director | CFPB, OPM, USAID, IRS | Databricks; LinkedIn | Berkeley graduate; edgelord past; Ron Unz fan | |
| Keenan D. Kmiec | Lawyer | EOP | InterPop; federal circuit court (clerk for Samuel Alito); Supreme Court (clerk for John Roberts); Tezos | Son of former U.S. ambassador Douglas Kmiec | |
| Jon Koval | Executive | SSA | Valor Equity Partners | | |
| Tom Krause | Fiscal Assistant Secretary of the Treasury | USDT | Cloud Software Group (CEO) | Said to have access to payment systems at Treasury | |
| Scott Kupor | Director | OPM | Hewlett-Packard (executive); Andreessen Horowitz (managing partner) | Self-help author; venture capitalist | |
| Scott Langmack | Liaison | HUD | Pepsi (marketing); BlueChipExec.com; Kukun (COO) | Wrote The Fast Track to Your Ideal Job; became a loan shark | |
| Jeremy Lewin | Liaison | CFPB, USAID, State Department | Munger, Tolles & Olson (lawyer) | Harvard graduate; worked with Trump critic Laurence Tribe; his law firm has represented Tesla | |
| Kendall M. Lindemann | Expert (HR) | EOP, USDS | Russell Street Ventures (associate) | University of Tennessee graduate (2022); competitive swimmer; worked with Brad Smith; | |
| Kathryn Armstrong Loving | Federal detailee | EPA | Biotech; Y Combinator; Tesla ties | Sister of Anthony Armstrong; looking for contracts contra Trump's agenda | |
| Ted Malaska | | FAA | SpaceX (software engineer), Capital One, Blizzard | Given an ethics waiver; holds a official email | |
| Tarak Makecha | Finance executive | DOS | Tesla; Software company (finance executive) | | |
| Katie Miller | Spokesperson | | Mike Pence (press secretary) | Wife of White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller | |
| Clark Minor | Chief Information Officer | HHS | Palantir | Bitcoin enthusiast | |
| Michael Alexander Mirski | Liaison | FHFA and HUD | On a six-month leave from TCC Management (possibly predatory business model) | Wharton graduate; mnemonist; gained access to HUD’s Enforcement Management System | |
| Bryanne-Michelle Mlodzianowski | Expert (HR) | OPM | SpaceX (HR Manager) | | |
| Aram Moghaddassi | | USDT, DOL | Neuralink; Twitter | | |
| Justin Monroe | Expert (security) | FBI | SpaceX; US Navy (information warfare officer) | First naval information warfare officer to be commissioned out of the Naval Academy in 2011 | |
| Brooks Morgan | | ED | Executive of education start-up | | |
| Elon Musk | De facto DOGE leader | | SpaceX; Tesla; Twitter; xAI; Boring Company; Neuralink | "Head of DOGE" according to Trump | |
| Noah Peters | Lawyer | OPM, Executive Office | Represented Jared Taylor; tied to Project 2025; FLRA (solicitor) | Authored the work-from-home termination memo; was in the First Trump Administration | |
| Nikhil "Nik" Rajpal | Expert (coding) | CFPB, NOAA, OPM | Twitter | Studied computer science and history at UC Berkeley | |
| Adam Ramada | Liaison | EOP, DOL | Investment firm tied to a SpaceX alumnus | Identified as Team lead in two legal cases | |
| Austin Raynor | Lawyer, senior advisor | OPM, Executive Office | DOJ; Supreme Court (clerk for Clarence Thomas) | Federalist Society member; condones Trump's Birthright Citizenship challenge | |
| Payton Rehling | Data engineer | SSA | Valor Equity Partners | | |
| Ryan Riedel | Chief Information Officer | DOE | SpaceX (network security engineer); U.S. Army Cyber Command | | |
| Rachel Riley | Senior advisor in the Office of the Secretary | HHS | McKinsey & Company | Worked closely with Brad Smith; requested access to Medicare payment systems | |
| Michael Russo | Chief Information Officer | SSA | Shift4 Payments (executive) | Executive at a company that processed payments for Starlink | |
| Amanda Scales | Chief of Staff | OPM | Uber (recruiting); xAI (HR) | Attended the University of California, Davis | |
| Frank Schuler | Real estate executive | GSA | Partner in a real estate investment firm based in Atlanta, Georgia | | |
| Kyle Schutt | Software engineer | GSA | Revv; WinRed | | |
| Bryton Shang | | Bureau of Reclamation | | Unsuccessfully attempted to turn on water at the Jones Pumping Plant | |
| Ethan Shaotran | Expert (coding) | GSA, ED | Energize.ai; iPhone app development | Harvard senior; xAI hackathon runner-up; $100,000 OpenAI grantee to develop an AI scheduling assistant. | |
| Thomas Shedd | Director and Deputy Commissioner of Technology Transformation Services | GSA (Federal Acquisition Service) | Tesla (engineer) | | |
| Brad Smith | Chief of staff | | FEMA COVID-19 Supply Chain Stabilization Task Force, CMMI (director), CareBridge (chairman), Russell Street Ventures, Main Street Health, Aspire Health | Served on the COVID-19 task force, where he worked with Jared Kushner and others to manage the U.S. response to the pandemic, with a focus on building out COVID testing operations | [234] [276] [277] |
| Sam Smeal | | FAA | SpaceX (software engineer) | Has an offical email | |
| Brendan Spikes | Musk lieutenant | OPM | PayPal, Zip2, Spikes Security, Tesla, SpaceX | Longtime Musk employee; left after two months; tied to the California Russian Association | |
| Christopher Stanley | Musk aide | OPM | Twitter, SpaceX | Assisted with the pardons of January 6 rioters | |
| Russell Vought | Director | OMB | Heritage Action; Center for Renewing America; Project 2025 | Christian nationalist; same role under the First Trump administration | |
| Jordan M. Wick | Expert (coding) | CFPB,, DOL | Waymo | Graduated from Massachusetts Institute of Technology | |
| Joanna Wischer | Policy analyst | | | Trump speech writer | |
| Ryan Wunderly | Special advisor | USDT | Anduril (robotics) | University of Michigan graduate | [232] [234] |
| Chris Young | Top political adviser | CFPB, Executive Office | Bobby Jindal staffer; PhRMA (lobbyist); Republican National Committee | America PAC's director and treasurer | |
| Christina Hanna | Human resources staffer | OPM | SpaceX (HR) | Former HR manager for Musk | |
| Baris Akis | Volunteer recruiter for DOGE | | | Born in Turkey and not a U.S. citizen but volunteering as a headhunter to recruit DOGE staff | |
| Vinay Hiremath | Recruiter for DOGE | | Loom | Worked for DOGE in late 2024 as a recruiter | |
| Michael Kratsios | Recruiter for DOGE | | Scale AI, Thiel Capital | Worked for DOGE in late 2024 as a recruiter | |

## Actions within federal government

In late January, The Washington Post described Musk's DOGE gaining access to large parts of the federal government, installing surrogates and former employees of Musk's companies as heads at several agencies. DOGE members first joined the Office of Personnel Management (OPM), the United States Digital Service (USDS), and the General Services Administration (GSA). They coordinated with the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and have tried to shutdown Agency for International Development (USAID), the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), and the Department of Education (ED). Their bigger targets remain the Treasury (USDT), the Social Security Administration (SSA), and Health and Human Services (HHS): spendings by HHS amount to 31%, by SSA to 16%, and by USDT to 15% of the federal budget.; together they account for almost two thirds of all government expenses. As DOGE has forced itself into administrations, many top officials with whom they clashed have been replaced.
Government organization and management specialists noted that the DOGE effort "appears to go beyond IT and HR initiatives to include areas such as procurement, real property, and substantive agency operations". Judge Christopher R. Cooper, while presiding over a lawsuit regarding DOGE, concluded in March 2025 that "the authority exercised by [DOGE] across the federal government and the dramatic cuts it has apparently made with no congressional input appear to be unprecedented". Cooper found that DOGE has employed "unusual secrecy", has "obtained unprecedented access to sensitive personal and classified data and payment systems across federal agencies", and "appears to have the power not just to evaluate federal programs, but to drastically reshape and even eliminate them wholesale".

### Access to employee, payment, property, and citizen information

On January 20, 2025, the day before Trump's first day in office, Amanda Scales, previously a Musk employee at xAI, was already Chief of staff at OPM, the agency that handles federal human resources. On the evening of January 20, the acting administrator of OPM, Charles Ezell, has sent a memo to every agencies reminding them that newly hired federal employees can be terminated “without triggering [Merit System Protection Board] appeal rights” and giving them the work week to send Scales a list of all probationary employees. Weeks later, DOGE member Greg Hogan becomes OPM's Chief Information Officer. Reuters reported on January 31 that "aides to Elon Musk" had locked some career civil servants out of computer systems at OPM. Ezell will be replaced by Scott Kupor, managing partner at the investment firm of Musk's ally, Marc Andreessen. OPM manages more than $1 trillion in assets, retirement funds, health and life insurance benefits for federal employees and their spouses. It also holds detailed records on 2.1 million federal workers and every citizen who has applied for those jobs; it also has an email list of nearly every federal employee.
GSA has data about federal real estate, procurement, and information infrastructure; according to a former director, it holds “incredible amounts of sensitive or proprietary business information that [businesses] had to share with the government in order to get a contract or take some action”. It manages the SmartPay system, the largest government charge card and commercial payment program in the world. It also oversees the Federal Procurement Data System (FPDS), which details every contract action over $3,000; DOGE has had the power to modify it before February 14, the day they promised "receipts". DOGE leaders Steve Davis and Nicole Hollander have been sleeping at its headquarters before February 2.
On January 21, David Lebryk denied DOGE access to USDT systems. Newly confirmed Treasury secretary, Scott Bessent, overruled that decision later that day, and Lebryk resigned. He was replaced by Tom Krause, a DOGE member who kept his role of CEO at the Cloud Software Group. On February 13, DOGE entered the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), and two days later DOGE was seeking access to the Integrated Data Retrieval System. On March 13, William Paul, IRS chief counsel, has been demoted and replaced by Andrew De Mello, a DOGE ally. USDT (through IRS) has names, addresses, social security numbers from tax payers, their income and net worth, bank information for direct deposits, itemization detail such as charitable donations, bankruptcy history or identity theft.
On February 18, Michelle King either stepped down from her role at the SSA or was fired, to be replaced by Leland Dudek, a move Musk celebrated on his social; after a belligerent Linkedin post in which he has bragged about having “bullied agency executives” to facilitate DOGE's work, Dudek has been signing off DOGE's decisions. Chief of staff Tiffany Flick has also retired, after having “witnessed a disregard for critical processes — like providing the ‘least privileged’ access based on a ‘need to know’ — and lack of interest in understanding our systems and programs”, and accusing DOGE member Michael Russo of supporting Musk's fantastical claims about dead people receiving benefits. By March 13, at least 10 DOGE members were active at the SSA. Its systems contain: records of lifetime wages and earnings; social security numbers, the type and amount of benefits individuals received; citizenship status; disability and health status.
At the beginning of February, DOGE members were on-site at various HHS agencies and had access to Medicare and Medicaid payments systems; Politico reports that top political appointees from the Trump administration were monitoring the group’s access. It also has access to the child support database.

### Emails to government staff

Tapping into OPM systems allowed DOGE to create the hr@opm.gov address, to get a list of federal employees, and to contact them. On January 28, 2025, the OPM offered a "deferred resignation" program to federal government employees to announce their resignation by February 6, while stating that employees who resigned would still receive salary and benefits until September 30, 2025. The offer made was similar to Elon Musk's notice to employees after he took control of Twitter. By the day before the February 6 deadline, more than 40,000 employees had accepted the offer, well below expectations. A federal judge, Randolph Daniel Moss, appointed by Barack Obama and overseeing a lawsuit aimed at blocking these "fork in the road" offers, received one such buyout offer email, presumably by mistake.
A lawsuit, filed on January 27, 2025, in the federal district court for the District of Columbia by two federal employees against the OPM, alleges that the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, responsible for various federal government personnel operations, failed to conduct a federally mandated assessment to evaluate and mitigate privacy risks associated with the alleged new email system's data collection on federal employees. On February 3, four unions representing 800,000 federal employees filed suit against the Treasury Department, arguing that the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) violated the Administrative Procedure Act by failing to provide a legal basis for the buyout offer. On February 6, Judge George O'Toole Jr., appointed by President Bill Clinton, temporarily blocked Trump and DOGE from engaging in any further action related to the buyout until further arguments were heard. On February 12, Judge O'Toole ruled that the plaintiffs lacked standing to challenge the buyout offer because they were not directly affected.
On February 22, 2025, Musk posted on X ordering federal workers to summarize their weekly accomplishments, warning that noncompliance would be seen as resignation. Shortly after, OPM emailed employees requesting five bullet point summaries. The Department of Defense ordered staff and the United States Armed Forces to ignore Musk's request; the FBI and State Department told their employees not to respond; NASA employees were advised to delay their response; the Department of Health and Human Services explicitly warned employees not to participate in the email request, due to the fact that replies might be "read by malign foreign actors." Two days later, OPM stated that responding to the initial email was voluntary; however, Musk tweeted that if employees still refused to respond, it would "result in termination". The American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) vowed to challenge any terminations, arguing OPM lacked the authority to send these emails.

### Facilitation of federal employees layoffs

On January 20, Trump issued a memorandum simply called Hiring Freeze, in which he asked the director of OMB to submit a plan to reduce the size of the federal workforce, in consultation with the director of OPM and "the Administrator of the United States DOGE Service". On January 21, Ezell has sent agencies directives to close "DEI offices by 5 PM EST on Wednesday, January 22". and also asked employees to report those who would hide programs "by using coded or imprecise language". On January 27, a memo was sent instructing OPM employees to work on-site full-time. Investigative journalist Molly White found that metadata on some of these memos indicate that they were ghoswritten by Noah Peters and Thomas Shenk, both with Project 2025 ties; Peters is also a DOGE member. On January 31, Brian Bjelde, senior advisor and DOGE member, has told career supervisors that the target was to cut 70% of OPM workforce.
On January 21, DOGE representatives conducted interviews with USDS employees about their work and asked which colleagues could be fired. One of the 21 USDS technologists who resigned in protest on February 25 stated that DOGE's actions created "a high risk of the American people's data being exposed or being utilized for nefarious means", including the potential for foreign actors to access that data, and she viewed these actions are "completely across the line both legally and ethically".
On February 13, OPM advised agencies to terminate most of an estimated 200,000 workers who have been hired within the last year and are considered on probation. Following the guidance, layoffs cascaded including 1,000 employees at the Department of Veterans Affairs, 5,200 employees across U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), and 1,300 employees at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Included in the probationary cuts were several Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) employees hired for radar, landing and navigational aid maintenance, and National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) employees who are responsible for designing, building, and overseeing the US nuclear weapons stockpile.
On February 23, three independent agencies received reduction in force (RIF) notices alerting staff to upcoming dismissals as part of the large-scale plan to cut federal employees across the country.
On March 7, DOGE has deployed its proprietary AI chatbot, intended to help workers with daily tasks, to 1,500 workers at GSA. The deployment comes after Thomas Shedd fired around 90 technologists and announced that the GSA branch he supervises would shrink by 50 percent. Among them was the 18F team, which Shedd deemed "non-essential".

### Coordination to shutdown administrations

On February 1, members of DOGE gained access to classified information of USAID without sufficient security clearances. DOGE personnel asked to be let into USAID headquarters and threatened to call the US Marshals, which by law receive their direction from the attorney general and the director of the United States Marshals Service. Two security chiefs at USAID attempted to deny DOGE access to the classified material, as they claimed they were "legally obligated" to do; however, they were then placed on leave by the Trump administration.
On February 6, CFPB staff were told by email that DOGE members (including Nikhil Rajpal, Gavin Kliger, and Chris Young) entered the agency building and would require access to CFPB data, systems, and equipment. The next evening, Russ Vought nominated himself head of it, DOGE deleted its X account, and Musk tweeted "CFPB RIP".
DOGE entered ED on February 4 and got email admin status shortly after. One week later, after having fed the department's financial data (including sensitive one) into a cloud-based AI, DOGE announced that it slashed $900 million from the Institute of Education Sciences. By that time DOGE members have been pushing ED high ranking officials out of their offices and set up white noise machines to muffle their voices; according to employees, they have been competing with one another to make the biggest budget cuts headlines while making arbitrary demands, for exemple to cut 80% of the funding for student loan applications websites and services. On the next day, mass firings began; Linda McMahon, wrestling mogul turned secretary of education, said she would like ED "to be closed immediately" because it "is a big con job". On March 11, almost half of the ED workforce has been fired.

### Takedown of material and financial resources

On February 26, 2025, President Trump issued an executive order implementing the DOGE Cost Efficiency Initiative, calling for a new centralized system to record and justify federal agencies' payments of contracts, grants and loans as part of DOGE's transformation process. The EO includes immediate disposal of surplus federal property and reduce non-essential travel. The first agencies to be targeted are international organizations or overseas and educational institutions. On March 4, acting in accordance with this directive, the General Services Administration (GSA) published a list of 443 "non-core" properties to be sold, including the headquarters of the Department of Housing and Urban Development, Department of Agriculture, Justice Department, FBI and many other federal government buildings in the District of Columbia as well as in other cities, including ten federal courthouses, even though the heads of those agencies had not been informed of the intent to sell the buildings. That list was edited the same day to remove about 120 properties and then taken off the GSA website the next day. Wired subsequently reported that the list included a previously undisclosed "highly sensitive federal complex in Springfield, Virginia" where the CIA conducts clandestine operations.
DOGE has put a $1 spending limit to the SmartPay cards of GSA, OPM, CFPB, and USAID employees, with plans to extend the limits to other administrations.

### Federal contract termination announcements

On February 17, 2025, DOGE released the names of 1,127 federal contracts spanning 39 federal departments and agencies that DOGE says had been terminated. Only 300 of these have been formally terminated.
A Wall Street Journal analysis of these contracts found inaccuracies of DOGE's reported savings, including counting contracts multiple times, listing contracts that have already been paid as savings, and misrepresenting potential savings based on contract limits rather than actual spending. On February 24, 2025, DOGE released more documents, with the total nearing 2,300 contracts released. The Associated Press found that "nearly 40%" of the terminated contracts would not save the government any money.
Below is a dynamic list of documents released by DOGE.
| Document | Date released | Description/Notes |
| Termination of Contract for an Anthony Fauci Exhibit at the NIH Museum | February 7, 2025 | DOGE announced the termination of a $168,707 contract for an exhibit on Anthony Fauci at the National Institutes of Health's (NIH) Museum. This contract has already been paid in full. |
| Termination of DHS Contract for "Resilience, Energy, and Sustainability Management Program Support Services" | February 12, 2025 | DOGE announced the termination of a $405,986 contract by the United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS) for "resilience, energy, and sustainability management program support services". |
| Termination of Three EPA Contracts for $45 Million | February 12, 2025 | DOGE announced the termination of three $15 million contracts by the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) totalling $45 million. |
| Termination of HHS $2.23 Million Contract for "Equity Assessments of Existing Program Policies" | February 13, 2025 | DOGE announced the termination of a $2.23 million contract by the United States Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) for "Equity Assessments of Existing Program Policies". |
| DOGE Announcing the Recovery of $1.9 Billion from HUD Misplaced During the Biden Administration | February 14, 2025 | DOGE announced the recovery of $1.9 billion earmarked for the administration of financial services from the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) in three documents showing $751 million, $836 million, and $306 million respectively. |
| Termination of $8.2 Million USDA Contract for "Environmental Compliance Services for the Implementation of Pilot Projects Developed Under the Partnership for Climate Smart Commodities" | February 14, 2025 | DOGE announced the termination of a $8,169,574.13 contract by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) for "environmental compliance services for the implementation of pilot projects developed under the partnership for climate smart commodities". |
| Termination of a $222,145 USDT Contract for Wood Office Furniture Manufacturing | February 17, 2025 | DOGE announced the termination of a $222,145 contract between the United States Department of the Treasury (USDT) and Randall Business Interiors Inc for "wood office furniture manufacturing" for the Internal Revenue Service's (IRS) Special Operations Office. This contract was terminated on January 23, 2025. |
| Termination of a $8 Million ICE Contract For Equal Employment Opportunity | February 17, 2025 | DOGE announced the termination of an $8 million contract between the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and D&G Support Services, LLC for "Equal Employment Opportunity". DOGE originally and falsely claimed this contract saved $8 billion, which was subsequently corrected down to $8 million. |
| Termination of $128,233 Annual Lease for the Allowance to Former Presidents Office in Atlanta, Georgia | February 17, 2025 | DOGE announced the "true termination" of a lease for the "Allowance to Former Presidents Office" located in Atlanta, Georgia. DOGE announced the lease's annual cost was $128,233 and by terminating it, they saved $544,991. Forbes published that this was actually an office for the Carter Center, a nongovernmental, nonprofit organization founded in 1982 by former U.S. President Jimmy Carter. |
| Termination of $121,818 Annual Lease for the Risk Management Agency in Topeka, Kansas | February 17, 2025 | DOGE announced the "true termination" of a lease for the Risk Management Agency (RMA), a branch of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), located in Topeka, Kansas. DOGE announced the lease's annual cost was $121,818 and by terminating it, they saved $964,396. The Topeka Capital-Journal reported that "since the pandemic, they had nobody in the office for the last three years. Not one person." and that "it's a clear example of the government waste that's going on." |

## Legal challenges

DOGE is the subject of intense litigation. There are multiple lawsuits concerning its downsizing of USAID, privacy and security concerns related to its accessing of computer systems and records across the government, its refusal to make its own records public, and Musk's authority. Musk has been the target of a subpoena attempt.

## Response

The establishment of the DOGE has garnered attention for its goals of reducing government spending and bureaucracy. While supporters advocate for increased efficiency and fiscal responsibility, critics express skepticism regarding the feasibility of achieving significant budget cuts without affecting essential services. Concerns have also been raised about potential conflicts of interest, given the private sector backgrounds of key figures involved in DOGE.
As of December 2024, most Republicans have shown support for DOGE. Federal workers and supporters have stated during protests that DOGE is conducting a "corporate coup" and a "hostile takeover" of the government. Protestors across the United States have demonstrated against Musk, DOGE, Tesla, and the Office of Personnel Management.