Elon Musk’s Efficiency Agency Turns Out to Be Just Another Scam
The much-discussed Department of Government Efficiency is finally coming to fruition—but it’s not the stringent, $2 trillion cost-cutting agency that Elon Musk had promised.
Instead, the executive order Donald Trump signed Monday night officially actualizing the executive branch division is a simple rebrand of something that already exists: the U.S. Digital Service, which has little to do with budget cuts.
“The United States Digital Service is hereby publicly renamed as the United States DOGE Service (USDS) and shall be established in the Executive Office of the President,” the executive order reads.
Part of the mandate includes the development of a subagency, named the U.S. DOGE Service Temporary Organization, which will be “dedicated to advancing the President’s 18-month DOGE agenda.” The temporary subagency will expire on July 4, 2026. The administrator overseeing DOGE will report to White House chief of staff Susie Wiles.
And in reality, it appears that more bureaucracy will be on the agenda for the memeified division: The executive order requires the hiring of four-person “DOGE teams” for each agency (very efficient, much cost-cutting). They will include an agency-related team lead, an engineer, a human resources specialist, and an attorney, per the order, all in an effort to further advance Trump’s vague and unclear DOGE agenda.
Another executive order further grants DOGE a level of responsibility for enacting a federal hiring plan.
“The Federal Hiring Plan shall provide specific best practices for the human resources function in each agency, which each agency head shall implement, with advice and recommendations as appropriate from DOGE,” the order, titled “Reforming the Federal Hiring Process and Restoring Merit to Government Service,” reads.
The first job gutted by DOGE was apparently one of its own potential co-chairs, biotech executive Vivek Ramaswamy’s, who was ousted from Trumpworld in recent weeks for seemingly grating on the “rank and file” of the cost-cutting department. Last week, Trump personally implored Ramaswamy to consider taking Ohio’s Senate seat, recently vacated by Vice President JD Vance, if it was offered to him by Governor Mike DeWine. (Of course, it wasn’t, and the billionaire is instead expected to announce a bid to replace the term-limited governor in 2026.)
Musk has promised to trim $2 trillion from the federal budget under the helm of the agency, a sum that constitutes more than Congress has in discretionary spending. Doing so would practically defund the entire executive branch, which doles out funding for the military, national security, and all federal agencies.