Elon Musk’s DOGE lights out
DOGE, the Department of Government Efficiency, promised significant savings. It was disbanded with eight months remaining on its founding charter.
Monday, December 1, 2025 episode of the podcast The Excerpt: DOGE, Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, was disbanded with eight months left on its charter. USA TODAY political reporter Katherine Palmer joins USA TODAY’s The Excerpt to break down its demise.
Press play in the player below to listen to the podcast and follow the transcript below. This transcript was automatically generated and edited in its current format for clarity. There may be some differences between audio and text.
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Dana Taylor:
Less than a year later, the Department of Government Efficiency, known as DOGE, was launched. The controversial cost-cutting plan was initially led by equally controversial tech billionaire Elon Musk. Did DOGE achieve its original goals?
Hello. Welcome to this excerpt from USA Today. I’m Dana Taylor. Today is Monday, December 1, 2025.
Much has been made of the drastic reductions in the federal workforce, but there have also been orders from President Donald Trump to, as Musk puts it, “delete mountains” of government regulation and reshape the government with AI. Here, USA Today political reporter Kathryn Palmer dives into all things DOGE. Good to have you back, Kathryn.
Kathryn Palmer:
Thank you so much for having me.
Dana Taylor:
Now, I asked if DOGE was able to achieve its original goals, but first, could you tell me about the scope of the mission that President Trump has given the Department of Government Efficiency?
Kathryn Palmer:
If we take a step back and rewind to 2024, this agency and this initiative were actually born out of a bromance between Trump and tech billionaire Elon Musk. The pair used to be very close. Musk was one of Trump’s biggest campaign donors. He often appeared with them at campaign events. And the close relationship between the two shows the connection they shared over a common complaint between MAGA and the Republican Party: that the federal government is too big. It’s too bloated and inefficient.
So over the last year, the two have gotten closer, found common ground, Musk has become more involved in the campaign, and we’ve seen them both backtracking on the idea of the agency. The name itself is also very Mask-like coded, being “DOGE” after the meme cryptocurrency coin Dogecoin. So this agency was founded in January. It was an executive order, and what it essentially did was codify and institutionalize this effort that the two men had talked about and actually agreed to to reduce waste in government. The executive order said the agency, which was created by renovating an existing executive branch, would eliminate “the waste, bloat, and insularity of the federal bureaucracy.”
Dana Taylor:
As mentioned earlier, DOGE began under the leadership of Elon Musk. But it didn’t stay that way. When and why did you stop wearing masks?
Kathryn Palmer:
Yes, one of the things to look out for is this institution. At its inception, the charter, signed by President Trump, was so ambitious that it was supposed to be an 18-month agenda. But if you think back to the headlines and key conversations in January, February, and March of 2024, many of them were about DOGE. This agency really, really struggled out of the gate.
DOGE started with Elon Musk at the helm. Mr. Musk was the brains behind it all. He actually owned DOGE, and even before it was founded, before it became an executive agency, it became almost synonymous with DOGE itself. It started to backfire because Elon Musk was everywhere and he was talking loudly. His presence began to become very uncomfortable for other government officials. And this actually led to a dramatic rift between Musk and the president. And this was over President Trump’s massive tax and spending bill, the Big Beautiful Act, which had been requested for months.
This almost made Mr. Musk very angry. He complained pretty loudly that it was irresponsible and was increasing the federal deficit. And he realized that that was hypocritical and inconsistent with this agency that he ran and founded with Trump, and here comes this signature tax bill. And Musk continually criticized the bill, which led to a falling out between Trump and Musk. And by the end of May, Musk was on his way out. It’s been an 18-month mission, and we’re still here today. It’s not summer 2026 and DOGE is effectively complete.
Dana Taylor:
This government agency was sometimes rough with those who tried to get in its way. What happened there? How did DOGE deal with the opposition?
Kathryn Palmer:
Every week seemed to announce new layoffs, new acquisitions, new allegations of cutting government contracts to save thousands or millions of dollars, and new actions by the fledgling agency. So DOGE opened its doors really quickly, but almost immediately there was massive legal opposition. And in some of these cases, federal judges have ruled that there was executive overreach and that some of what DOGE was doing actually crossed into Congressional territory. There were massive protests and mass public outcry, especially among thousands of government workers whose careers and lives were completely upended.
What is the cause of the disappearance of DOGE?
As DOGE disbands, questions remain about how close it came to fulfilling President Donald Trump’s mandate.
Dana Taylor:
Yes, DOGE laid off tens of thousands of federal employees, but we also learned that some were later asked to come back.
Kathryn Palmer:
Yeah. In February, March, and April, the administration carried out a series of layoffs and layoffs. At one point, various federal agencies were inundated with announcements that they were cutting their workforce completely, with some agencies essentially just disappearing after the DOGE announcement. And yes, as you said, tens of thousands of people who worked across the government, which should not be underestimated, lost their jobs and were forced into early retirement. There was chaos, especially where the headquarters of various government agencies were located.
A buyout was immediately offered to all 2.3 million federal employees. DOGE went online and 2.3 million people were told you might want to consider quitting. And these institutions are still trying to figure it out after all this. And like you said, it ended up backfiring on them. They kind of took a slash-and-burn approach and said, “We’re going to propose all these acquisitions,” and then a few months later, late summer, early fall, some of these agencies were saying, “Hey, actually, we’re so understaffed right now that we can’t execute on some of our core principles and core mechanisms.”
And these are for government agencies that have such a huge impact on our daily lives. We’re talking about the IRS, the Social Security Administration, and the National Park Service. This was huge in terms of destabilization and ultimately became too much for some of these agencies to handle. So around September, I received inquiries from several agencies asking, “Can you actually come back?”
So this is another disconcerting element to DOGE’s very broad and ambitious promises and very aggressive actions earlier this year, and then just a few months later we find ourselves in the current situation where multiple government agencies are trying to bring back some of these employees to continue to operate efficiently. Musk has effectively left the White House. And with this latest announcement, DOGE is no longer the centralized agency it was when it was created earlier this year.
Dana Taylor:
Was DOGE successful in reducing federal funding for certain parts of its mission?I understand there were questions about bookkeeping. What happened there? Did they get closer to achieving the goals they set?
Kathryn Palmer:
The short answer is no. they didn’t. When DOGE first came online, publicly, or when Musk and Trump were basically saying to everyone, “Hey, we’re going to fulfill this campaign promise,” Musk was promising pretty big cuts. At one point, he announced, “We’re going to cut $2 trillion in the federal government in the first year.” Then after a while he said, “Oh, it’s going to be $1 trillion.”
These public statements, Mr. Trump’s promises, began to resonate more with the American people, including not just Mr. Trump but many of the people who supported him in the election, wanted to cut federal funding, and agreed with the president that the government was too big. Did I mention that this website is updated fairly continuously, listing government contracts that are being canceled and various savings items that are being implemented?
And there has been a lot of criticism about this self-reported savings amount. But even looking at highly opaque self-reported numbers, DOGE announced savings of only $214 billion as of November 23. Compare this to the most conservative estimate of President Trump’s pledge, which said DOGE would save $1 trillion. 214 billion is just a fraction of that.
Dana Taylor:
I would like to insist that DOGE is no longer a centralized agency. What does that mean exactly?
Kathryn Palmer:
DOGE was created by essentially reorganizing and renaming existing enforcement agencies. For several months it was called DOGE, but officials have now changed it back to its original name. It is as if DOGE as a central authority no longer exists. There are government officials who are pushing back against this and saying, “Yes, this is no longer a centralized institution, but the spirit, the spirit of it is still there.” But compare that to earlier this year, when we had an actual agency. DOGE was an 18-month chartered agency created by executive order and at one time had more than 100 employees. Every time they came out with something, they had a big impact, they made decisions that were challenged in various federal courts, and now they’re just quietly or quietly trying to disband.
Dana Taylor:
Will the Trump administration’s mission to reduce the size of government remain the same whether or not DOGE acts as a central agency?
Kathryn Palmer:
These efforts can still continue, but the important thing is that there are dozens of people who are passionate about this work. That is no longer the case. So whether it continues or not is really debatable.
Dana Taylor:
Finally, Kathryn, what is the message we’re hearing from the Trump administration as DOGE ends?
Kathryn Palmer:
Press Secretary Caroline Levitt truly defended DOGE, even though reports from government officials confirm that there is no centralized leadership and that the agency no longer exists as it once did. One of the things we’re hearing is Trump administration officials insisting, “Yes, but the spirit of DOGE is still alive. The spirit of cost reduction, the spirit of limiting government waste and bloat.” It remains to be seen whether the same amount of slash-and-burn will be carried out as was carried out when DOGE was the central agency.
Dana Taylor:
Yes, Kathryn Palmer is a political reporter for USA Today. Thank you for joining us on The Excerpt.
Kathryn Palmer:
Thank you so much for having me.
Dana Taylor:
We would like to thank Senior Producer Kaely Monahan for production assistance. executive producer Laura Beatty; Let us know what you think about this episode by sending a note to podcasts@usatoday.com. Thanks for listening, I’m Dana Taylor. Tomorrow morning, we’ll bring you another episode of USA Today excerpts.
