Elon Musk — the world’s richest man alive — has been handed his own task force designed to reign in government spending. Here’s what you need to know about DOGE, which President Donald Trump officially created on Monday.
What is DOGE?
DOGE, or the Department of Government Efficiency, began as an offhand comment from Musk last August during a publicized conversation with Trump.
“I think it would be great to just have a government efficiency commission that takes a look at these things and, and just ensures that the taxpayer money to the taxpayers, hard earned money is spent in a good way,” Musk told Trump during an X Spaces event. “And I’d be happy to help out on such a commission.”
Its name doesn’t actually come from Musk himself. An X user who goes by “Sir Doge of the Coin” posted the idea, which is itself a reference to DogeCoin, a cryptocurrency based on Kabosu, a viral Shina Inu. Musk — the “Dogefather” is a big fan of DogeCoin, which sparked the meme-coin craze that eventually infected Trump.
In early September, about a week after Musk repeated his willingness to serve, Trump announced that Musk has agreed to lead a government effiency commission.
High expectations
By October, Musk was openly campaigning for Trump across the key swing state of Pennsylvania and running “get-out-the-vote” campaigns through his America PAC. It was later revealed through regulatory filings that Musk spent at least $250 million to help re-elect Trump.
During Trump’s late-October rally in New York City, he claimed that his DOGE group could slash $2 trillion in spending from the federal budget. The federal government spent more than $6.7 trillion last fiscal year, with the largest payments directed toward Social Security, Medicare, interest payments, defense spending, and other assorted health costs.
“I think we could do at least $2 trillion,” Musk said at the time. “Your money is being wasted, and the Department of Government Efficiency is going to fix that. We’re going to get the government off your back and out of your pocketbook.”
Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, the one-time GOP presidential candidate and entrepreneur, were later tapped by Trump to lead $DOGE . In a November editorial, the pair said they would use the planned DOGE group to recommend ways to slash federal spending.
Key target areas included regulations they deemed burdensome, work-from-home policies for federal staff, funding for non-government organizations, and large-scale headcount reduction.
“Not only are fewer employees required to enforce fewer regulations, but the agency would produce fewer regulations once its scope of authority is properly limited,” they wrote
