Elon Musk wielding a chainsaw at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) on Feb. 20, 2025 in Oxon Hill, Md. Andrew Harnik/Getty Images
Andrew Harnik/Getty Images
When President Trump returned to the White House in January, he promised to “restore competence and effectiveness” to the federal government by establishing a Department of Government Efficiency.
In the lead-up to his inauguration, DOGE evolved from a meme to an outside commission to a White House office given carte blanche to upend the executive branch in the name of combating perceived waste, fraud and abuse.
A small cadre of software engineers and others