Trump means business

Less than four months ago, the U.S. Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), was created and ideated by Donald J. Trump on January 20, 2025 -- the day Donald Trump was sworn in as the 47th President of the United States. The DOGE was envisioned and enforced by Mr. Trump as an Executive Order with the object of ‘maximizing general efficiency and productivity.’  The government records tell us that an identical agency, ‘US Digital Service-USDS’- was also established by the 44th President, Barack Obama. It was ‘meant as a bureaucratic patch job to fix the Obamacare website meltdown.’  It seems Donald Trump only gave it a new name, the DOGE.

The principal object to create DOGE, according to Donald Trump, was ‘slashing spending by dismantling Federal Government agencies by mass firings of Federal workers whose overall size was supposed to help shrink.’

DOGE as a Federal agency was initially jointly headed by Elon Musk, the world’s richest person, who owned six reputed firms including social media platform  X, formerly Twitter, electric vehicle Tesla manufacturer, and biotech entrepreneur and the 2024 Republican presidential candidate, Vivek Ramaswamy. But Ramaswamy later withdrew (as he declared, he intended to run for the Ohio State’s 2026 governor election).

The DOGE was founded within the Executive Office of the President in the White House. When he announced the creation of the office in November, President Trump said DOGE ‘would provide advice and guidance from outside the government,’ to end disfavoured government programmes. The administration has dismissed probationary employees, and Trump in an executive order has asked the agency leaders ‘to plan for large scale reductions.’ And only a few days ago, Musk had called for the U.S. to ‘delete entire agencies’ from the federal government as part of his push ‘to radically cut spending and restructure priorities.’

According to the NBC TV channel’s report, a list of savings provided by the White House, at least $2.2 billion in initial savings has been recorded; the DOGE website has also estimated it as at least $5.6 billion. The report further added that the Elon Musk team was tapping into several sources to dig out which agency was indulging in waste of resources, fraud and abuse. ‘Any total so far was a tiny fraction of Musk’s initial goal of $2 trillion, the size of the Federal Budget deficit.’

Be that as it may, DOGE rapidly dug deep into various government agencies and initiated drastic actions to cut costs ‘by getting rid of the federal workers, shuttering the US Agency for International Development and the Consumers Financial Protection Bureau, and some others. After closely scrutinizing numerous government agencies, Musk discovered that in many cases it’s not just the one agency, ‘it’s the whole thing; ‘you’ve got to basically get rid of the whole thing…It’s beyond repair.’

Another agency Musk identified to be got rid of was the General Services, GSA, which manages federal government buildings – 7,500 federal offices nationwide. Other agencies listed by the Musk team include: Department of Education, Social Security Administration, National Nuclear Administration, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and Centers for Diseases Control and Prevention, etc. So far, as the DOGE records show, large number of workers from Federal agencies and departments have been removed or have resigned: Pentagon (all defence departments) will cut 5,400 jobs; Internal Revenue Service to fire 6,700 staff; department of Interior to lay off 2,300; department of agriculture 3,400 workers–all probationary employees (equal to 10% of total workforce); Department of Health and Human Services –1,300 CDC – Centers of Diseases; NIH-National Institute of Health 1,165. Of the 80,000 total 5,200 to be laid off; Department of Education 4,400 to go…It’s expected that overall laid off could exceed 2.4 million.

Though the Elon Musk team has been going along with its federal staff-shrinkage and cost-cutting job; Musk has been named by Trump as a ‘special government employee that subjects him to less stringent rules on ethics and financial disclosures than other workers.’ His team functions from an office located in the White House complex. However, the fact is that it has not been smooth sailing all along: According to a recent The Washington Post report, a lawsuit claiming that DOGE violates federal transparency rules, and recently said that Musk team’s work is ‘breaking a 1972 law that requires advisory committees to the executive branch to follow certain rules on disclosure, hiring and other practices.’ Though the Federal government has ‘countered that DOGE is acting in an advisory role and doesn’t need the Senate confirmation.’ However, a federal judge had blocked DOGE from accessing the U.S. Treasury Department records that contain sensitive personal data of American citizens.

Finally, DOGE’s lay-offs, terminations and dismissals have met with a plethora of complaints and grievances. The Economist (March 29, 2025) has warned that umpteen federal staff cuts could craft immeasurable damage to America’s economic, political image in the long run. Secondly, Mr. Musk’s massive firing will ‘break the government;’ and thirdly, that … DOGE becomes snarled up in court and America is left with a stronger president and a weaker Congress.’

So, the time to wake up for the Trump White House to listen to multiple voices of wisdom.