The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), the Trump administration initiative that drove widespread federal workforce reductions and spending cuts, officially concluded its operations on July 4, marking the end of a department that reshaped large portions of the federal government during President Donald Trump’s second term.
In a social media post announcing the conclusion of its work, DOGE quoted former President Theodore Roosevelt, writing, “Far and away the best prize that life offers is the chance to work hard at work worth doing.”
The department said that while its formal mission had come to an end, its broader goals would continue.
“While the formal mission of DOGE has come to an end, the mission to eliminate waste, fraud, and abuse will continue,” the department wrote. “Good stewardship of taxpayer dollars and accountable government are not temporary initiatives. We hope those principles endure long into America’s next 250 years.”
DOGE’s closure came as planned under an executive order President Trump signed on his first day back in office. The order renamed the U.S. Digital Service as the U.S. DOGE Service and directed agency leaders across the federal government to provide department officials with full and prompt access to unclassified agency records, software systems and information technology systems. The order also established that DOGE would expire during America’s semiquincentennial.
Amy Gleason served as DOGE’s acting administrator from February 2025 until the department’s closure. According to her LinkedIn profile, she now serves as chief product officer at the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
Elon Musk oversaw DOGE during the early months of the second Trump administration while serving as a special government employee for 130 days, reporting directly to President Trump. Musk, who donated hundreds of millions of dollars to Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign, later publicly feuded with the president after opposing the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which Trump ultimately signed into law in July 2025.
During Musk’s leadership of DOGE, shares of his company, Tesla, declined significantly. The article also notes that multiple individuals burned Tesla vehicles during that period.
By October, DOGE estimated it had generated $214 billion in savings through asset sales, cancellations of contracts, leases and grants, elimination of fraud and improper payments, interest savings, program changes, regulatory savings and workforce reductions. According to the department, that equated to $1,329 saved for each of the nation’s roughly 161 million taxpayers and reduced the national debt by 0.54%.
The initiative also faced criticism over its costs. In December, Timothy White, executive director of the environmental nonprofit Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER), estimated that the Trump administration’s deferred resignation program cost taxpayers approximately $10 billion during 2025.
“Ironically, this unreasonably costly mass idling of civil servants was done in the name of ‘government efficiency,’” White wrote in a letter to the Government Accountability Office.
For fiscal year 2027, the administration requested $35 million from Congress for DOGE under reimbursable program activity. The Hill reported that it reached out to the White House for comment regarding future cost-cutting efforts following DOGE’s closure.
According to the Office of Personnel Management, more than 272,000 federal employees left government service after Trump’s return to office through a combination of a hiring freeze, early retirement offers and workforce reductions. Nearly 140,000 employees accepted deferred resignation offers that allowed them to receive full pay and benefits until departing by Sept. 30, 2025.
The Departments of Defense, Treasury, Agriculture, Veterans Affairs and Interior recorded the largest number of departures, including more than 48,000 Pentagon employees and over 23,000 Treasury Department workers.
Although DOGE significantly reduced the federal workforce, the federal government later rehired hundreds of employees who had previously been laid off, while court challenges allowed other employees to keep their positions.
One of DOGE’s earliest efforts focused on the Internal Revenue Service, including seeking individual tax return information for households and businesses, a move that raised privacy concerns.
Several senior DOGE figures, including Musk, advisers Steve Davis and Katie Miller, and general counsel James Burnham, departed the federal government in May 2025. However, a number of former DOGE staff remain in the administration. Gavin Kilger serves as the Pentagon’s chief data officer, Sam Corcos is the Treasury Department’s chief information officer, Edward Coristine works at the National Design Studio, and Joe Gebbia now oversees the National Design Studio, which Trump tasked with improving federal agency websites.
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