The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) has been quietly disbanded with eight months left in its charter, according to the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) director.
OPM Director Scott Kupor told Reuters that DOGE—the sweeping cost-cutting effort led by billionaire Elon Musk that dominated the first months of President Donald Trump’s second term—“doesn't exist,” adding that most of the office's functions have been absorbed by OPM, the federal government’s human resources agency.
Kupor said that DOGE is no longer the “centralized entity” it once was when Trump appointed Musk to lead the agency in January.
Later Sunday, Kupor appeared to take issue with the Reuters story in a social media post, without challenging any of its facts.
“The truth is: DOGE may not have centralized leadership under the [U.S. DOGE Service], the principles of DOGE remain alive and well: deregulation; eliminating fraud, waste, and abuse; re-shaping the federal workforce; making efficiency a first-class citizen," Kupor wrote on X.
He added that the OPM and the Office of Management and Budget would "institutionalize" the changes made by DOGE.
Musk’s collaboration with the Trump Administration drew scrutiny for the access he was granted throughout the government in his role as a “special advisor,” and the wide-ranging impact of the cuts made to everything from foreign aid to Social Security.
Musk and his team quickly began cutting federal grants, mass-firing federal workers, shuttering entire agencies, and canceling contracts. He positioned his staff throughout government agencies, seeking access to sensitive data in the name of making the government more “efficient.”
For months, Musk reiterated his overarching goal of reducing the deficit by $1 trillion by September 30, before a very public feud with Trump over his “One Big Beautiful Bill” led to a very public breakdown in ties.
Musk’s exit had long been expected. As a special government employee, he had a 130-day contract that expired on Friday, May 30.
By the time he departed, Musk had not come close to achieving the $1 trillion savings he had projected. DOGE’s website claims it has saved $214 billion at the federal level, but multiple reports show the department inflated, rewrote, or overstated these savings.
While DOGE did not deliver the savings it promised, it caused chaos and upended lives in the U.S. and abroad. At the Social Security Administration, DOGE cutbacks in the name of efficiency led to severe delays in processing claims.
The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), which is credited with saving tens of millions of lives over two decades through vaccines, malaria prevention, and HIV/AIDS response, was effectively shut down in July 2025. An internal USAID memo projected hundreds of thousands of excess deaths as a result of the shutdown. Another study by Boston University epidemiologist and infectious disease mathematical modeller Brooke Nichols estimates that more than 600,000 have already died as a result of the cuts.
Since Musk departed from government, dozens of staffers—including the core leadership team—have followed the Tesla CEO out the door. In October, 45 staffers were still employed at DOGE, and the office remained open during the government shutdown, according to a memo released at the time.
Many of those who remained have since taken on new roles across different departments within the executive branch. Some high-profile staffers joined Trump’s new National Design Studio, led by Airbnb co-founder Joe Gebbia. Others have taken roles as chief technology officer at the Department of Health and Human Services, as an official overseeing foreign assistance at the State Department, and as chief of the Office of Naval Research.
Some of DOGE’s initiatives, including the government-wide hiring freeze, have also ended, according to Kupor’s interview with Reuters.