"There is arguably nothing that better illustrates the chaotic and borderline-nihilistic nature of Donald Trump's presidency - particularly during his wild second term - than the brief reign of terror carried out by the Department of Government Efficiency. DOGE has now been officially put out of existence about halfway through the 18-month lease on life it was given by a Trump executive order, but long after it ceased to function as a significant presence in Washington, D.C."
"It was a disaster, then a zombie, and now it's dead. Though pro-Trump media tried to retroactively justify the out-of-nowhere department ( grafted onto a minor federal IT office left over from the Obama administration) as a reflection of extremely vague Trump '24 promises to reduce the size and cost of the federal government, it began and very much remained a vanity project of his biggest campaign donor, Elon Musk."
"That Musk was also a huge federal contractor (his only real experience with the federal government he decided to turn upside down) and the richest man in the world wasn't a problem for the president who owed him so much. Musk and DOGE conducted a brief ramp-up before Trump's second Inauguration, but then hit the ground - and the federal bureaucracy - with incredible sound and fury."
The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) was created by a Trump executive order by repurposing a small federal IT office. Elon Musk heavily influenced DOGE as a major campaign donor and federal contractor, transforming the office into a personal vanity project. DOGE conducted a rapid ramp-up before the second inauguration and then executed aggressive, chaotic interventions that terrorized federal employees and undermined confidence in governmental capacity. The office quickly became dysfunctional, lingered as a hollow 'zombie' presence, and was officially abolished about halfway through its 18-month mandate despite retroactive media defenses tied to vague promises of government downsizing.
Read at Intelligencer
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