The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) has officially closed its doors less than a year after its launch, but even the outlets reporting its demise highlight an unmistakable reality. DOGE ended early, yet it permanently reshaped the federal workforce, forced long-delayed deregulation efforts, and created savings that agencies are now required to maintain even without the DOGE banner. The media may want to frame the end as failure. Still, they cannot escape documenting what DOGE actually accomplished before internal politics and legal friction brought it to an early stop.
USA Today reports that OPM Director Scott Kupor publicly acknowledged DOGE’s dissolution while emphasizing that its reforms will outlive the agency. In his words:
“That doesn’t exist,” Kupor told Reuters when asked about DOGE’s status.
He later added:
Even Time Magazine, which spent months portraying DOGE as dangerous, admitted the scope and speed of the initiative. Time wrote:
“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.’”
The Reuters exclusive that officially broke news of DOGE’s end also documented the dramatic restructuring DOGE pulled off in less than a year. Reuters acknowledged:
“The agency, set up in January, made dramatic forays across Washington in the early months of Trump’s second term to rapidly shrink federal agencies, cut their budgets or redirect their work to Trump priorities.”“DOGE claimed to have slashed tens of billions of dollars in expenditures” and its staff “have taken on other roles in the administration,” including positions steering health technology, foreign assistance, and major regulatory reviews.
What ultimately ended DOGE early was not failing to produce results but the political fallout surrounding Elon Musk’s public break with the president, lawsuits from unions and agencies, and a bureaucratic machine that fought back at every step. Musk’s exit in May removed the agency’s most aggressive advocate. Friction with Cabinet secretaries over the “One Big Beautiful Bill” became a turning point that made the early wind-down inevitable.
Still, the reforms remain in place. DOGE employees now populate key agencies. Regulatory cuts continue through AI review. OPM has absorbed DOGE’s controls. Even Kupor made clear that agency leaders are expected to “institutionalize” what DOGE started.
DOGE may be gone on paper, but the shockwave it sent through Washington is nowhere near over.
UPDATE:
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