Who let DOGE out?” Apparently everyone. Has anyone in Washington DC bothered to close the entrance and lock the rear gate?
Born with hype,
- Run with chaos,
- Measured with fantasy math, and
- Ended with a quiet shrug.
DOGE was marketed as a moonshot for government efficiency, led by a technocrat billionaire who promised Silicon Valley-style disruption. Instead, it delivered:
- Higher spending instead of cuts
- Overstated savings instead of verifiable reductions
- Agency turmoil instead of improved performance
- Public infighting instead of unified governance
- A silent shutdown instead of a victory lap
That’s not disruption, it’s combustion.
What Went Wrong
The “slash first, justify later” strategy imploded.
Cutting grants, firing thousands, and shuttering agencies before understanding consequences is not efficiency — it’s vandalism with a spreadsheet.Musk’s access became a liability.
When a “special adviser” with a 130-day contract gets cross-government visibility and influence, oversight becomes impossible and optics turn toxic.
The $1 trillion savings target was a political unicorn.
It sounded bold. It photographed well. It was never real.
DOGE’s own savings claims ($214B) were contradicted by audits showing inflation, double-counting, and outright invention.
The Musk–Trump split killed whatever momentum existed.
“No drama” might be a White House slogan; it is not a Musk lifestyle choice.
Once the feud over the “One Big Beautiful Bill” became public, DOGE became a political orphan. The staff exodus showed where the wind was blowing.
When 45 people were left by October, many already looking for lifeboats, the writing was on the wall.
By the time DOGE died, it died of neglect, not confrontation.
The Epitaph
DOGE: January 2025 Born of disruption and died of dysfunction.
If someone ever writes a case study, the moral may be: “You can’t fix government by treating it like a broken app update.”