White House’s ‘DOGE’ Office Quietly Winds Down Months Early as Administration Eyes Faster Path to Closing Federal Units

The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE)—an agency created by President Donald Trump to cut cost and increase efficency—has effectively closed eight months earlier before its charter was set to expire.

According to Reuters report, the once-high-profile initiative no longer functions as a centralized office, a detail confirmed by the administration’s own personnel chief. The early stall comes as the White House weighs a controversial rule change that would make it far easier to shutter federal units and eliminate entire programs without lengthy procedural hurdles.

The development follows a broader push inside the administration to accelerate downsizing across federal agencies. Internal investigations revealed last week that the White House is considering a proposal that would allow government departments to lay off personnel without weighing performance or tenure when a whole unit is dissolved.

One federal employment attorney warned that such a rule would empower agency heads to selectively dismantle offices—a shift that could have sweeping implications for the balance of federal oversight.

DOGE itself has been a uniquely turbulent experiment since its creation in January. Conceived as a small, nimble team designed to “slash excess regulations, cut wasteful expenditures, and restructure Federal Agencies,” the office quickly became a magnet for confusion, speculation, and political controversy.

Its acronym, identical to the Dogecoin meme token, sparked immediate curiosity—and chaos—within the crypto community, where many assumed billionaire Elon Musk was playing a direct role in shaping federal policy. That assumption only grew louder when the Dogecoin logo briefly appeared on the department’s official website, triggering a 14.4% spike in DOGE’s price.

The overlap proved coincidental. Although Musk had been an outspoken Dogecoin booster for years, the agency’s mandate had nothing to do with digital assets. Still, the techno-billionaire’s proximity to the administration fueled persistent speculation.

In early February, a document signed by Joshua Fisher, director of the Office of Administration, clarified that Musk had no authority to make federal decisions related to DOGE, despite public perception that he held outsized influence.

Yet controversy continued to shadow the department. In the same week the office fielded attention for its inadvertent Dogecoin signal, DOGE officials also began exploring blockchain technology as a potential tool to increase transparency and improve the efficiency of government operations and spending—an idea that briefly reassured the tech community that the agency might become a vehicle for modernization rather than just downsizing.

Instead, the department quickly became entangled in legal turmoil. Later in February, a multi-state lawsuit accused the Trump administration of unlawfully granting Musk and DOGE officials broad access to the Treasury’s sensitive federal payment systems. These systems support disbursements such as Social Security, veterans’ benefits, Medicaid reimbursements, and other essential payments to U.S. citizens.

The complaint alleged that individuals with no formal Treasury role had been provided elevated system privileges, potentially exposing vast volumes of personal and financial data. Plaintiffs argued that the move aligned disturbingly with Musk’s public calls to halt funding for programs the administration sought to eliminate.

The controversy deepened market speculation. Reports that Musk would soon depart DOGE briefly boosted Bitcoin and Tesla’s stock price in early April. Weeks later, in May, Musk confirmed his exit from the office entirely.

What followed was a dramatic rupture in the once-friendly relationship between Musk and Trump. In June, the pair engaged in a heated public dispute that splashed across social media and cable news. The spat created yet another layer of confusion for observers already struggling to parse the true purpose, authority, and internal structure of DOGE.

The department’s branding, its loosely defined mandate, and Musk’s mercurial involvement had already made it one of the most scrutinized arms of the federal government. The public feud pushed that perception further into disarray.

Now, as the office quietly winds down far ahead of schedule, the administration’s broader strategy appears to be shifting from building new units to dismantling existing ones. If enacted, the proposed new rule would reshape how quickly federal programs can be terminated, potentially accelerating the administration’s cost-cutting agenda while raising alarms among legal experts about the risks of unchecked consolidation of executive power.

For DOGE, the curtain appears to have fallen before the agency ever found stable footing. What remains is a brief, chaotic experiment—part political project, part public relations misfire, and part cautionary tale about how technocracy, personality-driven policymaking, and internet culture can collide inside the U.S. federal government.