The Creation of DOGE

Today I am going to do something different with this blog, which may or may not become a trend. I've decided that as important as threads about soccer, Blake Lively, and college admissions might be, we are living in a time that demands something more. I may not have much of a voice, but what little voice I do have, I want to use for something more important. While I still have the freedom to write whatever I want, I am going to exercise it. Instead of writing about DCUM threads, I am going to discuss the current political situation in the United States, particularly where it involves the autocratic tendencies of cult leader, convicted felon, and failed President Donald Trump and Shadow President Elon Musk. Today, I am going to discuss the Department of Government Efficiency.

The idea of Musk leading an effort to cut costs in government and improve government efficiency first came up during an August conversation between Musk and Trump that was live-streamed on Musk's social media network X. Then, on August 19, 2024, Musk posted an AI-generated picture of himself standing behind a lectern labeled "The Department of Government Efficiency" and "D.O.G.E.". Musk captioned the graphic, "I am willing to serve". Those familiar with Musk immediately recognized that the name fit Musk's style of addressing serious topics in a juvenile and trolling manner. "Doge" began as an Internet meme, and a cryptocurrency named Dogecoin was later created as a joke making fun of speculative cryptocurrencies. Musk became a champion of both the Doge meme and Dogecoin, which, despite its origin as a joke, became a serious player in the crypto market. Dogecoin owed almost all of its success — if you can call it that — to Musk's promotion of it on Twitter and later X. In typical Musk fashion, "Doge" is not something that he came up with himself but rather something that he has essentially snatched control of from its creators. Regardless of all of that, three weeks after their conversation, Trump said that he would create a government efficiency commission and place Musk in charge. Then, on January 20, the day of his inauguration, Trump signed an Executive Order establishing the Department of Government Efficiency.

There are a number of aspects of the Executive Order that are worth mentioning. Most importantly, a government department cannot be created by an EO. Rather, that requires an act of Congress. Perhaps in recognition of this, the EO renamed the United States Digital Service — an existing organization created during the administration of former President Barack Obama to work on digital projects such as the healthcare.gov website — to the United States DOGE Service (USDS). Within the USDS, the EO also created the U.S. DOGE Service Temporary Organization. Perhaps the most notable aspect of the EO was the description of the mission of USDS, which was "Modernizing Federal Technology and Software to Maximize Efficiency and Productivity". This is a very different task than what DOGE has been undertaking.

On February 11, Trump signed a second Executive Order titled, "Implementing the President’s ‘Department Of Government Efficiency’ Workforce Optimization Initiative". This EO gave DOGE team leaders within government agencies significant control over hiring and reductions in force. No attempt appears to have been made to reconcile the scope of this EO with that of the original EO that created DOGE. Moreover, many of the actions taken by DOGE are well outside the scope of even the second EO. For instance, DOGE stopped the distribution of almost all U.S. foreign assistance and attempted to close the U.S. Agency for International Development. Both of these actions have been halted by federal judges, as have many of DOGE's efforts. However, Trump and Musk have simply ignored the courts.

While Trump has been saying since August that Musk would lead DOGE and has frequently talked about Musk's activities with DOGE, the White House now says that Musk has no official connection to DOGE. Earlier this week, a White House official in a court filing said that Musk works for the White House as a non-career special government employee serving as a "Senior Advisor to the President" and has no authority to make government decisions. The court filing specifically denied that Musk is the administrator of the DOGE or even works for the organization. This, of course, contradicts everything that we have been led to believe since Trump signed the EO creating DOGE. Musk clearly has considerable authority over DOGE, the question is what authorizes that authority? DOGE is filled with former employees of Musk's companies and other associates of his, and Musk routinely takes credit for DOGE's actions. The White House is caught in a contradictory position. It either lied to the Court or Musk has been taking actions for which he is not authorized. Of course, both could be, and probably are, true. Regardless of the veracity of the White House's court filing, Musk has clearly been acting unlawfully. It is not surprising, therefore, that Courts have repeatedly intervened to stop DOGE's moves. Ironically, despite Musk's repeated support for government transparency, we still don't know the identity of the official administrator of DOGE.

Through DOGE, Elon Musk has essentially seized control of the U.S. government. This, despite claims by the White House that Musk has no real authority beyond being able to offer advice and has no official role in DOGE. DOGE itself exists on questionable legal ground, and many of its actions are currently tied up in legal processes. Nevertheless, DOGE's actions have disrupted the lives of hundreds of thousands of federal employees, cut off money to a broad swath of federal programs, and disrupted government services, both large and small. I will be writing more about DOGE in coming days.