DOGE

2024 November

2024-11-12 Trump appointed Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy to DOGE. The White House later alternated between claiming Musk was and was not leading DOGE. Musk was sending out his “What did you do last week” emails.

https://www.npr.org/2024/11/12/g-s1-33972/trump-elon-musk-vivek-ramaswamy-doge-government-efficiency-deep-state

https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.dcd.277463/gov.uscourts.dcd.277463.24.1.pdf

2024-11-25 Key figures from silicon valley were also involved in DOGE.

https://www.businessinsider.com/doge-silicon-valley-leaders-trump-musk-marc-andreessen-travis-kalanick-2024-11

https://techcrunch.com/2025/03/26/19-founders-and-vcs-working-with-elon-musks-doge/

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/19-founders-vcs-working-elon-184500063.html

2025 January

2025-01-20 While he did not directly create DOGE, Heritage Foundation’s Russell Vought both inspired and worked closely with the entity.

https://www.axios.com/2025/07/18/russ-vought-doge-elon-musk-recissions

https://prospect.org/2026/02/05/doge-russell-vought-elon-musk-office-management-budget/

https://www.democracydocket.com/news-alerts/trump-advisor-russell-vought-doge/

2025 February

2025-02-17 The Trump administration stated Elon Musk was not DOGE’s leader, calling him a “Special Government Employee” without formal authority.

https://www.politico.com/news/2025/02/17/doge-administrator-elon-musk-00204639

2025 April

2025-04-28 DOGE claimed to save $160B with cuts, but the cost to taxpayers equated to $135B.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/doge-cuts-cost-135-billion-analysis-elon-musk-department-of-government-efficiency/

2025 June

2025-06-24 The Trump administration scrambled to rehire federal workers fired by DOGE. Those DOGE cuts cost taxpayers an estimated $135B.

https://www.cnn.com/2025/06/24/politics/doge-fired-workers-rehired

https://www.citizensforethics.org/reports-investigations/crew-reports/doges-big-illusion-the-heavy-costs-of-the-trump-administrations-so-called-efficiency/

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/doge-cuts-cost-135-billion-analysis-elon-musk-department-of-government-efficiency/

2025 July

2025-07-01 A UCLA Fielding research study showed that DOGE’s dismantling USAID will lead to more than 14M preventable deaths including more than 4M children under the age of 5

https://ph.ucla.edu/news-events/news/research-finds-more-14-million-preventable-deaths-2030-if-usaid-defunding

https://www.healthdata.org/research-analysis/gbd

2025-07-10 Project 2025 calls to completely dismantle the National Weather Service and fully commercialize forecasting operations. DOGE torched NOAA’s staff.

https://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/4907338-heritage-foundation-plan-weather-service/

https://www.americanprogress.org/article/the-lasting-threat-of-trumps-cuts-to-noaa-and-nws-on-american-communities/

2025-07-15 The Trump administration defunded CISA (Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency), accusing it of spreading misinformation and combating foreign disinformation. Interesting sidenote, the former director Chris Krebs was one of Trump’s direct targets when he announced the 2020 presidential election was conducted securely and without significant voter fraud.

https://www.meritalk.com/articles/trump-budget-slashes-cisa-science-funding-boosts-space-mission/

https://www.cybersecuritydive.com/news/cisa-stakeholder-engagement-division-layoffs-critical-infrastructure-international/803433/#

https://www.computerweekly.com/news/366625236/US-cyber-agency-CISA-faces-stiff-budget-cuts#

2025 August

2025-08-05 Critics accused DOGE of indiscriminate cuts to agriculture, education, science, infrastructure, and environmental programs despite promises of “surgical” reductions.

https://www.americanprogress.org/article/doge-cuts-by-city-state-and-congressional-district/

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/trump-administration/trump-threatens-federal-control-dc-attack-doge-staffer-coristine-rcna223293

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/US_federal_agencies_targeted_by_DOGE