Since President-elect Donald Trump tapped Elon Musk, the world's richest person, and fellow entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy to streamline federal operations, questions have swirled around their initiative, dubbed the "Department of Government Efficiency."
Is it an official department? (No.) How will it be structured? (TBD.) And crucially, what will it actually do?
Through DOGE - named after a meme of a smirking Shiba Inu dog and the cryptocurrency it inspired - Musk and Ramaswamy say they aim to slash billions in federal spending and cut through a labyrinth of "smothering" federal regulations they see as stifling human potential. Musk, in particular, has been vocal about possible targets. On X, his social media platform, he has outlined priorities big and small, from cutting esoteric research studies to eliminating entire government offices.
This week, Musk demonstrated his ability to wield political power through social media, helping to kill a measure House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., negotiated with Democrats to avoid a government shutdown. (Congress did pass a similar measure in time to keep the government open.) Time will tell if he can build similar momentum for some of the more complex and sweeping DOGE changes he has pitched to his more than 200 million followers on X.
"The goal of @DOGE is to speedrun fixing the Federal Government," Musk has said. Here are some of the areas that have drawn his attention so far:
As Trump supporters have pushed for a broad overhaul of the Internal Revenue Service - or to eliminate the tax collector entirely - Musk polled his followers on X about the future of the agency, asking whether the IRS's budget should be increased, maintained, decreased or "deleted." Among more than 200,000 respondents, "deleted" won handily, though the poll didn't exactly use rigorous methodology.
Eliminating the IRS would be a radical move. IRS tax collections are the primary source of federal funding. In fiscal 2023, when spending approached $6.2 trillion, the IRS collected nearly $4.7 trillion in gross taxes. So without the IRS, Washington would need a different source of cash. Like a lot of ideas Musk muses about, this change would need approval by Congress.
On Tuesday, Musk responded "Yes!!" to a post from former Texas congressman Ron Paul, who wrote on X: "We should wean ourselves off The Fed, like we weaned ourselves off the mainstream media."
It wasn't the first time Musk has criticized the country's central bank, which has a range of critical responsibilities, including setting interest rates, managing the total amount of currency in circulation and serving as banker to the U.S. government. "We could save a lot of money by replacing the Fed with a Magic 8-Ball," Musk posted last month.
But nearly every country in the world has a central bank. Without one, it's unclear how America would safeguard "the intrinsic value of the money unit," as Alexander Hamilton put it in 1791. Trump hasn't gone anywhere near the idea - and he's said publicly that he won't try to replace Fed Chair Jerome H. Powell before his term expires in 2026.
The Pentagon spends more than any other federal agency, and defense is one of the largest categories in the federal budget outside the entitlements - such as Social Security and Medicare - and interest on the national debt.
Some Democrats have long complained about the size of the military budget, and Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., has said he is prepared to work with DOGE on ensuring "Americans get their money's worth with (military) spending."
But the devil is in the details, and Musk has not provided many. "@DOGE will improve the efficiency of Defense spending," Musk wrote on X last month in response to a plea from Ramaswamy that said: "We need to strengthen our military by focusing on the *effectiveness* of our defense spending, rather than just reflexively increasing the magnitude."
Musk and Ramaswamy have repeatedly emphasized their desire to bring federal workers back to the office full-time. Musk has long been an opponent of remote work, telling employees of his companies to report to the office or resign well before pandemic telework habits ended at many firms.
"Those who farm or build or drive can't work from home and will be very sympathetic to this requirement," Musk posted recently.
Musk and Ramaswamy have also pledged "mass headcount reductions" in the federal workforce, saying they would work to "identify the minimum number of employees" needed to carry out essential functions.
The goal isn't to save money, Ramaswamy recently told the Aspen Security Forum. It's to align the size of government with its functions - which Musk and Ramaswamy hope to greatly reduce.
Reposting a chart that shows the United States has given more than four times as much as any other country on the list of humanitarian aid-donors, Musk called for paring back aid to other countries.
"@DOGE will address this with full transparency for the American people," he wrote.
But while foreign aid - which encompasses humanitarian aid - may seem an easy political target, cutting it would not accomplish much: The United States spent $63 billion on foreign aid in fiscal 2023 - about 1 percent of federal spending.
A little more than a week after the election, the New York Post highlighted what it described as a clear example of wasteful spending: National Institutes of Health money directed toward research on what it described as "transgender" monkeys.
The story caught Musk's attention. "Looks like a lot of opportunity for @DOGE!" he said.
The official DOGE account on X has offered other examples of what it describes as absurd uses of federal funds: $1.7 million for "holograms of dead comedians." $500,000 for a Washington, D.C., IHOP location. $2.5 million for a Super Bowl ad for the Census.
Those things may sound silly, but like foreign aid, they represent a tiny portion of the federal budget. (And some are one-time grants from years ago.)
"The Federal government computers & software are in such bad shape that they often cannot verify that payments are not fraud, waste or abuse!" Musk said this month. "This is a grind & hardly glorious, but we can't make government efficient & fix the deficit if the computers don't work."
Musk is hardly the first to make this observation. Former President Barack Obama made tech modernization a priority and Congress has long recognized the problem. "Of the government's $100 billion in annual IT spending, 80 percent goes to operating and maintaining existing systems. The older the systems are, the more the upkeep costs - and, older systems are more vulnerable to hackers," the Government Accountability Office wrote in 2023.
If Musk could figure out how to fix the problem, he would probably win applause across the political spectrum.
The Post reported this month that Trump is considering privatizing the U.S. Postal Service, citing concern about its finances. When an X user applauded the idea - "I say privatize it, and better yet: let us opt-out of receiving physical mail." - Musk responded with a firm: "Yes."
Musk has also called the cost of new electric vehicles purchased by USPS "crazy."
Musk has elevated a call for "defanging" the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Federal Trade Commission, both of which have investigated him or his businesses. They are part of a long list of regulatory agencies Musk has tangled with and, at times, criticized.
Musk has also proposed to "delete" the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, a watchdog agency formed after the 2008 financial crisis to protect consumers in their interactions with financial institutions. The agency has long drawn the ire of Republicans - and more recently Musk allies like the venture capitalist Marc Andreessen.
Meanwhile, the Wall Street Journal reported recently that Trump advisers have asked about eliminating the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, the agency that protects bank deposits up to $250,000 per depositor. The Journal reported that the idea had been floated by DOGE officials, among others.
While Trump has taken aim at the Department of Education, Musk has his eye on one specific aspect of education spending: diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives.
"The Department of Education spent over $1 Billion promoting DEI in America's schools," the official DOGE account posted on X, citing a report from Parents Defending Education, a conservative group that draws attention to liberal ideology in schools. "Insane," Musk replied.
"Looks like the people want to abolish the annoying time changes!" Musk posted last month as America set its clocks back, prompting Donald Trump Jr. to weigh in with several "100" emoji, urging "leave it daylight saving time always."
President-elect Trump, too, has officially called for ending the practice of changing the clocks in the fall and spring. (Trump, unlike some Republicans and his son, has called for ending daylight saving time, which would leave clocks on standard time year-round.)
It's not clear how the move would save money - nor how manipulating time itself would fit into the DOGE mandate.
Trump has said DOGE aims to finish its work by July 4, 2026. "Most government projects should come with a clear expiry date. That's why we set one for @DOGE: July 4, 2026," Ramaswamy posted.
Musk agreed: "The final step of @DOGE is to delete itself.