Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

DOGE has had its day: A government-wide freeze on hiring is over and the federal deficit has reached a record $38 trillion in the past month
Spectator World ^ | 11/24/2025 | Jacob Heilbrunn

Posted on 11/24/2025 8:20:12 PM PST by SeekAndFind

DoGE has been DoGE’d. The once fearsome government efficiency office has been shut down eight months before its contract officially ends in July 2026. What was supposed to be an organization that exploded traditional ways of running the federal government has turned into a damp squib.

It was established by President Trump on the first day of his second term in office. Headed by Tesla chief Elon Musk and entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy (who resigned early on to run for Ohio governor), it struck the kind of fear into government bureaucrats that a visit from the Red Guards might instill during Mao’s Cultural Revolution. Musk’s minions rampaged through government offices, whether it was the US Institute of Peace or the Wilson Center. The idea was that the bastions of the liberal establishment would not simply be purged but permanently abolished.

Now, as Reuters reports, the efficiency office has been disbanded. “That doesn’t exist” as a “centralized entity” Office of Personnel Management Director Scott Kupor said. Hasta la vista, in other words. After Musk torched, or appeared to torch, his relationship with Trump in May, DoGE began to sputter. The Trump administration is trying to put the best face possible on its dissolution. On social media Kupor declared, “”DoGE may not have centralized leadership under @USDS,” Kupor said, referring to the United States Digital Service, which was reorganized into DoGE. “But, the principles of DoGE remain alive and well: de-regulation; eliminating fraud, waste and abuse; re-shaping the federal workforce; making efficiency a first-class citizen; etc.”

Yeah, right. The truth is that a government-wide freeze on hiring is over and the federal deficit has reached a record $38 trillion in the past month. The Congressional Budget Office estimates that Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill will add over $3 trillion to the deficit and that the deficit for fiscal year 2025 will run $1.8 trillion. The only mitigating factor has been a de facto tax hike by Trump who has imposed punitive tariffs.

If the debt remains, so does the insalubrious legacy of DoGE. One is the agencies that it either denuded or shuttered during its brief but chaotic existence. Take the Kennan Institute, which was formerly housed in the Wilson Center on the Washington Mall. I recently visited its new headquarters on K Street – a one-room office. The institute will make a comeback, but demolishing the Wilson Center was symbolic of DoGE’s march of folly through Washington.

Another inadvertent legacy of DoGE is actually diametrically opposed to its mandate – the expansion of big government in the form of National Guard troops stationed in a variety of American cities. When DoGE staffer Edward “Big Balls” Corisine was attacked by ten juveniles near DC’s Dupont Circle in early August, Trump responded by stationing the National Guard in Washington and other cities. But this initiative, too, appears to be ebbing as Trump refrains from sending in troops to New York City and a federal judge blocks his deployment of the National Guard in Washington.

As he focuses on becoming the world’s first trillionaire, Musk, who attended the White House dinner for Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, appears to have put the entire episode in the rearview mirror. Once upon a time he called himself the president’s “first buddy.” Then came the feud with Trump. Now the reconciliation?


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Culture/Society; Government; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: currencydebasement; debt; deficit; doge; elonmusk; inflation; spending
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-24 next last

1 posted on 11/24/2025 8:20:12 PM PST by SeekAndFind
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: SeekAndFind

Anybody too stupid to know the difference between debt and deficit shouldn’t be writing articles. This clown used the terms interchangeably.


2 posted on 11/24/2025 8:22:56 PM PST by FirstFlaBn
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: SeekAndFind

Rat Judges mobilized and went a long way to crush their efforts.


3 posted on 11/24/2025 8:26:04 PM PST by iamgalt
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: SeekAndFind

this author is writing about shit he doesn’t even understand


4 posted on 11/24/2025 8:28:42 PM PST by pissant ((Deport 'em all))
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: SeekAndFind

As usual, this is fake news from @Reuters. President Trump was given a mandate by the American people to modernize the federal government and reduce waste, fraud and abuse. Just last week, DOGE terminated 78 wasteful contracts and saved taxpayers $335M. We’ll be back in a few days with our regularly scheduled Friday update. 🇺🇸 https://t.co/S1pSmx26s0— Department of Government Efficiency (@DOGE) November 24, 2025



5 posted on 11/24/2025 8:34:33 PM PST by HoneysuckleTN (President Trump 45 & 47. MAGA ~ WWG1WGA)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: SeekAndFind

Quickly and widely spread by blackpill sites and lefty outlets. Also untrue.

https://x.com/DOGE


6 posted on 11/24/2025 8:36:26 PM PST by No.6
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: HoneysuckleTN

Concur..... it’s so deep.... hip-waders are of little use.


7 posted on 11/24/2025 8:37:25 PM PST by LastDayz (A Blunt and Brazen Texan. I Will Not Be Assimilated.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 5 | View Replies]

To: HoneysuckleTN

The current tactic appears to be, now that “divisions in MAGA” turned out to be foreign accounts sowing discord, to throw as much BS out at once, faster than it can be corrected, to demoralize everyone.


8 posted on 11/24/2025 8:38:03 PM PST by No.6
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 5 | View Replies]

To: SeekAndFind

DOGE hasn’t been shut down. They just announced $375 million more in contract cuts

- Nick Sortor

This was fake news by Rooters


9 posted on 11/24/2025 8:40:11 PM PST by digger48
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: HoneysuckleTN

I should have read all the comments before posting

Thanks


10 posted on 11/24/2025 8:41:14 PM PST by digger48
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 5 | View Replies]

To: digger48

$335 million

My bad


11 posted on 11/24/2025 8:41:52 PM PST by digger48
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 9 | View Replies]

To: FirstFlaBn

“This clown used the terms interchangeably.”

“They are interchangeable. The debt is the total amount of money the U.S. government owes. It represents the accumulation of past deficits, minus surpluses.”

https://www.pgpf.org/article/debt-vs-deficits-whats-the-difference/

So one creates the other.

wy69


12 posted on 11/24/2025 8:57:21 PM PST by whitney69 (`)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: HoneysuckleTN

THANK YOU!

Fake news indeed.


13 posted on 11/24/2025 8:58:52 PM PST by FreedomPoster (Islam delenda est)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 5 | View Replies]

To: SeekAndFind

bookmark.


14 posted on 11/24/2025 9:30:02 PM PST by dadfly
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: SeekAndFind; All

The PDJT White House (1st or 2nd term) has yet to propose a balanced budget, no reason not to do it...the White House budgets are just non-binding “proposals”. At the very least put one out there and make the Dems cry some more.

https://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/information-resources/budget/

At this rate the president isn’t going to come within miles and miles of his 2016 suggestion that “...he would be able to get rid of the debt ($19 trillion then) “over a period of eight years.””.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/in-turmoil-or-triumph-donald-trump-stands-alone/2016/04/02/8c0619b6-f8d6-11e5-a3ce-f06b5ba21f33_story.html

https://www.crfb.org/blogs/can-donald-trump-pay-national-debt-8-years


15 posted on 11/24/2025 9:54:16 PM PST by Drago
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: SeekAndFind

DOGE was an early attack force until the permanent Cabinet leaders could be installed. Anyone who isn’t aware of the reductions across all branches is asleep.


16 posted on 11/24/2025 10:09:56 PM PST by bigbob (We are all Charlie Kirk now,)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: SeekAndFind
"After Musk torched, or "appeared to torch", his relationship with Trump"

looks like Routers is catching on.
17 posted on 11/24/2025 10:39:13 PM PST by Steve Van Doorn
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: whitney69

Many years ago I interviewed the local congressman Leon Panetta. I was a news director for a little radio station in the district. Anyway, I asked Panetta that very question, to explain the difference between the deficit and the debt for the listeners at home. The man raised his voice and kinda exploded. I forgot what he answered but I was rather taken aback at his demeanor.


18 posted on 11/25/2025 12:23:07 AM PST by abigkahuna
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 12 | View Replies]

To: All

The inadvertent legacies of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), an initiative of the second Trump administration led by Elon Musk, include a significant expansion of National Guard deployments in U.S. cities and a potential long-term shift toward a more institutionalized, but less public, approach to government cuts.

Expansion of Government Power
Despite its mandate to shrink the government, one of DOGE’s key inadvertent legacies was the expansion of government power in certain areas:

National Guard Deployment: A physical altercation involving a DOGE staffer near Dupont Circle in Washington D.C. prompted President Trump to station the National Guard in Washington and other cities, an expansion of federal presence in local jurisdictions.

Expansion of Executive Authority: Some critics argued that the entire DOGE project was a mechanism to wrest spending powers from Congress and concentrate them in the executive branch, an inadvertent consequence of its aggressive tactics.


19 posted on 11/25/2025 2:52:00 AM PST by Liz ("Socialism is a wonderful idea. It's just that it's been disastrous." Thomas Sowell. )
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 18 | View Replies]

To: SeekAndFind

Fake news!
I heard the real story.

Elon led DODE and trained them up.
They pulled data for a baseline. They figured out, for instance, USAID was 100% corrupt and not accountable

Lessons were learned.

DODGE workers are assigned to small teams, 2 - 4 people, and sent to specific departmarts to continue their work


20 posted on 11/25/2025 5:12:09 AM PST by Steven Tyler
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-24 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson