Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency has triggered sweeping layoffs, agency shutdowns and a legal battle over transparency — all while facing mounting public scrutiny.
The initiative, touted by Musk and President Donald Trump as a campaign to eliminate "waste, fraud and abuse," has been called "disruptive," "chaotic" and potentially irreversible by policy experts.
Massive Layoffs, Mounting Lawsuits and Musk's Growing Backlash
In March, DOGE was responsible for more than 275,000 announced federal job cuts, the highest single-month total since 2009, according to Challenger, Gray & Christmas Inc.
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The cuts targeted multiple government agencies, including the U.S. Agency for International Development and the Department of Health and Human Services.
On March 10, Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced on X that the Trump administration had canceled 83% of USAID programs after a six-week review. Among those affected was 53-year-old division chief Katherine Ann Reniers who was only months away from securing her full pension.
According to Business Insider, the loss reduced her retirement benefits by 50%, and she will now need to wait until age 62 to access them.
According to The Guardian, roughly one-quarter of the HHS workforce was cut, totaling about 20,000 employees out of 82,000. The cuts hit the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, which administer the World Trade Center Health Program, particularly hard.The program provides care to first responders and survivors of the 9/11 attacks.
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The Financial Times reported that DOGE also cut 30 staffers at the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, including employees overseeing vehicle automation.
Critics argued these layoffs could impair the agency's ability to regulate autonomous vehicle safety. In particular, Tesla (NASDAQ; TSLA), where Musk serves as CEO, remains under investigation over its Autopilot and Full Self-Driving systems.
Despite DOGE's mission to cut spending, U.S. expenditures have risen by $154 billion since Trump’s inauguration, compared to the same period in 2024 under then-President Joe Biden, according to The Wall Street Journal.
Key budget categories such as defense, Social Security and Medicare either remained steady or grew.
Transparency has emerged as a central concern in DOGE's operations. According to Reuters, DOGE allegedly used encrypted platforms like Signal and artificial intelligence tools to monitor federal workers' internal communications for perceived disloyalty.
U.S. District judge Tanya Chutkan ordered Musk and DOGE to produce documents and answer questions regarding their federal spending reduction efforts.
The director of the Center for Communication and Public Policy at Northwestern University, Erik Nisbet, said told HuffPost on April 3 that DOGE's approach had been "very, very harmful — almost extra governmental." He compared its effects to "a broke Humpty Dumpty," and questioned whether its damage could be undone.
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