Today, with Musk out of the White House, Doge having cut only a tiny fraction of the waste it promised, and dozens of lawsuits alleging violations of privacy and transparency laws, much of what the agency has done remains a mystery.
The effects of Doge’s initial blitz through the federal government – which included dismantling the US Agency for International Development ([USAID](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/usaid)), embedding staffers in almost every agency and [illegally firing people en masse](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/feb/10/elon-musk-doge-agency-illegal) – are still playing out. Contrary to Musk’s promises, Doge’s success is vague and tough to quantify. Measuring the full impact and determining [whether the agency even exists](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/nov/23/trump-musk-doge-reportedly-disbanded) as a centralized entity anymore is difficult, complicated by an ongoing effort from the government to block disclosure of documents, which is itself a symptom of the chaos that the department created.
Although the disarray and destruction left by Doge is evident across the globe, we still do not really know exactly how the agency operated and its true effects. Instead, humanitarian aid organizations are still trying to assess the extent of the damage that Doge created while [ethics watchdogs](https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2025/jan/23/elon-musk-doge-conflict-interest) have launched lawsuits trying to compel more transparency out of the government.
It eliminated the regulatory bodies that were trying to stop him from posting lies about his companies to pump up the stock price.
PTechNM on
He validated for me that federal government jobs are impactful and efficient. Read ‘Who is Government’ by Michael Lewis; very good book regarding the importance of government jobs to our democracy and society.
Ancient_Popcorn on
We know what we it did, but the media won’t explicitly say it. They just keep dropping kernels and letting people with half a brain piece it al together. This way they avoid being sued by Trump for reporting the truth.
DOGE ransacked government agencies investigating Musk and his friends, stole the private data of every citizen, cost the taxpayers billions, eviscerated the efficiency of the government (like conservatives love to do), and allowed Musk to win future contracts to win more contracts. DOGE was the price Trump paid for Musk’s help with the election.
P4cific4 on
My take is that he gathered all the data he could on citizens, companies, industries so his different companies can profit from it. And that specifically ensured he gathered data and private information on competitors.
In the end, DOGE could very well have been a diversion attempt to get media attention focused on Musk while Project 2025 could be implemented with little to no attention.
So Project 2025 profited from attention being on DOGE, and Musk profited from DOGE.
AINonsense on
He stole all the data.
And he left enough backdoors in every government system to be able to pwn them whenever, at will.
And he took truckloads of money, but that was just for shits ’n ’giggles.
OldFort27 on
Made Musk richer, as intended.
jason082 on
Stole our personal data for the purposes of making money and political retribution. At the same time, they wrecked government efficiency as much as possible.
This isn’t complicated.
Harry_Mud on
dogE cost the American tax payers millions. They didn’t save a dime!!!
brickout on
yes, we do. you are too scared to say it, and the world suffers for it.
SinisterSnoot on
Financial regulator here: we know what he did.
Good luck out there everyone.
morbob on
Good chance they programmed in a back door 🚪
EmmelinePankhurst77 on
Marjorie Taylor Green said something interesting about crypto – I don’t have the exact quote but it was about taking over our bank accounts and preventing us from buying and selling. If the government has all our data now, they could easily do that. I think that kind of control is what DOGE was about.
SoundSageWisdom on
Yeah, we do. He took all our information and selling it. That’s what he did. He’s making money off of us and he doesn’t deserve it.
GovernorJoe on
I know one thing it did. It stole jobs from hard-working Americans and wrecked the livelihoods of people that worked their ass off every day just to appease some lunatic psychopath who gets off on hurting people.
ShitBirdingAround on
The DOGE project was almost certainly a data heist and an internal sabotage. It was an attack on the country as a whole. The immigrants that are actually harming America are the billionaire immigrants.
MurchMop on
Found loopholes to launder money through
LeetleBugg on
Break shit
WacoWednesday on
We know exactly what they did. They ruined thousands of federal employees’ lives and gutted important government regulations, all while not finding any fraud at all
TheGOPisTheDeepState on
He stole social security data, went after people who didn’t give him government grants and were suing him, eliminated a lot of our soft power outreach, created future terrorist by killing their family by starving them to death while the food rotted, fucked over farmers, made government even less efficient, put Americans out of jobs, was a Nazi, and etc.
KapnKrumpin on
I thought it just spent a bunch of money and fired a bunch of people
Buffaloslim on
If only we had a fucking congress, you know to do a fucking congressional investigation?
msstatelp on
They stole the information they wanted, pretended to “reform” the government by firing a bunch of people they had no legal right to fire, then left.
TheWebCoder on
Sure we do. They had license to go in and steal everyone’s data from otherwise private, secure servers. I think that was the play all along.
SiteTall on
They stole data
basketballsteven on
It ended America’s soft power by ending funding for USAID which by denying food assistance and life saving drugs killed many people in third world countries.
It also undermined trust in America and pushed those countries towards China.
Jerk182 on
Elon Musk is responsible for manipulating the election results despite everyone’s denial. It’s the only way Trump could’ve won a second team after his disastrous first term.
Extension-Pen9359 on
Stole gov info.
therealmenox on
Yes we do, laid off a bunch of folks and stopped active investigations into his companies.
why-you-do-th1s on
They stole everyone’s information including the government. It was a hostile move.
Musk needs to be tried for high treason.
martapap on
We know they stole sensitive government data and put it on drives. All for Elon’s personal benefit.
jkvincent on
Completely demolished USAID for one thing.
BigFitMama on
They put a third party redirect on all federal systems AND if they could not they rolled back new secure upgrades to a version they could.
How did anyone miss this? Microsoft knows because Azure freaked out when it started bouncing fed emails from the third party system of servers.
astrozombie2012 on
Damage and disruption that was the whole point…
Impossible_IT on
He stole Americans sensitive data.
Majestic-Bid6111 on
Harvested data, fucked shit up, then closed shop. Probably installed backdoors into every system
36 Comments
*From The Guardian:*
When [Elon Musk](https://www.theguardian.com/technology/elon-musk) vowed late last year to [lead](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/nov/12/trump-appoints-elon-musk-government-efficiency-department) a “department of government efficiency” (Doge), he [claimed](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/feb/11/elon-musk-trump-doge) it would operate with “maximum transparency” as it set about saving $2tn worth of waste and exposing massive fraud.
Today, with Musk out of the White House, Doge having cut only a tiny fraction of the waste it promised, and dozens of lawsuits alleging violations of privacy and transparency laws, much of what the agency has done remains a mystery.
The effects of Doge’s initial blitz through the federal government – which included dismantling the US Agency for International Development ([USAID](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/usaid)), embedding staffers in almost every agency and [illegally firing people en masse](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/feb/10/elon-musk-doge-agency-illegal) – are still playing out. Contrary to Musk’s promises, Doge’s success is vague and tough to quantify. Measuring the full impact and determining [whether the agency even exists](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/nov/23/trump-musk-doge-reportedly-disbanded) as a centralized entity anymore is difficult, complicated by an ongoing effort from the government to block disclosure of documents, which is itself a symptom of the chaos that the department created.
Although the disarray and destruction left by Doge is evident across the globe, we still do not really know exactly how the agency operated and its true effects. Instead, humanitarian aid organizations are still trying to assess the extent of the damage that Doge created while [ethics watchdogs](https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2025/jan/23/elon-musk-doge-conflict-interest) have launched lawsuits trying to compel more transparency out of the government.
[*You can read the full story for free at this link.*](https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2025/dec/30/elon-musk-doge-impact-us-government?referring_host=Reddit&utm_campaign=guardianacct)
It eliminated the regulatory bodies that were trying to stop him from posting lies about his companies to pump up the stock price.
He validated for me that federal government jobs are impactful and efficient. Read ‘Who is Government’ by Michael Lewis; very good book regarding the importance of government jobs to our democracy and society.
We know what we it did, but the media won’t explicitly say it. They just keep dropping kernels and letting people with half a brain piece it al together. This way they avoid being sued by Trump for reporting the truth.
DOGE ransacked government agencies investigating Musk and his friends, stole the private data of every citizen, cost the taxpayers billions, eviscerated the efficiency of the government (like conservatives love to do), and allowed Musk to win future contracts to win more contracts. DOGE was the price Trump paid for Musk’s help with the election.
My take is that he gathered all the data he could on citizens, companies, industries so his different companies can profit from it. And that specifically ensured he gathered data and private information on competitors.
In the end, DOGE could very well have been a diversion attempt to get media attention focused on Musk while Project 2025 could be implemented with little to no attention.
So Project 2025 profited from attention being on DOGE, and Musk profited from DOGE.
He stole all the data.
And he left enough backdoors in every government system to be able to pwn them whenever, at will.
And he took truckloads of money, but that was just for shits ’n ’giggles.
Made Musk richer, as intended.
Stole our personal data for the purposes of making money and political retribution. At the same time, they wrecked government efficiency as much as possible.
This isn’t complicated.
dogE cost the American tax payers millions. They didn’t save a dime!!!
yes, we do. you are too scared to say it, and the world suffers for it.
Financial regulator here: we know what he did.
Good luck out there everyone.
Good chance they programmed in a back door 🚪
Marjorie Taylor Green said something interesting about crypto – I don’t have the exact quote but it was about taking over our bank accounts and preventing us from buying and selling. If the government has all our data now, they could easily do that. I think that kind of control is what DOGE was about.
Yeah, we do. He took all our information and selling it. That’s what he did. He’s making money off of us and he doesn’t deserve it.
I know one thing it did. It stole jobs from hard-working Americans and wrecked the livelihoods of people that worked their ass off every day just to appease some lunatic psychopath who gets off on hurting people.
The DOGE project was almost certainly a data heist and an internal sabotage. It was an attack on the country as a whole. The immigrants that are actually harming America are the billionaire immigrants.
Found loopholes to launder money through
Break shit
We know exactly what they did. They ruined thousands of federal employees’ lives and gutted important government regulations, all while not finding any fraud at all
He stole social security data, went after people who didn’t give him government grants and were suing him, eliminated a lot of our soft power outreach, created future terrorist by killing their family by starving them to death while the food rotted, fucked over farmers, made government even less efficient, put Americans out of jobs, was a Nazi, and etc.
I thought it just spent a bunch of money and fired a bunch of people
If only we had a fucking congress, you know to do a fucking congressional investigation?
They stole the information they wanted, pretended to “reform” the government by firing a bunch of people they had no legal right to fire, then left.
Sure we do. They had license to go in and steal everyone’s data from otherwise private, secure servers. I think that was the play all along.
They stole data
It ended America’s soft power by ending funding for USAID which by denying food assistance and life saving drugs killed many people in third world countries.
It also undermined trust in America and pushed those countries towards China.
Elon Musk is responsible for manipulating the election results despite everyone’s denial. It’s the only way Trump could’ve won a second team after his disastrous first term.
Stole gov info.
Yes we do, laid off a bunch of folks and stopped active investigations into his companies.
They stole everyone’s information including the government. It was a hostile move.
Musk needs to be tried for high treason.
We know they stole sensitive government data and put it on drives. All for Elon’s personal benefit.
Completely demolished USAID for one thing.
They put a third party redirect on all federal systems AND if they could not they rolled back new secure upgrades to a version they could.
How did anyone miss this? Microsoft knows because Azure freaked out when it started bouncing fed emails from the third party system of servers.
Damage and disruption that was the whole point…
He stole Americans sensitive data.
Harvested data, fucked shit up, then closed shop. Probably installed backdoors into every system