Elon Musk is stepping back from the federal government but his so-called Department of Government Efficiency isn’t going anywhere.
Just this week at the Interior Department, a 30-year veteran of the agency who told employees to ignore DOGE directives was escorted out of the building. Elsewhere, some DOGE employees have been hired on as permanent government staffers and given high-ranking positions inside agencies. The General Services Administration, for example, is an entry point for dozens of DOGE officials who’ve then gone to other departments.
And Cabinet heads like Office of Budget Management Director Russ Vought have been quietly prepping plans for lasting changes that stand to be even more consequential than the initial rounds of cuts from Musk’s team, including through President Donald Trump’s large-scale efforts to reduce the workforce and the president’s budget requests.
“DOGE is at work. They’re not going away,” Vought told Fox News recently. “I talk to them every single day.”
