Exactly what did DOGE do? Exactly what MAGA intended it to do

The NYT and other sources have reported on the cost-benefit of DOGE. Although the DOGE initiative was billed as cost cutting and saving, that was never a credible description of intent. Instead, it looked like and actually was primarily an effort to intimidate federal workers, and begin to disrupt and weaken public interest functions such as protections for consumers, workers, federal employees and the environment. And as usual for MAGA operations, Trump and MAGA elites lied about it. One analysis found actual savings were about 3% of what DOGE claimed.

The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), led by Elon Musk from January to May 2025, claimed to have saved the federal government between $150 billion and $199 billion through widespread cuts to contracts, grants, and federal employment. However, comprehensive analysis by The New York Times, the Cato Institute, the Partnership for Public Service, and other authoritative sources reveals the claims are false. Federal spending actually increased during DOGE's tenure. Many of its largest savings claims were demonstrable lies. DOGE probably cost taxpayers more than it saved when accounting for lost tax revenue, rehiring expenses, and productivity losses.

Project 2025 explicitly outlined plans to dismantle federal agencies and the administrative state before DOGE was announced. Russell Vought, a key DOGE architect, was a Project 2025 author who explicitly stated the goal was to put federal workers in trauma in 2023. In a 2023 speech Vought, now the Director of the Office of Management and Budget, attacked federal workers explicitly, saying "We want them to not want to go to work because they are increasingly viewed as the villains"​, "We want to put them in trauma"​, and "We want the bureaucrats to be traumatically affected".

The obvious problems with bureaucrats doing their jobs is that they get in the way of dictatorship and kleptocracy. They clearly need to go.

Thus, Project 2025, Trump's history, and the broader MAGA agenda made the actual anti-public interest intent clear from the beginning. Taking the "cost-cutting" rhetoric at face value was and still is irrational when all evidence pointed to MAGA's anti-public interest goals.

From the Trump and elite MAGA point of view, it was MISSION ACCOMPLISHED! 👍 for DOGE.

How a person sees things can depend on their point of view.