[5] The organization was created to "modernize federal technology and software to maximize governmental efficiency and productivity" by an executive order by President Donald Trump on January 20, 2025,[6][4] and is scheduled to end on July 4, 2026.

[24] Musk was the largest donor in the 2024 United States presidential election spending over US$290 million in support of Trump and other Republicans, primarily in the final five weeks of the campaign, in order to hold influence in the new administration.

[52][53] In December 2024, Ernst proposed a bill dubbed "Drain the Swamp Act", which would require each executive agency to relocate at least 30 percent of employees working at Washington, D.C., headquarters to offices located outside of the D.C. metro area; while also restricting the ability to telework.

[59] Several Democrats have expressed support and willingness to work with DOGE, including representatives Moskowitz (D-FL) and Ro Khanna (D-CA),[57] Rep. Tom Suozzi (D-NY),[57] and Rep. Val Hoyle (D-OR).

[77][78] On February 6, The Wall Street Journal reported that Marko Elez had resigned from his role "after he was linked to a deleted social-media account that advocated racism and eugenics"[79] — having written that "I would not mind at all if Gaza and Israel were both wiped off the face of the Earth" in June 2024; "Just for the record, I was racist before it was cool" in July; and "You could not pay me to marry outside of my ethnicity" and "Normalize Indian hate" in September.

[67] Concerns have been raised about his amplification of extremist viewpoints including reposting content from white supremacist Nick Fuentes and misogynistic social media influencer Andrew Tate.

[17] On February 3, interim United States Attorney for the District of Columbia Ed Martin released a statement saying that "certain individuals and/or groups have committed acts that appear to violate the law in targeting DOGE employees" and noted that "prosecutors" were "preparing".

On February 12, the website waste.gov, projecting to “track government waste” was shutdown when it has been discovered that it was displaying a default WordPress landing page of an imaginary architecture firm that transgressed Trump's executive order because of the word "diverse".

[149] HuffPost reported on February 14 that doge.gov was displaying classified information about the staff of the National Reconnaissance Office, which is responsible for American spy satellites and has a $1.8 billion contract with Musk's SpaceX.

[163][164] On February 3, four unions representing 800,000 federal employees filed suit[c] against the Treasury Department, arguing that the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) violated the Administrative Procedure Act by failing to provide a legal basis for the buyout offer.

[165] On February 6, Judge George O'Toole Jr., appointed by President Bill Clinton, temporarily blocked Trump and DOGE from engaging in any further action related to the buyout until further arguments were heard.

[167] A Washington Post article published in 2014 reported that at an underground limestone mine in Boyers, Pennsylvania, contained the retirement paperwork of federal employees that was processed by hand and stored in cardboard boxes.

[170] On February 13, HuffPost reported that DOGE disclosed on its website classified United States Intelligence Community information related to National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) staffing and capabilities.

[171][172] The United States Digital Service was previously subject to Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) transparency laws in a government reporting chain through the Office of Management and Budget (OMB).

[185][184] ABC also reported that operatives were also looking for anything connected to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) on bulletin boards and were inspecting bathroom signs to ensure compliance with Trump's executive orders.

Elez resigned on February 6 after The Wall Street Journal reported on deleted social media posts where he explicitly identified himself as a racist and advocated for eugenics and against inter-ethnic marriage.

[211] Musk has been sharply critical of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), characterizing it as a "criminal organization", a "viper's nest of radical-left marxists who hate America", and "evil".

[216][217][218] As an ex-USAID worked describes: "In a matter of hours DOGE shut down our websites, took over email handles, and summarily removed the system access of hundreds of gainfully employed public servants.

The next day, homeland security secretary Kristi Noem said she had "clawed back the full payment that FEMA deep state activists unilaterally gave to NYC migrant hotels".

[227] On January 10, 2025, 26 Republican state governors wrote a joint letter to leaders of Congress expressing, "overwhelming support for President Trump's Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE)".

[64] In November 2024, Politico reported on growing concern from the tech world and several policy experts that the project was over-promising or could potentially tear down "much of the essential infrastructure that ushers along American innovation".

According to chief economist Mark Zandi of Moody's, the 30% of the federal budget that is non-discretionary is at the lowest level in modern history as a percentage of GDP, and that even finding $200 billion of savings was highly unlikely.

[240] Author Jeet Heer argued in The Nation that the actions of DOGE were a "time-honored revolutionary tactic of developing dual power in order to seize control" and constituted a coup.

Murray stated that Musk was an "unelected, unaccountable billionaire with expansive conflicts of interest, deep ties to China" and accused him of hijacking the nation's financial systems and its ability to pay.

[252] Columbia University professor Stijn Van Nieuwerburgh argues that the DOGE's fire sale of more than 500 government buildings could crash financial securities linked to commercial mortgages.

[254] During the House Ways and Means Oversight Subcommittee hearing on Internal Revenue Service modernization, Nina Olson, the director of the Center for Taxpayer Rights, described the deferred resignation offers as "coerced job cuts and firings" causing "a brain drain" at the IRS.

[255] Jessica Riedl, Manhattan Institute senior fellow on budget, tax, and economic policy, found that DOGE sought to satisfy Trump’s culturally conservative base rather than targeting the biggest government spending sources.

[264][265] On February 7, nineteen state attorneys general, largely the same from the Rhode Island federal case, filed suit[e] against Trump and the Treasury Department in the Southern District of New York over DOGE's actions within the Bureau of the Fiscal Service (BFS).

[266][267] In the early morning on February 8, Judge Paul A. Engelmayer, appointed by Obama, issued a preliminary injunction barring DOGE members from accessing Treasury data and ordering all existing unauthorized copies to be deleted immediately.

[289] The judge, Trump-appointed Carl J. Nichols, issued a temporary restraining order on February 7 against imminent plans for 2,200 employees to be placed on administrative leave and for overseas USAID workers to return to the US.