Make DOGE Even Greater Again

To start, it is worth clarifying some things about DOGE’s operations. The original pitch for DOGE was that it would be an advisory group of sorts led by Musk, who donated roughly a quarter-billion dollars to Trump’s reelection bid, and Vivek Ramaswamy, a biotech entrepreneur who briefly ran for the GOP presidential ticket in 2024. After Trump took office and Ramaswamy departed to run for governor of Ohio, it morphed into something that I think we can all say became a little more official.

The administration chose to take the U.S. Digital Service, an office under the White House’s direct control that works on government I.T., and rename it as the U.S. DOGE Service. There is some confusion about who currently serves as the service’s administrator. In legal filings, the Justice Department is conspicuously not identifying that individual, aside from denying that Musk, who is described as a presidential advisor with no legal power, is holding that post.

Trump and Musk seem to be of different minds on the matter: The president has said in public statements that he appointed Musk to run DOGE, and Musk clearly appears to be behind its day-to-day operations. All this confusion is, among other things, woefully inefficient. Either way, Musk cannot be expected to serve as the head of DOGE forever. He is the CEO of multiple publicly traded companies and a few private ones, some of which are not doing too well. Like Cincinnatus returning to his plow, so too will Musk someday return to his Cybertruck.