Government cancels Elon Musk’s project to reduce government waste

The Department of Government Efficiency (doge) has been quietly canceled, eight months ahead of schedule. Last November, President-elect Donald Trump put Musk in charge of a task force to dismantle the federal government’s labyrinthine bureaucracy, restrictive regulations and obscenely wasteful spending. He promised that their work would be concluded no later than July 4, 2026, because “a smaller government, with more efficiency and less bureaucracy, will be the perfect gift to America on the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence.” Almost immediately, billions in waste were found, including $4.7 trillion in payments by the U.S. Treasury that did not even specify what the payments were for. Yet Musk fell out with President Trump and largely gave up on doge after the president strongly supported the “One Big Beautiful Bill” (estimated to add $3.4 trillion to the U.S. national debt over 10 years) and signed it into law on July 4. doge fell by the wayside. Office of Personnel Management Director Scott Kupor told Reuters earlier this month that doge “doesn’t exist.” America will not have a smaller government with less bureaucracy by July 4, 2026.