So about that whole shrinking-the-government thing: The Department of Government Efficiency is no more. Elon Musk's headline-grabbing initiative to slash federal spending has quietly disbanded, ending roughly eight months before its charter was supposed to expire. It was supposed to be a centerpiece of President Donald Trump's cost-cutting agenda, but now it's just gone.

The Office Officially Doesn't Exist Anymore

Office of Personnel Management Director Scott Kupor confirmed the news to Reuters with remarkable bluntness: "That doesn't exist." DOGE, whose acronym matched the cryptocurrency ticker Dogecoin (CRYPTO: DOGE) that Musk frequently promoted online, is no longer functioning as a "centralized entity." The OPM has absorbed whatever DOGE was actually doing day-to-day.

Kupor tried to soften the blow on X Sunday, insisting that DOGE's "approach and principles" would continue living on across federal agencies through deregulation, fraud detection, workforce restructuring and efficiency improvements. Just, you know, without the actual office that was supposed to coordinate all that.

Where Everyone Went

In a Friday blog post, Kupor noted that the government hired approximately 68,000 workers this year while roughly 317,000 departed, beating Trump's previously stated goal of four departures for every new hire. He emphasized there are "no prescribed reductions in headcount," which sounds like saying the diet worked even though you didn't actually lose weight.

Former DOGE staffers have scattered to the winds, landing at the State Department, White House budget office, Health and Human Services, and the Office of Naval Research, according to Reuters. Airbnb cofounder Joe Gebbia, one of DOGE's early members, now runs Trump's National Design Studio, where he's working on redesigning federal websites.

The Chainsaw Promise That Wasn't

Remember when this all started? DOGE launched in January with Elon Musk promising to find $2 trillion in savings. By February, he was literally hoisting a chainsaw at CPAC as a symbol of bureaucracy-slashing. Then in June, Musk split with Trump over the president's tax-and-spending bill, and the whole thing seemed to lose momentum.

Musk has since reconciled with Trump, appearing at Charlie Kirk's September memorial service and attending a White House dinner this month for Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. But DOGE itself? Not so much.

Economist Justin Wolfers summed up the reaction online Sunday: "DOGE failed. And DOGE is dead. So I guess government can be responsive after all."

DOGE's website still claims about $214 billion in savings, though a Politico review found those numbers pretty creative, counting maximum possible contract values rather than actual spending reductions. Which is kind of like saying you saved money by not buying a yacht you were never going to buy anyway.