Musk Might Be Gone, But Watchdogs Warn Trump/DOGE Carnage Will Continue

Critics of the so-called Department of Government Efficiency cautioned Friday against undue elation or complacency over Elon Musk stepping down as de facto DOGE chief, warning that officials at the contentious agency are pressing ahead with U.S. President Donald Trump's mission of eviscerating key agencies and the ability of the federal government to properly function.

With Musk's official departure from DOGE this week—returning to the private sector to run his beleaguered business empire—most of the agency's leadership and rank-and-file staff remain in place. As the Revolving Door Project (RDP) noted Friday, key DOGE officials "maintain extensive ties to Musk's corporate empire, with many of them having come to DOGE directly from one of Musk's companies."

According to RDP research, "at least 46 former or current DOGE members have substantial and direct ties to Elon Musk."

"DOGE isn't going anywhere, according to the Trump administration's own officials," RDP said. The watchdog group warned specifically about Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Director Russell Vought, who they said "seems to be the new boss in town."

The visions of the two men, said RDP, "have been aligned from the start. Musk endorsed Vought's view of the unconstitutionality of the Impoundment Control Act and said that DOGE would work 'closely with [OMB].'"

Vought co-authored the policy portion of Project 2025, a far-right blueprint for gutting the government and expanding executive power.

"There is no daylight between Elon Musk and Russ Vought on the aim of greenlighting corporate abuse, as anyone can see from their joint destruction of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau," RDP executive director Jeff Hauser said Friday. "DOGE's Musk-tied staffers have already burrowed into the government, and having a new boss who has coordinated extensively with Musk isn't likely to change their actual actions much at all."

"Musk's departure obscures but does not actually change the continuity of DOGE's staff and mission to destroy everything that protects the public from the depredations of the most rapacious oligarchs," Hauser added.

Another watchdog, Accountable.US, noted Friday that Vought "has a nearly 20-year record working on Republican efforts to cut Social Security and Medicare—including overseeing numerous Trump budget proposals."

"It's proof that DOGE's extreme agenda, which is causing ordinary families to fall behind, is full steam ahead as Trump and his allies in Congress push forward deep cuts to Americans' essential benefits," the group continued. "Last week, congressional Republicans advanced the largest cuts to Medicaid and [Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program] in history, which would result in 14 million Americans losing health coverage, 3 million households without food assistance, and an increased burden for millions with higher education and energy costs. All while adding over $4 trillion to the deficit."

"Americans deserve real government reforms to cut red tape, eliminate waste, and ensure taxpayers are able to access the services they pay for," Accountable.US added. "That was never DOGE's goal. Instead Trump and Musk tried to gut Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security, to line their own pockets and those of their billionaire friends with tax cuts, and the administration is only just getting started."

As one staffer at the DOGE-beset National Institutes of Health told Politico, "DOGE is still hungry. We've still got to feed the fucking dog."