Elon Musk's government body, DOGE, has been quietly dumped by the Trump administration, eight months before it was set to close.
The Tesla CEO had initially headed up a directive in the president's administration to cut government spending. But it seems the Department of Government Efficiency has ended with a dud, closed down with eight months left on its mandate. Musk had said the aim of the department was to be so cost effective it made itself redundant by the halfway point of the president's second term.
But it seems the slashes made by DOGE weren't working out as well as the administration had hoped. Speaking to Reuters, Office of Personnel Management Director Scott Kupor confirmed the department no longer exists.
He said, "That doesn't exist. There is no target around reductions." Kupor would go on to say it's no longer a "centralised entity" in the administration. DOGE did not provide any details of what they had cut, when they had cut it, or how much they had effectively saved but did claim to have cut government expenditure down by tens of billions of dollars.
White House spokeswoman Liz Huston told Reuters, "President Trump was given a clear mandate to reduce waste, fraud and abuse across the federal government, and he continues to actively deliver on that commitment."
The main figures of the DOGE team appear to have been moved to new jobs within the government also. Musk had a major fallout with Trump in May but this appears to have been patched up after the tech billionaire was spotted at a recent White House gathering attended by soccer player Cristiano Ronaldo and Saudi Arabian Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
Zachary Terrell was part of the DOGE team given access to government health systems but has since been moved to the Department of Health and Human Services.
Another major player in the DOGE project was Jeremy Lewin, who is now overseeing foreign assistance at the State Department, according to the agency's website.
Under Musk's leadership of DOGE, tens of thousands of federal employees were fired, though hundreds were offered their jobs back in September. According to The Daily Beast, the General Services Administration was cut so heavily they had to call on ex-employees to return to work as they were left "broken and understaffed".