What has DOGE done in Trump’s first 100 days? How does DOGE make a big difference for the federal government? The case of Musk and Trump

Still, DOGE has already reshaped the federal government in significant ways — and is amassing unprecedented power over government data. Musk’s group has been granted unfettered access to the federal government’s most sensitive personal and financial systems, in exchange for Trump’s blessing.

It’s too early to say what the long-term impact of DOGE will have on the federal government. The DOGE organization has a deadline of July 4, 2026 in order to fulfill its goals.

Some agencies have upwards of a dozen DOGE-affiliated personnel, while others have just one or two. A small group of DOGE-linked staffers are working at multiple agencies at the same time.

Musk’s vision of DOGE taking a chainsaw to government spending has hit repeated snags. An initial savings goal of $2 trillion was lowered to $1 trillion before being downgraded again recently to $150 billion — less than a tenth of Musk’s original promise. It will be hard to reach that number given DOGE’s history of overstated claims, and Trump’s desire to shield spending on Social Security and Medicare, which are major drivers of the federal budget.

The five contract cancellation that accounted for $7.5 billion in the DOGE tracker, is worth about $1 billion in savings. They include a contract that was never awarded, one that was already terminated and another that doesn’t appear to be canceled at all, as DOGE continues to use misleading math.

Source: What has DOGE done in Trump’s first 100 days?

The Effects of Trump and Musk on U.S. Government Workforce Cuts: A Case Study in a Fork in the Road

“They are roving in search of cuts they can put up on their wall to get that number up, whether it’s cutting staff, contracts, leases, grants, programs, offices, whatever,” said one General Services Administration worker who asked to remain anonymous for fear of retaliation from the Trump administration.

Trump and Musk zeroed in on federal workers, saying they want to abolish government bureaucracy and root out what Trump calls “rogue bureaucrats.”

An opening salvo haphazardly targeted tens of thousands of workers still in probationary periods because they had recently been hired or promoted into new roles.

Some firings were so abrupt that agencies scrambled to bring back terminated staff, including those at the Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration who oversee the nation’s nuclear weapons stockpile. Others saw employees fired, then unfired, before being fired again.

Some agencies say court- ordered reinstatement caused significant administrative burdens, because the legal system challenges those terminated employees. The Supreme Court and a federal appeals court paused those rulings this month, clearing the way for firings to continue.

Then there was the “fork in the road” resignation offer for federal employees to get paid through September without having to work, similar to a push Musk made after taking over Twitter. Some workers who accepted the offer have since been told they can’t actually take it.

The Department of Agriculture employee, who spoke to NPR on condition of anonymity, was approved for the resignation offer and was supposed to go on administrative leave on May 1. The email they got asked them to “reconsider their enroll” because their job was considered mission critical. They plan to step down.

An employee said that it was the loss of their job after they were fired and kept in the dark. “It isn’t fair to Americans because we will all feel the effects of agencies that can’t run effectively, but that’s not my fault. It is the fault of the decision makers.

The layoffs are likely to have far-reaching ramifications in communities across the country: the federal government is the nation’s largest employer and more than 80% of its employees live outside of the Washington, D.C., metro area.

“People are dropping like flies in terms of those who are eligible for retirement,” said an employee at the Internal Revenue Service, to whom NPR granted anonymity because they fear retaliation from the Trump administration. “That makes a lot of work for everyone else, especially since they can’t hire. So many people can’t do their jobs because of the lack of people.”

There are a number of people who are dead on the payroll, which is probably why they can’t respond. Musk said in a February Cabinet meeting that there are fictional individuals who are collecting paychecks.

Musk has similarly claimed, without providing proof, that the Social Security system is plagued by “extreme levels of fraud,” including benefits checks going to dead people and recipients who are impossibly listed as well over 100 years old in the SSA database. The inspector general of the Social Security Administration and its acting commissioner have discredited his claims.

Federal employees complain that the return to office mandate has resulted inefficiencies and problems for the economy and for the Trump administration’s immigration policies

Federal workers have been ordered back into offices to face a shortage of desks, internet bandwidth, and even toilet paper. Dozens of workers across multiple agencies tell NPR that the return to office mandate has made them less productive, and flies in the face of previous efforts to encourage tele work, which the federal government says has saved hundreds of millions of dollars in reduced costs.

The Food and Drug Administration employee who asked to remain anonymous said remote work and telework was supposed to bring down the taxpayer burden. The worker was placed in an office with insufficient space. “This is not sustainable. The employee said that they had to get bigger spaces because of their fear of speaking publicly.

Many workers say their ability to do their jobs is also being stymied by a freeze on government-issued payment cards, which has disrupted their ability to buy supplies and services, book travel, and carry out statutorily mandated work. Routine spending now has to be approved by leadership at some agencies, leading to long delays.

One Bureau of Land Management worker said that they were jumping for joy because their expenses had been approved by the Trump administration. It took weeks to approve this when it wasn’t an issue before.

In a case against the Office of Personnel Management, the Treasury Department and Education Department, a federal judge found agencies shared data with DOGE affiliates “who had no need to know the vast amount of sensitive personal information to which they were granted access.”

Other court documents reveal that a small number of DOGE employees have essentially unlimited access to different federal systems that could be combined to create dossiers about American citizens and noncitizens in violation of privacy laws.

Its data access is also being used to further the Trump administration’s immigration policies: The Department of Homeland Security announced last week that DOGE helped overhaul an immigration database to serve as “a single, reliable source for verifying non-citizen status nationwide.”

“Over and over, the newly appointed agency heads have said that the President ordered them to restructure, eliminate programs, and slash jobs because they were told how much and what to cut.”

“I’ll have to continue doing it for, I think, probably the remainder of the president’s term, just to make sure that the waste and fraud that we stop does not come roaring back, which will do if it has the chance,” he said.

“Together, these two wonderful Americans will pave the way for my Administration to dismantle Government Bureaucracy, slash excess regulations, cut wasteful expenditures, and restructure Federal Agencies,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform.

Dole, OMB, and OPM: Labor, Nonprofits, and Local Governments in a Brief History of the 2017–2018 State Department of Government Efficiency

Many of our initiatives have been delayed or reversed after legal setbacks. According to a review of district court dockets around the U.S. by NPR, since January 20, DOGE has been the subject of dozens of federal lawsuits.

Despite those claims, 100 days into Trump’s second term, DOGE has not delivered on its promised savings, efficiency or transparency in meaningful ways.

Trump has touted these moves as restoring accountability. He has repeatedly argued that the American people, through the 2024 election, gave him a mandate to eliminate waste, fraud and inefficiency in the federal government.

The new complaint goes further, arguing that Trump’s Feb. 11 executive order “Implementing the President’s ‘Department of Government Efficiency’ Workforce Optimization Initiative” and actions taken since by his administration to implement it “usurp” Congress’ authority under the Constitution.

Three months into this Administration, there can be no doubt that federal agencies are acting in line with the direction given by President Trump through DOGE, OMB, and OPM,” the lawsuit says, citing the government efficiency team that Musk oversees.

A group of labor unions, nonprofits and local governments, including Chicago, Baltimore and Harris County, Texas, have joined together in a legal fight against the federal government.

The administration is shutting down the government, while Congress is largely silent, as it fires federal workers.