What is the DOGE?

Trump administration’s efforts to cut back on federal spending

Sophia Benich, Student Life Staff

March 5, 2025

On January 20th, U.S. President Donald Trump signed an executive order creating the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), an organization with the purpose of providing guidance and advice from sources outside the government, along with regulating government spending (1). To facilitate this process, CEO of Tesla Motors, and now, Senior Advisor to the president, Elon Musk, has been tasked with determining exactly where Americans’ tax dollars are going– and why. The Trump’s administration has been taking advantage of the organization’s purposes and finding areas to cut back on federal spending while making past government expenditures more accessible to the public. Unfortunately, it is unclear whether this information released by Musk is actually accurate, as some reporters find the information published to be baseless and misleading (2). On the other hand, according to Elon and his efforts to analyze previous spending, there are many areas of funding that the Trump administration deems excessive and unnecessary. Certain areas where funds are required is known as mandatory spending, and cannot be changed unless new legislation is passed. Mandatory spending currently includes Social Security, Medicaid, Medicare, Foods Stamps, Veteran/ Military aid, and more. Trump claims he does not plan to cut Social Security or Medicare; however, considering these two budgets consist of approx. ⅓ of federal spending, Elon Musk’s promises to cut spending by up to 1 trillion dollars may not be so easy (3). This leaves discretionary spending, which will likely take the majority of the hit.

While cutting federal spending by 1 trillion dollars is technically achievable, there are certain to be major consequences. Cutting these funds may be beneficial in terms of lowering taxes and fostering economic growth, but it has also led to a controversial issue as many federal officers have already been laid off from their jobs (4). According to the Harvard Caps Harris Poll, many are pleased with Trump’s efforts to attempt to cut government spending on areas he deems to be less important, allowing him to implement tax cuts (5). Musk goes as far to comment on X that respondents agree with reducing government spending by up to 1 trillion dollars. However, other sources suggest that many are weary of the fact that tax cuts for the wealthy will result in increased unemployment for working class Americans (6). This poses a serious issue, as either way some classes will be forced to concede in some capacity.

Currently, the DOGE claims to have saved $65 billion in federal funds, but there is not yet any concrete evidence to prove that government spending has actually decreased since Trump was elected (7). Nevertheless, the DOGE mission remains the same, as Elon and other government workers investigate the federal spending in recent years, and aim to make significant funding changes in the future.