With great fanfare and stratospheric ambitions, President-elect Donald Trump has unveiled his new Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). Trump declared DOGE the "Manhattan Project of our time" that will "dismantle Government Bureaucracy, slash excess regulations, cut wasteful expenditures, and restructure Federal Agencies." While such exuberant confidence may be exciting, Trump and his appointed DOGE co-directors Elon Musk—who is also already promising DOGE-related merchandise—and Vivek Ramaswamy are inflating expectations well beyond any plausible outcome.
Despite its name, DOGE will not be an actual government department—or even a White House office. Rather, it will function as a private advisory group with no formal investigative or administrative powers within the federal government. All it can do is research government waste and send a report of policy recommendations to the White House and Congress. And while Trump will have the authority to implement modest administrative reforms unilaterally, any major savings or agency reorganizations will require an act of Congress with bipartisan support to overcome a potential Democratic filibuster.
