With the official establishment on Monday of President Trump’s closely watched effort to slash federal spending — which he has called the Department of Government Efficiency — some key information was revealed, including details about how the group will be structured and a new focus on modernizing technology.
But a number of critical questions have not yet been answered.
Mr. Trump’s executive order creating the group underscores how much the idea has been worked through over the past few weeks.
In November, Mr. Trump initially said the group would provide outside advice as it worked closely with White House budget officials. The president’s order, however, brings the group inside the federal government. The order also follows a major shake-up in leadership. Elon Musk will be its sole leader after Vivek Ramaswamy bowed out of the project.
How will the group be structured?
The order essentially means that the group will be an official unit within the executive office of the president. The so-called “United States DOGE Service” will take over the United States Digital Service, which was created in 2014 by former President Barack Obama to improve government services through the use of technology.
The order also created a temporary organization within the larger service that will end on July 4, 2026. It is unclear how its mission will differ from that of the broader U.S. DOGE Service, although its deadline is the same one that Mr. Trump originally set for the group to provide recommendations to drive out “waste and fraud” within the federal budget.
There will also be “DOGE teams” embedded within federal agencies that can consist of special government employees, a specific category of temporary workers who can only work for the federal government for 130 days or less in a 365-day period. Mr. Musk himself may be one of them, but the executive order did not make that clear.
How will the “DOGE teams” work?
Each team will be made up of at least four employees, who are expected to include a team lead, engineer, human resources specialist and attorney. Agency heads will select team members in consultation with the U.S. DOGE Service.
Team leads will coordinate with the U.S. DOGE Service and provide advice to agency heads, who must ensure that the group “has full and prompt access to all unclassified agency records, software systems and IT systems” to the “maximum extent consistent with law.”
Mr. Trump’s order does not lay out specific tasks for the teams, other than “implementing the president’s DOGE agenda.” But the teams are expected to identify potential spending cuts and regulations that could be slashed.
The order did not specify a budget for the group. It is also unclear how much those working for the service will be paid, although some are expected to be volunteers.
What are its goals?
In November, Mr. Trump laid out several ambitious goals for the group, including to “dismantle government bureaucracy, slash excess regulations, cut wasteful expenditures and restructure federal agencies.”
Mr. Trump’s order on Monday did not explicitly mention efforts to slash the budget or overhaul federal regulations. Instead, it said the group would advance the “president’s DOGE agenda” by “modernizing federal technology and software to maximize governmental efficiency and productivity.” The group’s head will carry out an initiative that aims to improve government software, network infrastructure and information technology systems, the order said.
In recent weeks, the group’s leaders have scaled back some of the initial goals. During Mr. Trump’s campaign, Mr. Musk said the effort could result in “at least $2 trillion” in cuts from the $6.75 trillion federal budget. But in an interview earlier this month, Mr. Musk downplayed the total potential savings.
“We’ll try for $2 trillion — I think that’s like the best-case outcome,” Mr. Musk said. “You kind of have to have some overage. I think if we try for $2 trillion, we’ve got a good shot at getting one.”
Who are the group’s leaders?
Mr. Trump initially said that Mr. Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy would lead the cost-cutting effort together. But on the first day of the Trump administration, a White House spokeswoman confirmed that Mr. Ramaswamy would quit.
Mr. Ramaswamy, who is expected to announce his bid for governor of Ohio next week, left DOGE after encountering turbulence in Mr. Trump’s orbit with both Mr. Trump and Mr. Musk.
There are some big questions remaining. Mr. Trump’s order said the U.S. DOGE Service would have an “administrator” who will report to the White House chief of staff. But it did not say who the administrator would be, and representatives of the group did not return requests for clarification.
Possibilities would include Mr. Musk or the two people who have largely been running the group during the presidential transition: Steve Davis, a trusted aide to Mr. Musk, or Brad Smith, a health care entrepreneur and former top health official in Mr. Trump’s first White House who is close with Jared Kushner.
Will Mr. Musk have an office in the White House?
While signing executive orders on Monday, Mr. Trump said that Mr. Musk would have an office in the White House with about 20 people, but it is unclear whether it will be in the West Wing.
The New York Times reported on Monday afternoon that Mr. Musk is likely to have office space in the West Wing, but when Mr. Trump was asked that evening to confirm that, he said Mr. Musk would not.
Mr. Musk had been expected to be situated in the White House complex and has a government email address. He has spent the last several weeks working out of SpaceX’s Washington headquarters, joined by a team of engineers and aides, some of whom carry navy blue mesh baseball caps in all-white capital letters reading “DOGE.”
Will the work of the group be subject to public information requests?
That, too, is unclear. The unit previously known as the U.S. Digital Service existed within the Office of Management and Budget, which is subject to the federal Freedom of Information Act, which provides for the release of information upon request that has not been made public, unless it falls under an exemption. But if the unit gets moved elsewhere within the executive office of the president, it could be exempt from the act.
The work of the “DOGE teams” could be subject to the act, though, because they would be embedded within federal agencies.
