Reuters reported last week that Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) had been disbanded eight months before its mandate was set to end. The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) Director Scott Kupor states: “That [department] doesn’t exist.” As with any apparently negative report on the Trump administration, it was denied by the White House. “A DOGE spokesperson stated: “that DOGE and its longer-term, tech-aligned counterpart, the U.S. DOGE Service, both remain — and that latter organization is moving forward with a full slate of modernization projects.”
Whether DOGE is alive or dead is irrelevant. DOGE had a poor opening act with the American public. To paraphrase Lady Macbeth, DOGE’s actions are full of sound and fury but accomplish nothing.
DOGE initially boasted it would reduce spending by $2 trillion, then $1 trillion, then it claimed it had reduced spending by $175 billion. Its stage performance also included lines about cutting jobs, shuttering and downsizing agencies, terminating $53 billion in contracts, and streamlining the bureaucracy.
There are no independent, audited reports confirming DOGE’s claims. Its actions have led to hundreds of lawsuits, which alone cast doubt on its longevity.
For some eliminated departments, DOGE only moved the personnel and resources to other departments, and for others, double savings were counted. One independent review claimed DOGE overstated savings from its most extensive cuts by 97%.
The DOGE ego.
Since DOGE believed it was superior to Congress, it did not seek any statutory authority from Congress to consolidate agencies, amend statutes, permanently reduce mandates, modify procurement laws, reform entitlements, change the budget process, or shrink the bureaucracy. In fact, other than Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill, which caused a rift between Trump and DOGE’s leader, Elon Musk, most of DOGE’s actions will not have any permanent impact on the Administrative State, since none were based on legal authority. Far worse, because of the advice DOGE gave the Trump administration, many of Trump’s Executive Orders or Emergency Declarations will not survive the pen of the next Democrat president, and that assumes they survive judicial review.
Since DOGE was initiated, the National Debt has increased by $1.8 trillion. According to USA Facts the high point of federal employment was 1990, when there were 3.2 million civil and postal service employees. By August 2025, the federal workforce had fallen to 2.92 million. On November 24, 2025, the head of OPM stated that total separations will reach 317,000 this year. There is one month to go for that miracle to happen.
In Trump’s first term the federal workforce was 2.77 million in January 2017. In Janury 2025, the workforce was 3.0 million.
Unfortunately, there are no public or peer-reviewed studies supporting reductions in the federal workforce through retirement, voluntary resignations, buyouts, or involuntary separations. Therefore, it isn’t easy to confirm the administration’s numbers.
DOGE vs. Clinton’s Reinventing Government is the race between the tortoise and the hare.
“The Tortoise and the Hare” is a fable about a race in which a speedy rabbit mocks a slow turtle. The hare gets off to a swift start. Being far ahead, he loses sight of the race and takes a nap. The slow turtle, however, keeps walking and wins the race, proving that slow and steady triumphs over ego and speed. Comparing the DOGE approach and outcomes with Clinton’s National Partnership for Reinventing Government (NPR), highlights the differences in effectiveness of the two approaches.
President Clinton worked with Congress to pass laws that reduced the civil service headcount, reorganized agencies, and regulations. DOGE, on the other hand, took on agencies and the civil service with a wrecking ball. DOGE may not have napped, but the 577 lawsuits against the Trump administration for DOGE’s alleged illegal activities slowed it down just as much as a nap would have.
NPR reduced the federal civilian service by 426,200 positions between January 1993 and September 2000, almost 180,000 more than the initial target. NPR saved the federal government approximately $136 billion. In 1995 dollars, that is about $290 billion in today’s dollars. NPR also reduced regulatory costs, streamlined procurement, and enhanced customer service standards. Most significantly, it consolidated or eliminated underperforming programs and the units that administered them.
The most significant difference between the NPR and DOGE is that NPR issued a comprehensive report detailing its savings, workforce reductions, improvements in how agencies assisted their customers with loans, and regulatory compliance. NPR detailed its accomplishments by subject areas such as crime, education, the economy, families, foreign policy, and health care, among others.
DOGE only issued press releases and always had talking heads with boastful comments on friendly cable channels.
DOGE’s big mistake.
Without studying, or formulating a plan, or strategy, DOGE, acted even before Trump was inaugurated, believing it knew the federal government better than anyone. It was brutal: it fired workers, made structural changes to agencies without involving Congress, and cancelled contracts without notice or understanding of the contracts or their status.
NPR, on the other hand, implemented its plan over eight years. Staff reductions were achieved through buyouts, attrition, negotiated reforms, and with Congressional approval.
The most fundamental difference, however, is in how the federal government reduced the workforce. While Clinton and Trump both used buyouts and deferred retirements, Clinton sought and received congressional approval; Trump and DOGE just fired away and those fired, fired back with lawsuits and staged protests.
Most important however, Congress paved the way for Clinton’s workforce reductions through the bipartisan Federal Workforce Restructuring Act of 1994. It provided the legal authority to implement a permanent restructuring of the federal government. Conversely, any DOGE changes that survive judicial review will likely be eliminated by the next Democrat president.
The key point of this analysis is that congressional collaboration is necessary for any long-term effective government reform. Trump and DOGE had a Republican Congress, why didn’t they use it?
For greater success, whatever is left of DOGE, it needs to collaborate with Congress next year. It is the only by acting with legislative authority that a president legitimize reform of the federal government. The Constitution is very clear; Presidents execute the laws that Congress makes.
William L. Kovacs, author of Devolution of Power: Rolling Back the Federal State to Preserve the Republic. It received five stars from Readers’ Favorite. His previous book, Reform the Kakistocracy, received the 2021 Independent Press Award for Political/Social Change. He served as senior vice president for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and chief counsel to a congressional committee. He can be contacted at wlk@ReformTheKakistocracy.com
