DOGE no longer has ‘centralized leadership’ under White House tech team, personnel head says
The Department of Government Efficiency, a cornerstone of the second Trump administration’s efforts to remake the federal government, no longer exists as a “centralized entity,” according to the head of the government’s personnel agency.
But the longstanding White House technology team that President Donald Trump used to house DOGE continues to work on technology modernization projects throughout federal agencies.
The administration’s head of the Office of Personnel Management, Scott Kupor, told Reuters that DOGE “doesn’t exist” anymore, and posted on X that DOGE doesn’t have “centralized leadership” within the U.S. DOGE Service, though he did clarify that its principles “remain alive and well.” Fox News also reported that the centralized office for DOGE is closed.
Trump used an existing, Obama-era technology unit in the White House to establish the controversial cost-cutting unit on day one of his administration in January, installing DOGE within what was then the U.S. Digital Service and renaming it the U.S. DOGE Service.
The Trump executive order establishing DOGE also set up a “temporary organization” within USDS with a pre-set dissolution date on July 4, 2026.
DOGE made headlines throughout the spring for shutting down entire agencies, culling government contracts, getting rid of federal employees and accessing sensitive government systems.
But as Nextgov/FCW has reported before, the temporary organization and the USDS team that predated DOGE haven’t necessarily been working together, with the former taking on the controversial efficiency work and the other focusing on low-profile government modernization projects.
Even so, dozens of USDS employees from the team predating DOGE have been dismissed since Trump took office. Others have resigned.
USDS still has about 50 employees, according to a source familiar with its operations who was not authorized to speak on the record. In July, the service was looking for new hires.
A shutdown plan for the White House, updated in October, also referenced 45 DOGE employees, which likely also refers to those working at USDS. The temporary DOGE organization had only one or two people left as of recent months, according to the source familiar.
The team that predated DOGE continues to work on user experience and modernization projects at agencies like the departments of Veterans Affairs and State, the General Services Administration and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. These efforts are in line with the work of the U.S. Digital Service pre-DOGE, said the source familiar.
The USDS accounts also posted that “the executive order establishing U.S. DOGE Service (USDS) is still in effect,” calling the Reuters story “misinformation” on X and LinkedIn Monday.
“USDS is still partnering with agencies to modernize federal technology and software to maximize governmental efficiency and productivity,” the post continued, the words written out over a photo of the popular internet doge meme associated with Dogecoin cryptocurrency and the administration’s efficiency team. The White House also told Nextgov/FCW that DOGE continues to be integrated into agencies.
“President Trump was given a clear mandate to reduce waste, fraud, and abuse across the federal government, and he continues to actively deliver on that commitment,” White House Assistant Press Secretary Liz Huston said in a statement.
Despite Kupor’s comments about a lack of centralized leadership for DOGE, the team’s acting administrator, Amy Gleason, does appear to still be at USDS.
It is true that much has changed about DOGE since the spring.
Billionaire Elon Musk initially led DOGE, but he stepped away from the effort in May only to have a public feud with Trump. Many DOGE staffers followed the Tesla CEO out the door, while others have taken on appointments and leadership roles in agencies.
One DOGE associate, Joe Gebbia, is now heading an entirely new White House “America by Design” initiative.
The news about DOGE becoming more dispersed isn’t necessarily a surprise.
In early June, the director of the Office of Management and Budget, Russell Vought, told lawmakers that the vision for DOGE was for it to become more “institutionalized” within agencies as “in-house consultants,” and that the leadership of DOGE was “decentralized” and with agency heads.
Either way, the DOGE ethos appears to still be a priority for the administration, which began layoff proceedings for 4,000 federal employees during the recent shutdown, a move a court eventually paused and Congress later reversed as part of the funding provision to reopen the government.
OPM and the Office of Management and Budget are institutionalizing the cost-cutting unit’s “principles,” the head of OPM wrote on X, linking to a blog about a recent executive order that set out new requirements for agencies on headcount and hiring.
OPM has “not taken on new responsibilities,” an OPM spokesperson told Nextgov/FCW, but continues “to prioritize efficiency in the federal workforce in line with the president’s priorities.”
