DOGE Government Department’s 294-Day Rapid Decline: When Dogecoin Meme Culture Entered Washington

A government department named after the Dogecoin ticker, armed with Musk’s chainsaw and promises of reform, took office only to make an early, hasty exit.

The “Department of Government Efficiency” (DOGE), established on Trump’s very first day in office, was quietly dissolved before completing its term. For the first time, U.S. Office of Personnel Management Director Scott Cooper recently admitted publicly: “It’s gone.”

DOGE only lasted 294 days from its founding to its dissolution—a lifespan eerily similar to those flash-in-the-pan meme coins in the crypto market. Its name was directly lifted from the Dogecoin (Dogecoin) code, its website featured a Shiba Inu avatar, and Musk even posed with a chainsaw—calling it a government agency is a stretch; it was more of a narrative-driven political spectacle.

A Government Department “Borrowed” from Crypto

On January 20, 2025, the day Trump was sworn in, he signed an executive order creating DOGE. The name is instantly familiar to anyone in crypto—Musk has always been a die-hard Dogecoin fan, and this time he simply stuffed a crypto meme into the political game.

The DOGE website was awash in crypto culture: Dogecoin logos and Shiba Inu images were everywhere. This design completely upended the solemnity of government institutions, shattering the usual stereotypes of traditional bureaucracy.

Musk’s promotion on X was even more outrageous. He posed with a chainsaw, captioning the photo as “the chainsaw for bureaucracy”—the same playbook he used to hype Dogecoin, filled with the crypto world’s brand of radical irreverence.

DOGE’s naming and communication strategy showcased a completely new kind of political messaging—directly appropriating internet meme culture, using jokes and irony to deconstruct tradition and aiming to capture the minds of the young and the digitally native.

Silicon Valley-Style Radical Operation

DOGE operated nothing like a traditional government agency; it was much more like a Silicon Valley startup. Musk hired about 50 twenty-somethings—nicknamed the “child soldiers”—who wore hoodies and jeans, looking nothing like typical civil servants.

The youthful team brought an extremely radical work style. Running on Red Bull, they shuttled between multiple offices, and in just three weeks, they’d embedded personnel at major federal agencies, controlled cash flows, and screened contract projects.

AI technology became DOGE’s core weapon. The team used AI for basic optimization, digitizing everything from contract disbursements to employee travel reimbursements. AI tools rapidly identified areas of waste and opportunities for efficiency—for example, immediately terminating leases on unused office buildings, saving $150 million.

This “move fast, break things” Silicon Valley mindset sparked fierce clashes in the Washington political ecosystem. The DOGE team required federal employees to submit weekly reports or be considered resigned; no-shows were put on administrative leave.

Grand Narrative Meets Harsh Reality

DOGE’s initial goals were wildly ambitious. Musk pledged to slash $2 trillion from the federal budget, while Ramaswamy went further, proposing to optimize away 70% of federal employees—numbers as exaggerated as any crypto marketing, designed to create buzz and grab attention.

But reality quickly hit back. Although DOGE claimed to have cut about $160 billion in spending, that was less than a fifth of Musk’s original boast. A huge gap emerged between grand narrative and actual execution.

A Senate investigative subcommittee of Democrats issued a report stating that DOGE had “wasted” more than $21 billion in public funds over six months.

The report listed numerous specific losses: Department of Energy loan programs frozen, resulting in about $263 million in lost interest income; USAID shut down, causing about $110 million in food and medicine to spoil in warehouses.

DOGE’s radical actions triggered widespread backlash. Democratic attorneys general from 14 states sued Musk and Trump, alleging Trump’s granting of power to Musk was unconstitutional. DOGE faced nearly 20 lawsuits, including violations of the Privacy Act and unauthorized access to sensitive government data.

The End of This Political Meme Coin Experiment

DOGE’s quiet dissolution was a stark contrast to its high-profile debut.

In May of this year, Musk announced his resignation from DOGE and publicly broke with Trump over the “Big and Beautiful” Act. By summer, DOGE staff had already vacated headquarters, and security checkpoints and credentials had disappeared.

This month, OPM Director Scott Cooper publicly confirmed for the first time that DOGE no longer exists and its functions have been taken over by the OPM. The government-wide hiring freeze, once a signature DOGE policy, has also ended.

DOGE team members have found new roles within government: Airbnb co-founder Joe Gebbia now heads the National Design Studio, and Zachary Terrell serves as CTO of the Department of Health and Human Services. This means DOGE as an experimental attempt is over, but some of its ideas are being absorbed into traditional government structures.

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis commented on X: “DOGE fought the Swamp, but the Swamp won.” This political meme coin experiment ultimately ended with victory for traditional political structures.

The symbolic economy is permeating traditional politics. Even though the DOGE experiment ended early, it marks the irreversible deep integration of politics and crypto culture. In the future, we may see more political institutions and governance models with “crypto-native” features. The key is how to fuse the innovation of the crypto world with the stability of traditional governance to create new models with both symbolic appeal and practical effectiveness.

Narrative is indeed a powerful tool for building consensus, but without technological implementation and value creation, narrative is just a castle in the air. When the meme hype fades, what truly remains in the industry are always those technologies and projects that solve real problems.