Leah Feiger: This is a question that I’ve been thinking of for some time. To be sure, and to make it clear, I’d like to quote Scott Kupor. He is the director of OPM, as well as the former managing Partner at Andreessen-Horowitz. I do this to let everyone know where the people in the current administration are coming from. This was posted on X by Scott Kupor late last month. It is part of Reuter’s reporting. He posts. “The truth is, DOGE may not have centralized leadership under USDS anymore, but the principles of DOGE remain alive and well, deregulation, eliminating fraud, waste and abuse, reshaping the federal workforce, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.” What they said all this time is exactly the same. But it’s just smoke and a mirrors. Oh no, NO, DOGE does not exist. Elon’s character is not leading the project, as Elon himself stated on Joe Rogan’s podcast last month. He’s like, “Yeah, once I left, they weren’t able to pick on anyone, but don’t worry, DOGE is still there.” This is a very strange thing to witness people doing this. “DOGE is gone now.” They’re telling me that this isn’t true.
Zoë Schiffer: It’s hard to tell where the DOGE ends and the Trump Administration begins, because the DOGE has infiltrated many parts of the government. The DOGE values, like deregulation and cost-cutting, as well as zero-based budgeting have become almost a given for this administration.
Leah Feiger: This is a really good idea. By the end of Elon’s tenure, it wasn’t that Trump’s administration disagreed with DOGE. The Trump administration didn’t agree with Musk’s approach. The people didn’t appreciate that Musk was fighting outside the Oval Office and stepping over Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent. It was bad for Trump’s administration to appear inept.
