Trump executive order implements Department of Government Efficiency

By Alvin Wu
Domestic Affairs
Trump executive order implements Department of Government Efficiency

Screenshot of doge.gov on Tuesday, Jan. 21. The icon of the cryptocurrency dogecoin was no longer present on Friday, Jan. 24. ZFJ/Alvin Wu

WASHINGTON, Jan. 23 (ZFJ) — President Donald Trump implemented the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) by executive order on the first day of his presidency.

The order renames the U.S. Digital Service, a technology unit within the Executive Office of the President, to the U.S. DOGE Service (USDS).

It also creates the U.S. DOGE Service Temporary Organization within the USDS, “dedicated to advancing the President’s 18-month DOGE agenda” and terminating on July 4, 2026.

The temporary organization will be headed by the USDS administrator, who will report to the White House chief of staff.

The order requires each government agency head to establish a DOGE team of at least four employees to “coordinate their work with USDS and advise their respective Agency Heads on implementing the President‘s DOGE Agenda.”

The USDS administrator is also charged with a “software modernization initiative” to upgrade government information technology systems.

One additional executive order requires the input of the USDS administrator, as well as that of the directors of the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) and Office of Management and Budget (OMB), to create a federal hiring plan for “restoring merit to government service.”

“Current Federal hiring practices are broken, insular, and outdated,” reads the order. “They no longer focus on merit, practical skill, and dedication to our Constitution. Federal hiring should not be based on impermissible factors, such as one’s commitment to illegal racial discrimination under the guise of ‘equity,’ or one’s commitment to the invented concept of ‘gender identity’ over sex.”

A second additional executive order imposes a hiring freeze on all federal civilian positions vacant as of Jan. 20, 2025. The freeze expires for all agencies but the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) once USDS, OPM, and OMB “submit a plan to reduce the size of the Federal Government’s workforce through efficiency improvements and attrition.”

The IRS hiring freeze will remain in effect until the Treasury secretary, in consultation with the OMB director and USDS administrator, agrees to lift it.

While signing the executive order to create DOGE, Trump told reporters that Musk will get an office for about 20 people who will work to implement the president’s policies.

“We have a problem in this country, sign an executive order, it doesn’t get done for six months,” said Trump, pointing to how the “Jan. 6 hostages” have not been released yet despite “a good ruling from the Supreme Court” “six months ago.”

Trump first announced DOGE on Nov. 12, 2024, when he said that Tesla and SpaceX CEO and billionaire Elon Musk and Republican presidential race dropout Vivek Ramaswamy would “dismantle Government Bureaucracy, slash excess regulations, cut wasteful expenditures, and restructure Federal Agencies.”

Officials confirmed after DOGE’s inception that Ramaswamy will no longer be part of the commission as he is considering running for governor of Ohio next year. A Politico report says that Musk played a part in dismissing Ramaswamy.

DOGE first began soliciting CVs for employees on X on Nov. 14, 2024. Since its inception, it has been posting to criticize various government spending projects as well as recruit additional employees.

Trump has long been critical of the government’s spending and has vowed to significantly slash operating costs.

Critics say that Musk stands to benefit from the efficiency endeavors. SpaceX and Tesla hold numerous lucrative government contracts, including for the military and NASA.

The agency’s name is a reference to the doge meme of a Shiba Inu dog that went viral in 2013. Musk is a huge fan of the meme.

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