DOGE: fumble or stroke of genius?

Alan Cai

November 22, 2024

Among the slew of appointments President-elect Donald Trump has made in the past few weeks, several have raised eyebrows. Now-withdrawn Attorney General appointee Matt Gaetz has faced numerous sexual assault allegations and is known as a disruptive conservative firebrand in the house. He was also among the handful of Republicans who forced 15 rounds of speakership voting at the start of the 118th Congress and one of the eight Republicans who voted to oust McCarthy after successful debt ceiling negotiations with Democrats. Secretary of Health and Human Services appointee Robert F. Kennedy Jr., one of Trump’s former political opponents for the presidency, has also faced sexual assault allegations. Defense secretary appointee and Fox News contributor Pete Hegseth follows a similar trend of facing sexual assault allegations and lacking sufficient experience. However, a separate pair of appointees are drawing attention for different reasons: Department of Government Efficiency appointees Vivek Ramaswamy and Elon Musk.

On the surface, the Department of Government Efficiency — abbreviated as DOGE — seems very counterintuitive. Trump vowed to slash government bureaucracy and reduce the number of executive departments. But in doing so, he created a new one. Nonetheless, DOGE is not meant to be a traditional federal executive “department” in the sense that it would likely not be led by a cabinet-level secretary, require congressional approval, or retain staff and funding typical of other departments. Rather, it is meant to be an advisory committee of sorts that will draft policies meant to streamline government action.

The acronym DOGE is an allusion to an internet dog meme named “doge.” Dogecoin is a cryptocurrency touted by Musk. Despite the playful nature of its name and its apparent redundancy, the Department of Government Efficiency may be one of Trump’s rare strokes of genius during his post-election honeymoon.

Through the executive department appointments he has made thus far, Trump has demonstrated a willingness to prioritize loyalty to his brand over administrative experience. Many appointees, including Director of National Intelligence appointee Tulsi Gabbard and Centers for Medicare and Medicaid administrator appointee Dr. Mehmet Oz, have little experience in running their respective government agencies and only a tangential relevance to these government fields. This behavior is expected; Trump wants to send the message that those who opposed him will fade away and those who supported him will prevail.

Nevertheless, the loyalty-first mindset puts Musk and Ramaswamy in very difficult positions. The two businessmen have arguably shown more public support than anyone else in Trump’s inner circle. Ramaswamy launched himself into the political arena as an unapologetically pro-Trump candidate while Musk has leveraged his influence on social media and significant sums from his coffers (over $100 million) in favor of his now-boss. Even though the two men’s unwavering support is unparalleled, there is no appropriate cabinet-level position for them. An appointment to any office below the Secretary of Commerce could be seen as an insult. Yet, the two men have almost no experience with any of the preceding cabinet positions (with respect to the presidential line of succession to dictate). Therefore, the logical solution would be to make a new “department” the two men are both excited about and dump them there. An additional benefit is that if things go awry, Trump could easily scapegoat them and cut off ties without any major impacts on his administration’s functionality.

Trump hit two birds with one stone using DOGE. Unlike many of his other appointments, this one evidently took great consideration.