Fake news! Trump’s DOGE, once led by Elon Musk, rebuts shutdown rumours — ‘we’ll be back in a few days’

US President Donald Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), once led by Elon Musk, on Tuesday rejected report of shutting down and said that it saved taxpayers $335M last week.

US President Donald Trump and DOGE logo.

The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), an initiative launched to slash the government’s size, on Tuesday rejected reports of its shutting down and said that they will be back in a few days with the regularly scheduled Friday update.

A report by Reuters claimed that US President Donald Trump’s department has disbanded with eight months left to its mandate.

Speaking to the news agency, when asked about DOGE’s status, Office of Personnel Management Director Scott Kupor said that it doesn’t exist, adding, “It is no longer a “centralized entity.”

Kupor also claimed that OPM, the human resources office of the federal government, has since taken over many of DOGE’s functions.

A few months ago, Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, departed from DOGE where he served as an administration adviser.

However, in a post on X, DOGE termed it as fake news.

“President Trump was given a mandate by the American people to modernize the federal government and reduce waste, fraud and abuse. Just last week, DOGE terminated 78 wasteful contracts and saved taxpayers $335M,” DOGE said in a post on X handle.

It further added, “We’ll be back in a few days with our regularly scheduled Friday update.”

Responding to a post by X handle DogeDesigner, which shared Reuter’s news article, Musk targeted the news agency.

In January 2025, the agency was set up to rapidly shrink federal agencies, cut their budgets or redirect their work to Trump priorities.

The report also stated that two prominent DOGE employees are now involved with the National Design Studio, a new body headed by Joe Gebbia, co-founder of Airbnb, which was created through an executive order signed by Trump in August.

DOGE has claimed to have slashed tens of billions of dollars in expenditures.

“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,” Reuters quoted White House spokeswoman Liz Huston as saying, in response to an email.

Meanwhile, the government workers and contractors who were affected by the shutting down of the US Agency for International Development (USAID), want Elon Musk to testify in a lawsuit which accuses him of unlawfully directing the dissolution of the agency.

According to Bloomberg, the government argued that those who sued have failed to prove the situation involved “exceptional circumstances” that would overcome “longstanding limitations” on compelling testimony from high-level executive branch officers.