Elon Musk’s first 50 DOGE agents set up base in SpaceX’s DC office and target IRS over waste

DOGE, the brainchild of Donald Trump and Elon Musk, is already exploring how to cut unnecessary funding from the Internal Revenue Service and other agencies.

The newly created Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) already has 50 employees in Washington, DC, sources confirmed to the American newspaper. Washingtonpost.

From SpaceX’s offices, the new hires are already hard at work exploring several areas to reduce federal spending.

DOGE is a private entity not involved with the federal government, but its agents have already visited several executive departments to conduct interviews, the report said.

The U.S. Treasury Department, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), the Departments of Veterans Affairs, Homeland Security, and Health and Human Services have all been involved in preliminary investigations.

Musk previously outlined an ambitious goal of cutting federal spending by $2 trillion over the next few years, with the federal budget hovering around $6.8 trillion.

However, earlier this week, SpaceX’s CEO appeared to adjust that goal.

“I think we’ll try for $2 trillion. I think this is the best outcome,” he said, “but I do think you should have a little bit of surplus. I think if we try to make $2 trillion, we have a good chance of getting $1 [trillion].’

Donald Trump has said that eliminating frivolous government spending is a top priority for his new administration

House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., from left, walks with DOGE co-leaders Vivek Ramaswamy and Elon Musk as they arrive for a roundtable discussion to discuss President-elect Donald’s planned Department of Government Efficiency Trump to discuss in December

According to a blog post from a tech founder who spent four weeks working at DOGE, groups of employees have already “gone from 0 to 100 holding meetings and getting things done.”

“Within two minutes of speaking to DOGE’s last interviewer, he asked if I wanted to join. I said yes. Then he said ‘cool’ and I was in multiple Signal groups,” Vinay Hiremath, co-founder of tech company Loom, wrote on his blog. ‘I was immediately introduced to the software, HR and legal teams.’

“The next four weeks of my life consisted of hundreds of phone calls recruiting the smartest people I’ve ever spoken to, working on various projects that I definitely can’t talk about, and learning how completely dysfunctional the government was. It was great.’

Although, despite the fun work and fast-paced environment, Hiremath quit DOGE after just a few weeks.

“After four intense and heady weeks, I have called off my plans to move to DC and embarked on a journey to save our government with some of the smartest people I have ever met,” he wrote, indicating he was leaving to Explore Hawaii and spend time on his personal development.

First announced in November after the presidential election, DOGE is looking to quickly scale up its operations.

According to the Post’s report, the DOGE office in Washington, DC aims to reach 100 employees in the coming weeks.

“Recruiting for a very small number of full-time HR, IT and finance roles,” the DOGE X account reported in late December. ‘If you are interested, please send us your CV and a few points why you are interested in DOGE.’

Logo of the government’s Ministry of Efficiency

Ministry of Efficiency X page

The official DOGE account this week once again put out a call for engineers to sign up.

“Recruitment for a very small number of full-time paid software engineers and InfoSec engineers,” the statement said. “If you are interested, please send us a few credits demonstrating exceptional skills and your cell phone number.”

As much of the department remains shrouded in mystery, such as why its employees share an office with SpaceX, who pays employees’ salaries and which parts of the government they focus on, some high-profile executives have been appointed to management positions.

Steve Davis, a veteran of several Musk companies with a reputation for cutting costs, has been brought in to DOGE to help recruit top talent.

Emil Michael, a former executive at Uber, has joined in pushing back on government regulations, the newspaper reported.