November 24, 2025
Slash, burn, oops—rehire
DoGE "cut muscle, not fat"; 26K experts rehired after brutal cuts
Elon’s cut-first, fix-later play leaves agencies reeling; commenters split on lean vs reckless
TLDR: DOGE was shut down early after firing then rehiring over 26K essential roles, undermining its promise of big savings. Commenters clash over whether this was lean efficiency or reckless chaos, with jokes about “delete till it breaks,” worries about politics, and claims branding beat real results.
DOGE—the short-lived Department of Government Efficiency—was quietly shut down early, and now the Internet is roasting the “slash-and-sprint” experiment. After OPM’s Scott Kupor confirmed DOGE no longer exists, users zeroed in on Brookings’ tally of 26,511 fired then rehired roles, many being engineers and doctors, not “paper-pushers.” Cue the chorus: “cut muscle, not fat.”
The hottest take? Elon’s “delete till it breaks, then restore” method. One camp, like [LunicLynx], cheers the idea of trimming bloat—only to admit it overshot. Another camp sees pure chaos: lawsuits, critics saying savings were overstated by ~40%, and Musk’s trillion-dollar promise turning into a messy $214B maybe-not. Politics added spice when commenters argued whether DOGE staff faced prosecution, with some insisting “it won’t be Trump’s DOJ”. The meta-meme? Branding beats results—“Musk with a chainsaw” got more clicks than careful accounting. Old-school pragmatists chimed in: ideology < experience, sharing war stories of flashy bosses nuking “useless spend” only to panic backfill later. It’s peak Internet drama: dupe links, dunking, and gallows humor about the government’s “move fast, break everything” moment. If DOGE was meant to prove government can run like a startup, commenters say it proved the opposite—with agencies left picking up the pieces.
Key Points
- •OPM Director Scott Kupor confirmed DOGE was terminated about eight months before its charter ended.
- •OPM assumed many DOGE functions after Elon Musk left in May, embedding staff across agencies.
- •DOGE reported $214 billion in savings, though critics said the amount may be overstated by nearly 40%.
- •Lawsuits over suspected illegal firings increased after Musk’s departure; Congress split on whether to codify the process.
- •A Brookings report by Elaine Kamarck documented 26,511 firing-then-rehire instances, showing many roles were critical professionals.