DOGE Timeline: Government Layoffs, Efficiency and Technology Goals, Target Milestones, Lawsuits and Reality Checks

Welcome to earlier DOGE status updates.

February 24 - AI Will Analyze Employee Emails: DOGE will use a Large Language Model (LLM) to assess the responses of federal workers who were told to justify their jobs via email, NBC News reported.

February 24 - CEO Perspectives:  JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon did not specifically endorse DOGE, but he said the U.S. government needs to eliminate waste and fraud while also improving government outcomes, CNBC reported.

February 23 - Layoff Impact: The impact of federal layoffs to the U.S. job market "could be merely glancing, or seriously damaging," The Wall Street Journal speculated. DOGE-driven layoffs have involved fewer than 30,000 federal employees so far, JPMorgan Chase estimated.

February 22 - OPM Email Triggers Outrage: An Office of Personnel Management (OPM) email asking all federal employees what they did last week triggered "confusion, chaos and resentment among a federal workforce that increasingly feels under attack," according to Wired. Among the departments pushing back against the email: The FBI told employees to "pause any response" to the OPM email.

February 22 - NHTSA Layoffs: DOGE is eliminating jobs at the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), a vehicle safety agency that oversees Tesla and has launched investigations into deadly crashes involving Tesla cars, The Associated Press reported.

February 21 - DOGE - Republican Voter Pushback: Some Republicans are facing pushback in their hometowns as the Trump administration and DOGE make severe cuts across the federal government, both through sweeping employee terminations and looming budget cuts, ABC News reported.

February 21 - DOGE Financial Errors?: A DOGE public ledger -- tracking alleged cost savings -- is riddled with mistakes, The New York Times reported.

February 19 - DOGE Layoffs Mistakes: Chris Wright, secretary of the Department of Energy, admitted to mistakes after DOGE-driven layoffs impacted employees of the National Nuclear Security Administration, Scripps News reported.

February 19 - DOGE Dividend?: President Trump is considering using a portion of the savings from DOGE to provide direct payments to Americans, The Wall Street Journal reported. The Trump administration is thinking about giving 20% of the savings back to the American citizens (a so-called DOGE Dividend) and 20% to pay back debt, the report said.

February 19 - FEMA Layoffs?: Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) employees who focus on climate change and related hazards are next on the chopping block after hundreds of probationary workers were fired earlier this week, Bloomberg reported.

February 18 - Musk's Official Role?: In a court filing, the White House said Musk isn't in charge of DOGE ‒ nor does he even work for DOGE, according to USA Today. That argument contradicts the White House's public portrayal of Musk as the person steering the ship of DOGE, the report noted.

February 18 - Social Security Leader Exits: Michelle King, the Social Security Administration’s acting leader, stepped down from her role over requests from DOGE to access recipient data, The Hill reported based on multiple industry news sources.

February 17 - Protests: Groups opposed to Trump's agenda and Musk's converged on cities across the nation to express outrage with slogans such as "Not My President's Day" and "No King's Day," USA Today reported. The rallies, led by the 50501 Movement and other organizations, come less than two weeks after the last round of widespread rallies and street marches, the report said.

February 17 - Conflicts of Interest?: DOGE has fired U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) employees who were reviewing Musk's brain implant company Neuralink, Reuters reported.

February 16 - Clean Energy Staff Cuts: The Energy Department’s Loan Programs Office, which provides cheap funds to clean-energy projects, has experienced 25% staff cuts, The Wall Street Journal reported. The office was deeply funded by the Biden administration.

February 15 - Homeland Security and Climate Work: Top officials at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security received a memo ordering an immediate stop to work connected to climate change and the elimination of climate-related terms across the agency, Bloomberg reported.

February 15 - Judge Permits Data Access: DOGE can continue to access sensitive records from at least three federal agencies, ABC News reported, after a federal judge in Washington denied a request to block Musk's budget-slashing team from the Department of Labor, Department of Health and Human Services and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

February 15 - HHS Staff Cuts: DOGE cut 3,600 probationary Health and Human Services employees on February 14 — but went through a careful process to exclude those who were serving in specialized or critical roles, Fox News asserted.

February 14 - Nuclear Security Layoffs: DOGE has laid off about 1,200 to 2,000 workers at the Department of Energy, including employees at a power grid office, the nuclear security administration and the loans office, Reuters reported.

February 14 - Pentagon Budget Cuts?: In a bid to get ahead of DOGE, some parts of the military are preparing lists of weapons they have long wanted to cancel but couldn’t get past lawmakers seeking to protect spending in their districts, The Wall Street Journal reported.

February 13 - USAID Employees File Suit: Dozens of U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) employees sued Elon Musk and DOGE, alleging that Musk and DOGE have "exceeded the authority of Executive Branch officials not formally nominated and confirmed by the Senate," the Democracy Docket reported. The plaintiffs remain anonymous, the report noted.

February 13 - Lawsuit Seeks to Block DOGE: A group of state attorneys general sued to halt Elon Musk's efforts to slash federal spending as head of DOGE, Reuters reported.

February 13 - Tesla Contract?: The State Department had been in talks with Tesla buy armored electric vehicles, but the plans have been put on hold by the Trump administration after reports emerged about a potential $400 million purchase, The Associated Press reported.

February 13 - Probation Employees At Risk?: The Trump administration stepped up the firing of federal workers who have been on the job for less than a year, The Wall Street Journal reported.

February 13 - IRS Visit: Gavin Kliger, a DOGE representative, arrived at the Internal Revenue Service to examine the agency's operations, Reuters reported.

February 13 - Agency Shutdowns?: Musk called on United States to “delete entire agencies” from the federal government as part of DOGE's effort cut spending and restructure its priorities, SeekingAlpha reported. Musk made the comments during a videocall to the World Governments Summit in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, the report said.

February 12 - Layoff Plans: Federal agency leaders have been told to begin preparations for large-scale layoffs, known as reductions in force (RIFs), under an executive order signed by Trump, CNN reported. Agencies will work with DOGE to carry out the mandate, the report said.

February 12 - Federal Employee Buyout Packages: Tens of thousands of U.S. civil servants were cleared to take a buyout from Trump's administration after a federal judge ruled the unprecedented downsizing effort could proceed, Reuters reported.

Continue to next page for DOGE status updates from February 11, 2025 and earlier.