Musk took a job with the Trump White House with one mission: to cut spending from the government as much as possible.
He began with an initial target of “at least $2 trillion”, which then shifted to $1tn and ultimately $150bn.
To date, Doge claims to have saved $175bn through a combination of asset sales, lease and grant cancellations, “fraud and improper payment deletion”, regulatory savings and a 260,000-person reduction from the 2.3 million-strong federal workforce.
A BBC analysis of those figures, however, found that evidence is sometimes lacking.
This mission has at times caused both chaos and controversy, including some instances in which federal judges halted mass firings and ordered employees reinstated.
In other instances, the administration has been forced to backtrack on firings.
In one notable instance in February, the administration stopped the firing of hundreds of federal employees working at the National Nuclear Security Administration, including some with sensitive jobs related to the US nuclear arsenal.
Musk himself repeatedly acknowledged that mass firings would inevitably include mistakes.
“We will make mistakes,” he said in February, after his department mistook a region of Mozambique for Hamas-controlled Gaza while cutting an aid programme. “But we’ll act quickly to correct any mistakes.”
Doge’s efforts to access data also garnered controversy, particularly the department’s push for access to sensitive treasury department systems that control the private information of millions of Americans.
Polls show that cuts to government spending remain popular with many Americans – even if Musk’s personal popularity has waned.
