Elon Musk's DOGE has formally shut down in Washington, with Gavin Newsom and Robert Reich using the moment to condemn what they say is a trail of 'chaos' and lasting damage.The Department of Government Efficiency ended over the weekend, according to reports and posts shared by Newsom's office and Reich on X, even as the political fight over Musk's federal experiment shows no sign of ending.
Elon Musk And DOGE's Exit
The Department of Government Efficiency was created under Donald Trump's administration as a temporary effort to slash federal spending and streamline parts of government, with Musk installed as its most visible figurehead alongside Vivek Ramaswamy. The executive order that set up the unit said the temporary organisation would terminate on 4 July 2026, and several outlets reported that DOGE marked its formal end over Independence Day.
DOGE was never a normal agency with a neat public paper trail, and that has left critics arguing for months that the country was asked to swallow a major restructuring effort on trust alone, which is a rather wild way to run federal government. According to earlier reports, the unit had stopped functioning as a centralised entity, with the Office of Personnel Management saying, 'That doesn't exist.'
Gavin Newsom's DOGE Attack
Newsom's Press Office went straight for the jugular on X, posting, 'Gone, but the damage isn't and will never be forgotten,' alongside a reported clip about DOGE shutting down operations. The line was pure California politics, sharp and unsentimental, but it also captured the broader Democratic line that Musk's government spell was not some quirky efficiency drive, it was a source of real disruption.
The criticism was not limited to Newsom. Economist and former Labour Secretary Robert Reich also attacked DOGE online, sharing older video commentary about funding cuts linked to the programme and writing, 'Elon Musk's DOGE officially ended over the weekend. Never forget the damage and chaos DOGE left behind.'
In the clip Reich referred to cuts affecting agencies including the Food and Drug Administration, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and the Federal Aviation Administration.
Supporters of DOGE framed it as a necessary clean-up operation, but its critics say it became a blunt instrument, one that threw sand into the gears of government and then called it reform. The language is blunt because the politics are blunt.
The Calls For Accountability
The DOGE shutdown has also revived demands for accountability around Musk himself. Representative Ro Khanna has previously called for Musk to be investigated over funding cuts tied to DOGE, including reductions at USAID, and said there 'needs to be accountability for Elon Musk.' Musk, according to the same reporting, responded by calling Khanna an 'evil liar.'
That exchange matters because it shows how DOGE has outlived its own bureaucracy and become something else entirely, a proxy war over power, competence and political spite. The federal government may be closing the book on the temporary unit, but the dispute over what it did, what it broke and who should answer for it is still very much alive.
There is also the Musk factor, always lurking in the background. His role in DOGE was his first major foray into government, and it landed with the kind of noise only Musk can generate, half Silicon Valley certainty, half political detonation. Critics argued that association hurt Tesla's brand as well, though that is another fight for another day.
What comes next is less tidy. DOGE may be gone in formal terms, but the arguments around federal cuts, agency disruption and Musk's place in American politics will almost certainly keep rolling, because of course they will.
