The cost-cutting ethos of the Trump administration has inspired copycat initiatives across the country, giving new life to the Department of Government Efficiency and a way for aspiring Republicans to piggyback on the department’s GOP popularity.

In both substance and branding, states are emulating DOGE’s pursuit of reforms to shrink the size of government. Governors and legislators have moved to consolidate agencies, update technology, and root out “waste, fraud, and abuse” with task forces that riff on the acronym.

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In New Hampshire, Gov. Kelly Ayotte (R-NH) created a 15-member commission named COGE that will submit efficiency recommendations to her office, while in Missouri, state senators have been passing legislation under a committee dubbed MODOGE.

Nevada even has a new outside watchdog whose logo mirrors the dollar sign insignia of the national DOGE. It is not affiliated with the state government but reports on perceived inefficiencies.

The flurry of DOGE spinoffs is not novel — state governments have long pursued savings to balance budgets and signal to voters that officeholders are good stewards of their money. But Elon Musk’s DOGE has given fresh currency to the leave-no-rock-unturned philosophy of small government conservatives looking to make their mark in politics.

TRUMP MUDDLES FEDERAL GOVERNMENT ROLLBACK WITH BLUE-STATE THREATS

Many of the task forces lack the authority to act on their own and have loosely defined or modest ambitions, but Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL), who launched a Florida DOGE in February, has injected a Trumpian flair consistent with the chainsaw approach taken by Musk.

In partnership with his state’s chief financial officer, DeSantis has moved to audit local governments and cancel diversity programs, threatening subpoenas and other consequences for jurisdictions that refuse to cooperate.

DOGE, which burst onto the scene with plans for mass layoffs and the shuttering of entire agencies, has shrunk from the national spotlight since Musk left the administration in a dramatic falling out with Trump. But the department continues to carry out many of the same functions set in motion at the outset of his tenure, providing a road map that state officials have sought to replicate on their own.

Legislators are seeking to sell off government buildings, force employees to shake pandemic-era work-from-home policies, and lean on the emergence of artificial intelligence to streamline government operations.

Borrowing from the past

Making government lean again is not a Trump-era phenomenon, and many of the commissions today are throwbacks to past efficiency initiatives. Florida has had a DOGE-like task force since the 2000s, while states have dabbled with Lean Six Sigma, zero-based budgeting, and other innovations from the private sector for years.

“I like to say that we were doing DOGE before DOGE was a thing,” Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds (R-IA) said in her January State of the State address. In 2023, she signed a law cutting the number of state Cabinet agencies in half.

The initiatives have been influenced by DOGE’s emphasis on terminating diversity grants it deems wasteful, with lawmakers in North Carolina and elsewhere scrutinizing the same types of programs.

The interest in AI also mirrors DOGE’s reliance on the technology to review government data and make cost-cutting decisions. Governors, including DeSantis and Reynolds, have emphasized the use of AI in executive orders creating their efficiency commissions.

Still, the cost-cutting revival sparked by DOGE is more deeply rooted in traditional Republican notions of small government. In signing DOGE legislation into law in April, Gov. Greg Abbott (R-TX) framed the steps Texas was taking in the context of cutting red tape and getting the government out of the “daily lives of Texans.”

The initiatives are not limited to red states. In Maryland, Gov. Wes Moore (D-MD) claimed hundreds of millions in savings due to a “government modernization initiative” that takes a similar approach as other governors.

To close a $3 billion shortfall in the state budget, Maryland is reviewing its real estate holdings, vehicle fleets, and administrative functions such as procurement and IT.

But Democrats have been careful not to associate their efforts with Musk or DOGE. Moore described the changes as “targeted,” drawing a contrast with the sweeping layoffs undertaken by the Trump administration.

In New York, Gov. Kathy Hochul (D-NY) has infused her Innovation Office, announced in January, with progressive goals, including prioritizing contracts for minority- and women-owned businesses and better recycling practices.

The push for efficiency has taken different forms depending on the state. In Oklahoma, Gov. Kevin Stitt (R-OK) created a Division of Government Efficiency, empowering an unpaid adviser from the business community to facilitate its reforms. Its preliminary findings were released in March.

The bill Abbott signed into law created a Texas Regulatory Efficiency Office that will work with other agencies to roll back or streamline rules. The office was given a five-year budget of $23 million.

The DeSantis playbook

Many of the early steps taken this year have been modest, including the creation of portals where residents can report wasteful spending. The commissions are also measured and deliberative in their recommendations, eschewing Musk’s break-now-and-fix-later management style.

Ayotte’s commission in New Hampshire explicitly rejected the comparison to Musk at its first meeting in late February.

“It’s not really about taking the meat cleaver to things — it’s about finding efficiencies,” Drew Cline, a commission member and chairman of the state Board of Education, told the New Hampshire Bulletin.

Florida represents the rare exception to that rule, as DeSantis clashes with local leaders he says are obstructing efforts to cut the “bloat” out of government.

DeSantis is sending teams into county offices to review their finances but has accused some of manipulating or deleting files to shield their governments from scrutiny. On Wednesday, he announced subpoenas for government workers in Orange County, a politically purple jurisdiction.

The efforts are reminiscent of the early barnstorming undertaken by members of DOGE, who drew headlines for taking control of data systems, despite the reservations of senior officials, to evaluate waste and abuse.

DeSantis has used the “boots on the ground” to target diversity programs and argue that counties are receiving a tax windfall from rising property values and should return the money to residents.

His administration plans to put before voters a measure to cut or abolish Florida’s property tax in the 2026 elections.

According to DeSantis’s executive order, the task force will be disbanded after a year, but his Department of Finance, which is spearheading the audits, has promised to continue past that deadline.

“Cities and counties should not make the mistake to think that this is a short-term thing,” Florida CFO Blaise Ingoglia said in a press conference earlier this month. “This is a long-term thing.”

DOGE lives on

At the federal level, DOGE no longer has the autonomy or broad mandate that early on made it so controversial. Cabinet secretaries began to assert control over staffing decisions and forced Musk’s teams to embed within their departments, rather than act as a rogue entity with its own mission.

Once Musk left in the spring, there was an exodus of staffers he brought in to run operations.

The shrinking footprint of DOGE has meant Musk’s grand promise of $2 trillion in budget cuts will go unfilled. Its savings dashboard estimates $205 billion has been saved, but the math has been perennially questioned as faulty and overstated.

Still, DOGE continues to review and cancel contracts, and courts have begun to rule in the administration’s favor regarding Musk’s firing spree.

DOGE LOSES ITS BITE AS ELON MUSK STEPS BACK FROM ROLE

The White House has simultaneously pursued clawbacks of foreign aid, with the Office of Management and Budget notifying appropriators Thursday that it will submit a “pocket rescission” to Congress as the fiscal year ends.

Congressional Republicans approved an earlier cancellation of foreign aid and public broadcasting funds, but the latest request is legally questionable and drew rebukes from Democrats and Senate Appropriations Committee Chairwoman Susan Collins (R-ME) on Friday.