The Department of Government Efficiency, President Donald Trump’s ambitious initiative to streamline federal bureaucracy and cut $2 trillion from the budget, is facing significant hurdles just a week into its creation.
The high-profile departures of co-head Vivek Ramaswamy and top legal counsel Bill McGinley, coupled with multiple lawsuits alleging transparency violations, have left the commission scrambling to maintain momentum.
With Tesla CEO and X owner Elon Musk helming the project without the help of Ramaswamy, public skepticism is also mounting, with polls showing limited confidence in the billionaire’s ability to lead government reform efforts.
Ramaswamy, who had been poised to co-lead DOGE with Musk, left the commission on Monday amid reported tensions with the Tesla CEO. His departure comes as he considers a gubernatorial run in Ohio, leaving Musk as the sole leader of the newly created department.
Meanwhile, legal counsel McGinley, a veteran Republican lawyer and Trump ally, announced his resignation to pursue private sector opportunities. McGinley’s exit adds to the perception of instability within the commission, particularly as DOGE faces mounting litigation challenging its legitimacy and operations.
“I am in discussions regarding a number of private sector opportunities and will have something to announce in the next couple of weeks,” McGinley told the Wall Street Journal on Thursday. “I support President Trump, Vice President [JD] Vance, and the great teams in the White House and across the administration 100%.”
DOGE’s legal troubles emerged within minutes of Trump’s inauguration, with multiple lawsuits alleging violations of the Federal Advisory Committee Act, a 1972 transparency law requiring public access to notes and reports from federal advisory committees.
Among the lawsuits is one complaint filed by National Security Counselors, which accuses DOGE of conducting its business via encrypted messaging apps like Signal, bypassing transparency rules. Additional suits have been brought by left-leaning advocacy groups, including Democracy Forward, Public Citizen, and the American Federation of Government Employees.
Kel McClanahan, executive director of National Security Counselors, has argued that nobody disputes the amount of wasteful spending in the federal government.
“Our only concern is that DOGE, as it is currently constituted, lacks the expertise to understand how its recommendations will backfire if it pushes federal workers out without understanding why they are there in the first place,” he told Fortune.
Despite these challenges, DOGE is pressing forward with its mission.
Trump signed an executive order on Monday replacing the Obama-era U.S. Digital Service with DOGE, integrating it into the executive branch to oversee federal agency reform. Musk has vowed to operate DOGE with “maximum transparency,” declaring on X, “All actions of the Department of Government Efficiency will be posted online.”
However, public approval for DOGE and its leadership remains tepid. An Associated Press-NORC poll released Friday showed that only about 30% of people strongly or somewhat approve of the initiative.
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While most people agree that federal bureaucracy needs reform, skepticism over Musk’s leadership persists, with nearly 60% of respondents saying it is a “very or somewhat bad” idea for Trump to rely on billionaires for government policy advice. A separate Wall Street Journal poll conducted ahead of Trump’s inauguration found similar unease, with half of respondents opposing Musk’s role as a top adviser.
As DOGE navigates its turbulent first week, questions remain about its ability to deliver on Trump’s promise to overhaul government inefficiency. One of the first major challenges it plans to tackle includes reduction of manufacturing of the penny, which costs over 3 cents to make and cost taxpayers over $179 million in fiscal 2023, according to CNN.