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Along with looking for ways to make cost-cutting moves, the Department of Government Efficiency is now also trying to find ways to emphasize its accomplishments, according to a report.
The Elon Musk-led service is hoping to rebrand itself after weeks of negative media coverage and public mistakes, the Washington Post reported. There is an “urgent” need to promote DOGE’s achievements, two sources told the outlet.
“’Rebrand’ isn’t accurate,” a White House official told The Independent. “DOGE has been transparent about its message all the way,” pointing to the website’s list of government savings dubbed the “wall of receipts.”
But DOGE’s sweeping steps to overhaul the federal government — mass layoffs, slashed contracts, and steps toward reducing the government’s real estate footprint — have also included a few public missteps, like having to rehire crucial, recently fired workers.
The cost-cutting arm has sparked concerns among the public, members of Congress, and more recently, President Donald Trump.
Days after hailing DOGE’s efforts in a speech to Congress, the president in a Truth Social post last Thursday again touted DOGE’s “incredible success” before clarifying that Cabinet secretaries will be making staff cuts moving forward. The secretaries “can be very precise as to who will remain, and who will go. We say the ‘scalpel’ rather than the ‘hatchet.’” Musk, by contrast, has been using a chainsaw to get his message across.
“PR is viewed as a big mess internally right now,” a source familiar with internal discussions at DOGE told the Post. “I think everyone there knows they need to do a better job of telling the story. And that’s going to be a big component of the next phase of DOGE, leaning into storytelling and showing the wins and not having the story told for them.”
“DOGE’s message since Day One has been consistent: Under President Trump’s direction, billions of dollars in waste, fraud, and abuse will be slashed from the federal government and hard-earned taxpayer dollars will be returned to the American people,” a White House spokesperson told The Independent in a statement.
In a step to promote so-called “wins,” DOGE is planning to build apps and modernize ancient government sites to help federal workers and Americans access services, the outlet reported.
Joe Gebbia, a co-founder of Airbnb and a Tesla board member, appears to be part of this effort. He announced last month that he was joining DOGE with a task of “improving the slow and paper-based retirement process.” He wrote on X: “If anyone else in good standing wants to help design beautiful, user-friendly digital products, reach out.”
DOGE is also looking to update the website for Social Security, a program Musk recently branded as the “biggest Ponzi scheme of all time.” But the U.S. Digital Service was already working on updating the program’s website until DOGE pushed out the team overseeing the project, the former Digital Service administrator Mina Hsiang told the outlet.
“When you fire people who have deep understandings of the mission you want to accomplish, you’re sort of starting from zero,” Hsiang said.
DOGE staff are “frustrated” by the dissonance between public perception and their work, which many of them view as a public service, the outlet reported. Recent polls suggest Americans are divided on DOGE.
In an Economist/YouGov poll taken at the end of February asking what respondents think about expanding or eliminating DOGE, 21 percent said they believe DOGE should be expanded, 27 percent said it should be kept the same, 8 percent said reduced, and 29 percent said eliminated. Meanwhile, a CBS/YouGov poll showed more than half, 52 percent, of respondents thought Musk and DOGE have too much say in firing decisions while 33 percent said they have the right amount and 15 percent said not enough. More than half also believed DOGE and Musk have “too much” access to government agency records.
“The political reality is people want a positive story,” one source familiar with internal discussions at DOGE told the Post, noting that any benefits of these cuts could take time to appear. “There’s a chance you don’t get to that positive story.”
