Professor flags 'underreported story' about Elon Musk's 'unorthodox power' in Trump admin

The Department of Government Efficiency is still active and has an "unorthodox power" according to a political analyst.

Professor Ruth Ben-Ghiat says the ongoing work of DOGE, not as a central government project but "entrenched in departments across the administration, is an issue that will have long-term consequences for the public. Writing in NOTUS, the professor of history and Italian studies at New York University suggested there should be more awareness of just how much power DOGE still maintains.

The department had been established at the start of the year by Elon Musk, though his departure from the administration at the end of May seemed to call time on the government efficiency project.

Trump officials have since confirmed the closure of the department, but a Department of Agriculture insider says DOGE officials are still present. Professor Ben-Ghiat wrote, "While the creation and initial activities of Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency made news, the media mostly lost interest after Musk announced in April that he was stepping back to focus on his ailing Tesla business and other concerns."

"Today, the real, underreported story is that DOGE has successfully entrenched itself within the Trump administration and continues to exercise significant, unorthodox power as a parallel civil service."

"As a historian of autocracy, I watched with incredulity in early 2025 as Musk’s operatives occupied government buildings — even once blocking members of Congress from entering — and fired thousands of government employees."

An unnamed source speaking to Wired said, "They are in fact burrowed into the agencies like ticks." Musk, in October, also claimed DOGE is "still happening" during an appearance on the Joe Rogan podcast.

Professor Ben-Ghiat considered the possibility of DOGE and the Trump administration having an "autocrat-oligarch relationship." She explained, "The agency may have been disbanded as a centralized entity, but DOGE continues to have a presence across U.S. government agencies."

"All of this represents an innovation in the autocrat-oligarch relationship. Oligarchs normally operate outside government, buying up media or financial properties that they can leverage in service of the autocrat."

"Here the oligarch was given the keys to the castle, with lasting consequences for privacy and national security. In this and other ways, the United States is now serving as a laboratory for the next phase of the autocratic playbook."