How Legal Is DOGE?

President Barack Obama created a government agency to deliver a “better government experience.” Relying on a small team of tech experts, this agency would streamline, solve, and enhance efficiency. It was called the United States Digital Service (USDS), and it’s the framework upon which President Donald Trump built the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE.

In his January 20 executive order, President Trump wrote:

“Sec. 3.  DOGE Structure.  (a)  Reorganization and Renaming of the United States Digital Service.  The United States Digital Service is hereby publicly renamed as the United States DOGE Service (USDS)”

The initial agency, USDS, received its funding from Congress and added hundreds of full-time employees to the federal government, spread out through many agencies. DOGE is the same agency, just under a slightly different name, and so it falls in line with current laws. Still, many Democrats claim it’s an agency of corruption.

Is It DOGE They Hate, or Its Leaders?

The broadest cases and accusations against the US DOGE Service (USDS) claim that its existence is fundamentally illegal. Of course, if this were true, then it would have been true for the last ten years – not just since President Trump changed the name and refocused it.

Many of the attacks against President Trump’s DOGE seem to be focused on the fact that he’s the one who created it and that he named Elon Musk to lead it. “This administration stands for corruption,” said Representative Jamie Raskin, a Democrat from Maryland. “And what Elon Musk is doing in Washington is all about expanding corruption. He’s not the enemy of corruption. He’s the agent of corruption.”

Representative Maxwell Frost, a Democrat from Florida, raised the issue of oversight: “I think we need to be doing a lot more oversight in terms of what DOGE is doing.”  He continued: “We should all be concerned about the fact that Elon Musk and his small team of, uh, DOGE, uh, you know, coders have absolutely zero oversight.”

Many argue that a tech billionaire shouldn’t be in charge of a government agency, or that the head of such an agency shouldn’t be appointed by the president without congressional oversight. But that’s how USDS worked. Matt Cutts, a wealthy Google tech professional, was given the top spot at the agency under Obama, and he held that position until 2021. Under President Joe Biden, in 2021, the leadership of USDS was changed to a presidential appointment, not requiring congressional approval.

Attacks Mount

Many legal attacks have been launched against Trump’s version of DOGE. There’s a 14-state lawsuit claiming the power given to Musk by Trump is unconstitutional. A federal judge ordered that DOGE’s freeze on foreign aid end. Another judge ruled that President Trump can’t send home from work more than 2,000 employees of the US Agency for International Development (USAID).

Those are just a few of more than two dozen legal actions against DOGE. Congressional Democrats also hope to launch their own attacks. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, a Democrat from New York, hosted a protest against DOGE.

A Time Sensitive Operation

“The final step of @DOGE is to delete itself,” wrote Elon Musk on Dec. 2 last year. That’s not an ambition – it’s a built-in feature of the executive order that turned the United States Digital Service into the United States DOGE Service. In fact, come Independence Day next year, it will be lights out for President Donald Trump’s efficiency machine, regardless of whether it has accomplished its goal.

July 4, 2026, is the 250th anniversary of when the Declaration of Independence was signed – America’s birthday. Almost one and a half years of DOGE efforts – if the current trajectory holds – indicate a potential saving of $1.8 trillion ($100 billion per month).

1. President Trump’s DOGE is built on the framework of President Obama’s US Digital Services (USDS) and, as such, DOGE under Elon Musk and Donald Trump is precisely as legal as USDS was under Presidents Obama and Joe Biden.
2. Despite the legal realities, many Democrats still claim Trump’s DOGE is unconstitutional and illegal, and many legal attacks have been launched against it. Their arguments, however, seem to be mostly based on opinions of Trump and Musk.
3. DOGE is a limited time agency. Built into the executive order that created it is the end date. Whether it succeeds in saving taxpayer dollars or not, DOGE will end on July 4, 2026.

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