Elon Musk is leaving the Trump administration, and DOGE cuts will soon be in the hands of GOP lawmakers on Capitol Hill.

Rather than set government straight, Elon Musk is leaving Washington with the federal budget all cattywampus. Deficit spending is increasing, not waning, and there is a growing school of thought that his “efficiency” effort could end up costing the government as much as or more than it saved.

"Vermin were not a problem” at the the U.S. Institute of Peace before Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency took over the building.

Despite Musk’s stated departure from DOGE (and attempts to talk up his focus on his businesses), sources tell Wired that DOGE-related efforts across federal agencies are “escalating.” President Trump confirmed on Friday that Musk’s “really not leaving,

In a post on X, formerly Twitter, DOGE said it had deactivated 523,000 federal credit cards following a 13-week audit.

Sahil Lavingia, who says he was fired from DOGE after speaking out about his experiences there, told WIRED about how he communicated with the group, who appears to be in charge, and what might be coming next.

DOGE officials pressured the US Navy to cancel a $170 million cloud migration contract, which could jeopardize sailors' pay and promotions.

Driving the news: Vought said on CNN's "State of the Union" that the administration "might" send all of DOGE's cuts to Congress for approval but is waiting to gauge how the $9.4 billion rescissions package the White House plans to send to lawmakers this week fares.