The logo for the Department of Government Efficiency as of November 14, 2024 – Public Domain

In a Wall Street Journal op-ed last November (“The DOGE Plan to Reform Government”), Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy asserted that “[r]equiring federal employees to come to the office five days a week would result in a wave of voluntary terminations that we welcome: If federal employees don’t want to show up, American taxpayers shouldn’t pay them for the Covid-era privilege of staying home.”

With Donald Trump’s inauguration as president, that recommendation from Musk’s and Ramaswamy’s “DOGE” project — a powerless advisory mill disguised as a “Department” of Government Efficiency — actually got accepted. In a day-one executive order, Trump directed department and agency heads to “take all necessary steps to terminate remote work........

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