What is ‘Doge?’: How Musk’s new job started out as a dog meme

By Michael Baggs (with Emily Maitlis & Jon Sopel)

What’s the story of Doge, which has grown from a dog meme to a new Donald Trump government department, which is being co-led by Elon Musk?

Read time: 3 mins

In brief…

• Elon Musk has been appointed co-commissioner of a new government department, tasked with reducing government spending.
• The News Agents say he will “slash and burn” spending on health, the environment and veterans in his new role.
• This, they add, was democratically elected by US voters.

What’s the story?

From now on, you’ll know ‘Doge’ as an abbreviation for Donald Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency.

But the term started life as a dog meme, loved by Elon Musk, who will be one of the heads of Trump’s new team.

Musk will take up a role as co-commissioner of Doge, which will be tasked with cutting spending to help reduce the US federal fiscal deficit, alongside former presidential hopeful Vivek Ramaswamy.

There is, Emily Maitlis points out, an irony in having two people sharing a job about cutting government waste.

An official statement said the goal of the projects was “a smaller government, with more efficiency and less bureaucracy”.

“This will send shockwaves through the system, and everyone involved in Government waste, which is a lot of people,” Musk said after his new role was announced.

Where did the term Doge emerge?

Doge is an 11-year-old meme of a Shiba dog, which was recognised in 2013 as the best meme of the year, and later named one of the most popular memes of the 2010s.

It’s usually seen with poor-grammar quotes, used to represent someone’s inner monologue.

The meme inspired the cryptocurrency Dogecoin – which Musk has promoted, using its logo to replace some of the Twitter branding in April 2023.

When he did this, it increased in value by 20%, and was seen by many as a response to a lawsuit accusing him of profiteering from promoting the scheme.

“He seems to be pulling the strings on everything,” says Jon Sopel, adding that naming this new department after Musk’s favourite cryptocurrency raises serious questions about conflict of interest.

“He’s the second most powerful man in America.”

What will Musk be doing in Doge?

Trump's statement on Musk's new job says he will drive out "massive waste and fraud" from the US government's $6.5 trillion of annual government spending.

"It's money that goes on health, it's money that goes on veterans, it's money that goes on environment, on safety, on running America," says Emily.

"But they're going to slash and burn that."

"If you want to get an idea of what Elon Musk looks like when he's slashing and burning stuff, just look at what's happened to Twitter, look at how many people were fired."

After taking over Twitter in 2022, Musk reportedly fired 80% of its staff, and has previously denied sacking Tesla staff after they unionised.

“Musk does carry out the things that he says he's going to do,” Emily adds.

“He launches rockets into space. He's not scared of a certain amount of explosion.”

Listen in full on The News Agents

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