DOGE is done. What happened to its records?

The Department of Government Efficiency, which carried out the most transformative restructuring of the federal government in a generation, has formally ended — with no public accounting of its actions. Despite touting itself as the most transparent administration in history, the Trump White House is working to ensure that no DOGE records ever see the light of day.

This is a dangerous antidemocratic precedent, especially since DOGE took direction from Elon Musk, who was famously not a regular government employee. By handing over essential government functions to members of the ultrawealthy who happen to be friends with the president, while systematically dismantling America’s transparency infrastructure, the administration is effectively hiding that public policy is being dictated at an oligarch’s request. The threat is the privatization of government power, with no chance of oversight or public input.