Even before Musk fell out with Donald Trump, the agency’s projected savings had plummeted. But he nevertheless managed to inflict lasting damage to the federal government.

Even though the billionaire is no longer leading the Department of Government Efficiency effort, many key staffers — and DOGE ideas — are now more permanently embedded in the federal government.

Each week, federal workers inside a few agencies still dutifully email a report, detailing the 5 things they did in the previous seven days. Why it matters: The emails, born from an out-of-nowhere Elon Musk X post,