DOGE Department 294 Days Experiment Failed: How Political Meme Coins Were Crushed by the Traditional Bureaucratic Machine

Naming government departments with Crypto Assets code names? It sounds like an idea that some degen came up with while drunk at the peak of a bull run. But this actually happened, and it resembles those Meme coin projects that got Rug Pulled—coming fast, leaving even faster.

294 days of political experiment, shorter than most air coins.

On the first day of Trump's presidency last January, he set up a “Department of Government Efficiency”, abbreviated as DOGE. That's right, it's the code for the dog coin. Musk personally took charge, with the official website displaying a Shiba Inu avatar, and posted a photo of himself holding a chainsaw on X with the caption “Prepared for bureaucracy”.

Are you familiar with this operation? It's exactly the same as those projects in the coin circle that rely on memes to pump prices.

So what’s the result? After 294 days, the Director of the U.S. Office of Personnel Management announced: it no longer exists. It lasted shorter than many shitcoins, at least they can leave a contract address on the chain as a tombstone.

The way of playing DOGE has been unconventional from the very beginning. Traditional government agencies emphasize procedural justice, hierarchical approvals, and steady progress, but Musk directly brought over the Silicon Valley approach—hiring 50 young people in their twenties, dressed in hoodies and jeans, working overtime every day fueled by Red Bull, using AI tools to scan the federal budget for loopholes.

Manage government budgets like a VC portfolio

Within three weeks, this group of “little soldiers” had infiltrated various federal agencies, controlling the flow of funds and screening contract projects. AI scans found which buildings had a high vacancy rate? They directly terminated leases, saving $150 million. Which employee does not submit a weekly report? It is treated as an automatic resignation.

This “Move fast and break things” approach might work in startups, but in Washington? That is a bureaucratic machine with over 200 years of history, where every screw has been rusted in place for decades.

Musk initially bragged about cutting a $2 trillion budget, while Ramaswamy went even further, directly calling for the optimization of 70% of federal employees. This figure is a typical encryption narrative technique—first, create a massive pie to attract attention, as for whether it can be fulfilled? That's another story.

What is the actual situation? After six months, it claims to have cut $160 billion in spending. It sounds like a lot, but it has only achieved less than one-fifth of what Musk boasted about the bull.

What's even more outrageous is that the Senate investigation team later did the math: the “wasted” money on DOGE in the past six months exceeds $21 billion.

Narrative Collapse: When Meme Meets Reality

How is it wasted? The Department of Energy's loan program is frozen, resulting in a government loss of $263 million in interest; the International Development Agency is at a standstill, with $110 million worth of food and medicine rotting in warehouses. Isn't this a typical “cutting costs for the sake of cutting costs,” ultimately leading to greater losses?

Old investors in the coin circle must be laughing at this scene—Isn't this just a repeat of those project teams destroying liquidity to maintain Token deflation, ultimately leading to the collapse of the ecosystem?

Democratic attorneys general from 14 states have jointly sued Musk and Trump, claiming this violates constitutional appointment clauses. DOGE is also facing nearly 20 lawsuits, ranging from privacy violations to unauthorized access to sensitive data, covering all sorts of issues. The legal battle is heating up, but the institutions themselves have already cooled down.

In May this year, Musk announced his resignation and publicly fell out with Trump over a certain bill. During the summer, the staff at DOGE headquarters gradually left, and the guards and authorization signs at the entrance disappeared.

The Inevitable Outcome of Political Meme Coins

The Director of the Human Resources Management Bureau officially confirmed this month that DOGE no longer exists, and its functions have been taken over. The iconic “government-wide hiring freeze” policy has also ended. Team members have not lost their jobs; some have gone to the National Design Studio, while others have become the Chief Technology Officer of the Ministry of Health.

Florida Governor DeSantis commented on X: “DOGE fought the Swamp, but the Swamp won.” A pointed remark.

In the end, the DOGE experiment proves one thing: crypto culture and traditional politics are indeed merging, but merging does not equal replacement. You can attract attention with memes and build consensus through narratives, but without the real ability to solve problems and the patience to engage with reality, no matter how cool the symbols are, they will only be fleeting.

In the past few years, many projects in the crypto circle have failed, mostly because they only know how to tell stories but not do real work. The experience of DOGE tells us: the political field is the same.

When the popularity of Shiba Inu memes fades, what remains on the table are those players who truly create value. Whether in Web3 or traditional politics, this iron rule has never changed.