Many Trump Spending And Deregulatory Executive Orders Bypass DOGE

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Business Policy Many Trump Spending And Deregulatory Executive Orders Bypass DOGE By Clyde Wayne Crews Jr. , Contributor. Forbes contributors publish independent expert analyses and insights. Fred L. Smith Jr. Fellow at the Competitive Enterprise Institute. Follow Author Jun 01, 2025, 04:58pm EDT Share Save “The federal bureaucracy situation is much worse than I realized.” —Elon Musk to the Washington Post Media gloating over Elon Musk’s departure from the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) is fairly widespread and much of it unfair. As a Special Government Employee, the Musk Max was always 130 days. WASHINGTON, DC – MAY 30: Tesla CEO Elon Musk shakes hands with U.S. President Donald Trump as they … More speak to reporters in the Oval Office of the White House on May 30, 2025 in Washington, DC. Musk, who served as an adviser to Trump and led the Department of Government Efficiency, announced he would leave his role in the Trump administration to refocus on his businesses. (Photo by Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images) Getty Images The broader project , however, has more than a year to run—set to dissolve amid the July 4, 2026 America 250 celebrations and present a final report of findings and recommendations. The overarching Trump-Vance deregulatory program has, of course, nearly another four years remaining (at least). Signature DOGE Bites A $9 billion set of recissions targeting 2025 fiscal year funding—such as foreign aid and taxpayer-funded broadcasting—is being sent to Congress this week. No DOGE cuts had been included in the recent “Big Beautiful Bill” recission package . MORE FOR YOU Samsung Confirms Galaxy ‘Kill Switch’—This Changes Android Bitcoin Suddenly Braced For $7 Trillion ‘Critical’ Price Tipping Point After Stark BlackRock Warning Google Confirms Gmail Warning—How To Keep Your Email Account If one had to choose, the hallmark of Musk and DOGE’s four-month tenure has been a bold stand against the entrenched federal employee, contractor, and NGO complex—an apparatus whose relentless pursuit of taxpayer funds at times strays far from the ideals of limited constitutional government. The initial recission package reflects elements of this challenge. DOGE has also moved to delete non-statutory programs and agencies, deflate others (by shifting functions to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), for example), and implement federal reductions in force. Efforts to centralize information collection and electronically track funding flows are underway—moves that, if successful, could uncover what even the House Oversight Committee sees as money laundering spanning the federal government. DOGE’s remit spans both federal spending and regulation, so tight reviews of procurement and grants can advance the goal of terminating regulatory laundering through those channels. The real test of Congress’s commitment to DOGE will be whether spending-cut votes this year go beyond the few billion announced so far—and whether terminations extend to statutory agencies and commissions, not just the non-statutory ones. DOGE Is The Sizzle, Not The Steak (Albeit A Big Sizzle) Curiously, most of Trump’s executive orders implementing his spending and deregulatory agenda don’t assign DOGE as the lead. Of the 157 executive orders issued by Trump through May 23, only eight by my handcount explicitly invoke DOGE. Milestone directives that do not mention DOGE include the 10-for-one regulatory rollback (surprisingly enough), a groundbreaking order aimed at ending regulatory overcriminalization , the torpedoing of a Central Bank Digital Currency, and even defunding National Public Radio and the Public Broadcasting Service. While DOGE is prominent, it’s one piece of a larger hierarchy of streamlining actions coordinated by the White House OMB, the Office of Personnel Management (OPM), and other agencies. A large increase in funding for OMB in the House-passed Big Beautiful Bill to address regulatory matters with considerable discretion supports this notion. Here Are Trump’s Eight Executive Orders That Task DOGE Trump’s eight executive orders that do invoke or instruct DOGE appear below. Despite the impression of DOGE as a go-it-alone entity, perusing text of these directives reveals that OMB and other agencies play prominent roles in regulatory streamlining efforts that will persist beyond America 250. EO 14158 (“Establishing and Implementing the President’s ‘Department of Government Efficiency”) reorganized the U.S. Digital Service into an 18-month advisory body with “DOGE Teams” advising agencies on implementing the DOGE Agenda “by modernizing Federal technology and software to maximize governmental efficiency and productivity.” EO 14170 (“Reforming the Federal Hiring Process and Restoring Merit to Government Service”) instructs the OPM and DOGE Team Leads to develop and send to agencies Federal Hiring Plans that prioritize “merit, practical skill, and dedication to our Constitution.” EO 14210 (“Implementing the President’s ‘Department of Government Efficiency’ Workforce Optimization Initiative”) directs a one-for-four hiring-to-attrition ratio and reduction in force plans that prioritize “offices that perform functions not mandated by statute or other law shall be prioritized in the RIFs, including all agency diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives.” EO 14218 (“Ending Taxpayer Subsidization of Open Borders”) directs the OMB and DOGE directors to identify federal funding sources for undocumented immigrants. EO 14219 (“Ensuring Lawful Governance and Implementing the President’s ‘Department of Government Efficiency’”) instructs agencies, in coordination with DOGE and OMB to identify regulations that are unconstitutional, lack statutory authority or impose undue burdens, slating them for inclusion in the Unified Agenda ​ of Federal Regulatory and Deregulatory Actions for purposes of rescission or modification. EO 14222 (“Implementing the President’s ‘Department of Government Efficiency’ Cost Efficiency Initiative”) “commences a transformation in Federal spending on contracts, grants, and loans to ensure Government spending is transparent and Government employees are accountable.” Agencies and DOGE are instructed to develop a centralized system to record and review contracts and grants and loans and justify every payment (again, a process that could indirectly curb regulatory bloat to the extent funds are tied to rule obedience). EO 14270 : “Zero-Based Regulatory Budgeting to Unleash American Energy” directs energy and environmental agencies, in coordination with DOGE Team Leads and OMB, to apply five-year sunset provisions to existing and new regulations—ensuring periodic review and automatic expiration of outdated or unjustified rules from the Code of Federal Regulations unless renewed. EO 14267 (“Reducing Anti-Competitive Regulatory Barriers”) indirectly invokes DOGE, primarily enlisting the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and the Department of Justice, to identify regulations that stifle market competition and present barriers to entry and entrepreneurship such as by “de facto or de jure monopolization” and overly restrictive licensure and accreditation. Although this order does not mention DOGE directly, it amplifies the role given DOGE by the aforementioned EO 14219 to assist in slating rules for recission and revocation in the Unified Agenda . This order is particularly significant since the FTC is an independent agency affected by a separate directive ( EO 14215 “Ensuring Accountability for All Agencies”) bringing those bodies under OMB review for the first time. Some presidential memoranda invoke DOGE, such as April 9’s “Directing the Repeal of Unlawful Regulations,” which builds on EO 14219 by employing the Administrative Procedure Act’s “good cause” exemption to bypass notice-and-comment procedures for certain unlawful and harmful rules. Beware The Swamp Things In keeping with the first Trump administration, some actions are interventionist and swampy, potentially overwhelming savings from deregulation. Tariffs, concert ticket pricing, capping drug prices (EO 14273) and a teased DOGE dividend that would advance the progressive left’s goal of a universal basic income all raise red flags. Some of Trump’s ostensibly deregulatory measures could create unwelcome public/private entanglements, like an energy dominance council (EO 14227), healthcare pricing disclosure mandates (EO 14221) and a continuation of broadband subsidies by the Department of Commerce. The Broader, Post-DOGE Agenda Looking beyond DOGE (and beyond the swampy aspects), a broader survey of Trump’s executive orders reveals DOGE as one part of a larger agenda streamlining spending and regulation—sometimes with greater fervor than the DOGE directives themselves. Beyond the aforementioned ten-for-one rule elimination and overcriminalization orders, Trump’s directives target a range of priorities that overlap with or reinforce DOGE. These include recissions of numerous Biden “whole-of-government” regulatory executive orders—ranging from clean energy mandates to DEI social policy to censorship of dissent—as well as measures on immigration, border security, foreign aid, federal disbursement controls, energy access, federal employment accountability; and the termination of small agencies. Others address digital financial innovation, regulatory relief for critical industries, and enact routine administrative adjustments typical of any presidency. While Elon Musk drew headlines, Trump’s deregulatory push isn’t confined to DOGE’s 18-month lifespan. It leverages OMB and other agencies, making them the real engines of the agenda. Bigger DOGES, perhaps? Editorial Standards Reprints & Permissions