WASHINGTON (AP) — The new Department of Government Efficiency, President Donald Trump ’s special commission tasked with slashing federal spending, has formally joined the government whose size it is supposed to help shrink.
The parade of executive orders Trump signed on his first day in office included one renaming the U.S. Digital Service as the U.S. DOGE Service. It further directed that DOGE be established within the Executive Office of the President.
The Digital Service was created by President Barack Obama in 2014 to modernize the government's approach to technology. Its chief original mission was to fix the many glitches and digital problems that plagued the rollout of HealthCare.gov, the site associated with Obama's signature health care law, which Trump has spent most of his political career bashing.
Here's a look at what becoming part of the government might mean for DOGE:
When he announced the creation of the Department of Government Efficiency in November, Trump said it would “provide advice and guidance from outside of government.”
DOGE was originally headed by billionaire Tesla CEO Elon Musk and former Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, who jointly vowed to cut billions from the federal budget and usher in “mass headcount reductions across the federal bureaucracy."
But Ramaswamy left DOGE this week as he mulls a run for governor of Ohio.
A government website, doge.gov, has been created to accompany @DOGE on X, the social media platform that Musk owns.
The webpage has a message describing it as “an official website" of the U.S. government. Over a black background below that, white lettering reads “Department of Government Efficiency” and “The people voted for major reform.”
The site has cycled through different memes since it went live. Those include one with a DOGE logo featuring a cheerful cartoon dog with an American flag, and another with the image of the cryptocurrency dogecoin — complete with its mascot, Kabosu, a Shiba Inu dog who died in Japan last May.
Making the new entity part of the government could allow it to more easily access information across agencies. The agency can also potentially do much of its work behind closed doors, even as some regulations on governmental disclosure will persist.
For instance, the Executive Office of the President is generally not subject to many Freedom of Information Act requirements. But it is covered by the Presidential Records Act, which means its records must be maintained.
Just how public DOGE might have to be could get an early test.
A lawsuit filed in federal court moments after Trump took office alleged that, by already operating in the months leading up to the start of the administration, DOGE violated the Federal Advisory Committee Act. That's a 1972 measure mandating that advisory and other private committees in the executive branch follow public disclosure rules on staffing and their activities.
The groups behind that lawsuit, which include good government advocates and watchdog organizations, are now reviewing Trump's order integrating DOGE into the government.
“The way it has been operating was under a shroud of secrecy with a number of concerns," said Skye Perryman, CEO of Democracy Forward, a national legal organization that often challenged the first Trump administration in court and is serving as counsel to the plaintiffs in the lawsuit. “It continues to have a range of legal problems.”
As part of his executive order, Trump also established a temporary organization within DOGE that expires on July 4.
Creating such an entity may make it easier to hire temporary employees or to enlist volunteers. They likely won't be subject to the same ethics and transparency requirements that apply to normal federal employees. Still, federal law generally dictates that such workers, and even those donating their time, adhere to some rules on conflict of interest.
Musk has already suggested that volunteers will be a big part of DOGE. He posted on X in November that the agency was looking for “super high-IQ small-government revolutionaries willing to work 80+ hours per week” while suggesting that some positions would be unpaid.
Trump's order makes no mention of Musk personally. Now that DOGE is part of the government, though, the billionaire entrepreneur's association with it means he could run the risk of violating federal conflict-of-interest laws unless he divests from his businesses or recuses himself from government matters involving them. The definition of what might necessitate recusal is murky, however.
One way to achieve more leeway in that area, as well as to potentially shield himself from some federal transparency and disclosure guidelines, is if Musk joins the federal workforce as a “special government employee” — or someone who can be appointed to a federal position for up to 130 days. But the new administration hasn't yet said if Musk will formally join the government as part of his work on DOGE.
Noah Bookbinder, president and CEO of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, said doing that would not erase all ethics and disclosure requirements, but it could change how some are applied.
“So much is still unknown," said Bookbinder, whose group is among those suing the Trump administration over DOGE. "I think that really is a key point: They have now put out this order. But what they haven’t really done is to clarify how this is going to work.”
Elon Musk speaks at an indoor Presidential Inauguration parade event in Washington, Monday, Jan. 20, 2025. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)
Elon Musk listens as President Donald Trump speaks after taking the oath of office at the 60th Presidential Inauguration in the Rotunda of the U.S. Capitol in Washington, Monday, Jan. 20, 2025. (Kevin Lamarque/Pool Photo via AP)
Elon Musk, right, and Google CEO Sundar Pichai arrive before the 60th Presidential Inauguration in the Rotunda of the U.S. Capitol in Washington, Monday, Jan. 20, 2025. (Kevin Lamarque/Pool Photo via AP)
President Donald Trump signs an executive order to create the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) in the Oval Office of the White House, Monday, Jan. 20, 2025, in Washington, as White House staff secretary Will Scharf watches. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — A series of separate meetings between American, Russian and Ukrainian interlocutors entered their third day on Tuesday as U.S. negotiators shuttled back to discussions with their Ukrainian counterparts in the Saudi capital, a continuation of talks with Kyiv officials that began Sunday over a potential ceasefire in Ukraine.
Meanwhile, a Kremlin official said Tuesday that the talks between U.S. and Russian officials in Riyadh the previous day would likely lead to further contacts between Washington and Moscow, but that no concrete plans have yet been made.
The three days of meetings — which did not include direct Russian-Ukrainian negotiations — are part of an attempt to hammer out details on a partial pause in the 3-year-old war in Ukraine. It has been a struggle to reach even a limited, 30-day ceasefire — which Moscow and Kyiv agreed to in principle last week -- with both sides continuing to attack each other with drones and missiles.
Russia and Ukraine have also taken differing interpretations of what a possible partial ceasefire would look like, and disagreed over what kinds of targets would be included in a pause on strikes — even after U.S. President Donald Trump spoke with the leaders of both countries to advance a deal.
Yet despite the numerous sticking points — the White House has said a partial ceasefire would include ending attacks on “energy and infrastructure,” while the Kremlin declared that the agreement referred more narrowly to “energy infrastructure” — attempts to secure safe commercial shipping in the Black Sea appeared to garner support in principle from both parties, though no specific agreements have been announced.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on Tuesday told the country’s state-run Channel One TV station that the Russian and U.S. delegations in Riyadh had discussed “primarily issues of safe shipping in the Black Sea” — a major shipping corridor on which both Russia and Ukraine have ports and coastline.
Lavrov also said that Moscow is up for resuming — “in some form, acceptable to everyone” — a 2022 deal that allowed Ukraine to ship grain through the Black Sea to countries in Africa, the Middle East and Asia where hunger was a growing threat and high food prices had pushed more people into poverty.
The landmark Black Sea Grain initiative was brokered by the U.N. and Turkey in the summer of 2022; Moscow halted it in July 2023 until its demands to get Russian food and fertilizer to the world were met.
Serhii Leshchenko, advisor to the head of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's office, told the Associated Press on Tuesday that U.S-Ukrainian talks in Riyadh on Sunday had included “the security of shipping and infrastructure, including safety for the (Ukrainian) ports of Odesa, Mykolaiv, and Kherson.”
Leshchenko added that the Ukrainian delegation would brief Zelenskyy following renewed talks on Tuesday with the U.S. delegation, adding: “Ukraine is ready to support initiatives that will make diplomacy a means of pressure to compel Russia to end the war.”
On Tuesday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters that the the outcome of the U.S-Russia talks in Riyadh “has been reported in the capitals” and was currently being “analyzed” by Moscow and Washington, but that the Kremlin has no plans to release further details of what was discussed to the public.
“We’re talking about technical negotiations, negotiations with immersion in details," Peskov said, adding that while there are currently no plans for Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin to speak, such a conversation could be quickly organized if the need arises.
“There is an understanding that the contacts will continue, but there is nothing concrete at the moment,” Peskov said. He added that that there are no plans to hold a three-way meeting between Russia, the U.S. and Ukraine.
Senior Russian lawmaker Grigory Karasin, who took part in the Russia-U.S. talks in Riyadh on Monday, told Russian state news agency RIA Novosti that the conversation was “very interesting, difficult, but quite constructive.”
“We were at it all day from morning until late at night,” Karasin was quoted by the agency as saying on Tuesday.
Speaking about the war in Ukraine, Karasin said Moscow’s and Washington’s positions don’t always align, but that the two parties will continue to look for ways to cooperate, as there is now an understanding that cooperation is necessary to resolve the conflict. The lawmaker added that talks between expert groups from Russia and the U.S. could continue.
The number of people injured Monday in a Russian missile strike on the center of the Ukrainian city of Sumy rose to 101 people including 23 children, according to the Sumy regional administration.
The strike on Sumy, across the border from Russia’s Kursk region which was partially occupied by Ukraine since August, hit residential buildings and a school, which had to be evacuated due to the attack.
Meanwhile, Russian forces launched one ballistic missile and 139 long-range strike and decoy drones into Ukraine overnight, according to the Ukrainian air force. Those attacks affected seven regions of Ukraine.
Two people were injured after drone debris fell on a warehouse in the Poltava region, administration head Volodymyr Kohut wrote on Telegram Tuesday, while two people were injured outside the city of Zaporizhzhia, according to the head of the region.
One man suffered injuries after a Russian drone attack in Kherson, city administration head Roman Mrochko wrote on Telegram Tuesday.
Associated Press writer Dasha Litvinova in Tallinn, Estonia, contributed to this report.
In this photo provided by the Ukrainian Emergency Service, a paramedic evacuates an elderly resident whose house was hit by Russian attack in Sumy, Ukraine, Tuesday, March 25, 2025. (Ukrainian Emergency Service via AP)
In this photo provided by the Ukrainian Emergency Service, firefighters put out the fire following a Russian attack in Sumy, Ukraine, Tuesday, March 25, 2025. (Ukrainian Emergency Service via AP)
In this photo provided by the Ukrainian Emergency Service, a psychologist works with residents of houses which were hit by a Russian attack in Sumy, Ukraine, Tuesday, March 25, 2025. (Ukrainian Emergency Service via AP)
In this photo provided by the Ukrainian Emergency Service, firefighters put out the fire following a Russian attack in Sumy, Ukraine, Tuesday, March 25, 2025. (Ukrainian Emergency Service via AP)
