Elon Musk Teases DOGE as the Department of Government Efficiency – What Does It Mean?

• Elon Musk continues teasing the crypto faithful, and his latest posts are on D.O.G.E, which in this case translates to the Department of Government Efficiency.
• While the social media posts may be in jest, Donald Trump has floated the idea of Musk being involved in his administration, and the effect of such a move could have real implications.

Elon Musk has never been one to shy away from attention. From conspiracy theories to rants and long-ranging ideological debates on social media, Musk says what he thinks, which sometimes lands him in trouble. Crypto has been one of his obsessions for years, and he’s still teasing the crypto faithful, this time with D.O.G.E.

Musk first referred to D.O.G.E last month as a (not so) clever acronym for the Department of Government Efficiency. He posted an AI-generated photo of himself on a podium with the DOGE signage and the caption, “I am willing to serve.”

The eccentric billionaire X and SpaceX owner was at it again recently, this time in a “gangster” look with the same DOGE signage.

Department of Government Efficiency pic.twitter.com/HFeHYNIkJN

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) September 7, 2024

The double-entendre meaning of the signage speaks both to his fondness of crypto (Dogecoin) in particular and a promise of a position in Donald Trump’s government if the Republican candidate defeats Kamala Harris in the November polls.

Trump announced that he would appoint Musk to head a department that assesses the government’s efficiency. It’s not clear what the power of this department would be, although it would most likely be relegated to an advisory role.

However, Trump would be hard-pressed to find a better candidate for the role. Musk is infamous for trimming the workforce. When he took over what was then known as Twitter, he embarked on a firing spree to reduce the overhead of the popular social media platform. Some reports claim he fired over 6,000 individuals at Twitter, or 80% of the staff.

While he may not be able to fire as many people in the US government, Musk is adept at finding unnecessary expenditures. With the US government weighed down by the spiralling debt crisis, he might be best positioned to institute austerity measures.

Expectedly, Musk’s tweets referencing the memecoin garnered the interest of millions of crypto holders who still cling to his every word. On September 7, when he tweeted, DOGE went from $0.08962 to a weekly high of $0.1045 two days later. The momentum was unsustainable, however, and at press time, the meme coin traded at $0.1017, gaining 3% in the past day as the rest of the market found its footing to push the industry market cap to $2.03 trillion.

Other meme coins fared decently in the past day, with SHIB up 1.5%, while Popcat was the highest gainer at 16%. The meme coin market cap now stands at $38.15 billion.