Doge 'no longer exists' amid reports department secretly disbanded eight months ahead of schedule

The reported shutdown of the department, which was spearheaded by the tech billionaire following Trump's inauguration, comes eight months ahead of schedule.

“That doesn’t exist,” office of personnel management (OPM) director Scott Kupor told Reuters earlier this month when asked about Doge’s status.

Mr Kupor went on to explain that the department was no longer a “centralized entity”.

Created following an executive order signed by Trump during his first day in office, the response appears to confirm longstanding suspicions that Doge had been prematurely disbanded.

The department's employees - a range of young hotshots onboarded by Musk from across the tech world - were tasked with overhauling federal agencies and firing thousands of federal workers over the course of Trump's first year in office.

At the time, Doge was expected to drive “large scale structural reform” and run until July 24, 2026.

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Elon Musk was seen to depart the white house back in May, with Donald Trump honouring the departing DOGE adviser with a Golden Key as he bid him farewell from behind his desk in the Oval Office.

The farewell was marred with controversy following an apparent falling out between Mr Trump and the US Preseident, with many referring to the pair as "frenemies".

“We are actually trying to be as transparent as possible,” Musk said about the department back in February, ignoring suggestions that Doge agents had reportedly refused to identify themselves within government and slashed spending to key government programmes and agencies.

It comes amid suggestions that Musk had been taking a “cocktail” of illicit substances during his time in the White House by releasing the details of a recent drug test.

The billionaire was accused of taking large amounts of drugs, including ketamine, ecstasy and cocaine while advising Donald Trump as the head of the Department of Government Efficiency.

According to a bombshell report by the New York Times, Musk took ketamine so often he experienced bladder problems and travelled with a daily supply of 20 pills.

The report also claimed he regularly took psychedelic mushrooms during his rise to political prominence.

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His drug use allegedly increased as he forged closer ties with Trump, donating at least $275m to the Republican’s presidential campaign.

Musk has long denied extensive drug use, claiming it would prevent him from completing all the work he has to do in a day.

“If you’ve used too much ketamine, you can’t really get work done, and I have a lot of work,” Musk previously said.

Now, the billionaire has sought to end speculation for good, sharing a drug report directly to his X account.

The report, completed at the Fastest Labs of South Austin, shows the results of a urine test taken earlier this month.

The image shared by Musk shows a huge list of substances, including ketamine, cocaine, fentanyl and amphetamines.

Next to each substance is the word negative, suggesting Musk has not taken any of these drugs in recent weeks.

Alongside the post, he simply wrote: “lol.”

Musk recently had an explosive fallout with Trump, at one point implying the president was connected to disgraced paedophile sex-trafficker Jeffrey Epstein.

He later said he 'went too far' with online posts about Donald Trump after claiming the US president's name appeared in the Epstein files.

Among Musk’s wave of angry tweets, the Tesla and SpaceX CEO described the president's sweeping tax and spending bill as a "disgusting abomination".

He said the bill was "outrageous" and it will "burden American citizens".

Musk had condemned the president's so-called "Big Beautiful Bill" before Trump hit back on Thursday in the Oval Office, saying he was "very disappointed in Musk".

After Trump started criticising Musk, shares of his electric vehicle company Tesla plunged more than 14%, knocking about 150 billion dollars (£110 billion) off Tesla's market valuation.

Mr Musk lost about 20 billion dollars (£14.7 billion) on his personal holding of Tesla.

Musk later offered up an especially stinging insult to a president sensitive about his standing among voters: "Without me, Trump would have lost the election."

"Such ingratitude."