Monday, November 24, 2025

Trump and Musk's DOGE is done

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On Politics

Mon Nov 24 2025

Kathryn Palmer | Politics Reporter

@KathrynPlmr

Hello and welcome to OnPolitics. Kathryn Palmer here. I hope everyone is preparing for a nice Thanksgiving holiday this week! Here's what to know this Monday.

Trump and Musk's DOGE is done

The Department of Government Efficiency, President Donald Trump's controversial initiative led by tech billionaire Elon Musk is no longer. It lasted less than a year.

That's according to a statement from a government official who confirmed DOGE is no longer a centralized agency, after months of draw-down and public animosity between the president and Musk.

The initiative came online on Trump's first day in office in January 2025 and swiftly upended many corners of the federal government.

It seized control of information technology infrastructure, axed federal government contracts and pushed out or fired tens of thousands of workers.

But it failed to deliver on its promises to slash the federal budget, initially touted by Musk as $2 trillion in savings, later revised down to $1 trillion then a few hundred billion. As of Nov. 23, DOGE claims it reached $214 billion in savings − less than a quarter of its most conservative promises.

Elon Musk stands in the Oval Office during a press conference with President Donald Trump at the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., May 30, 2025.

Nathan Howard, Reuters

A Politics pit stop:

•	NYC Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani says he still thinks Trump is a 'fascist' after their friendly White House meeting last Friday
•	JFK's granddaughter says she had terminal cancer, criticizes RFK Jr. for heath policies, research defunding
•	Trump County? What to know about a proposal to create a new Florida county named after the president
•	You're about to hear a lot about America's 250th birthday. Read this first.

Gallery: Georgia GOP Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene to resign. See photos of her House career.

Trump expected to unveil Obamacare subsidies proposal

After a congressional impasse over expiring heath care premium subsidies created the longest-ever U.S. government shutdown, could there be relief for the thousands of Americans bracing for increased health care costs?

Trump is expected to unveil a proposal to extend the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare, subsidies that are set to expire at the end of December, and provide new eligibility limits to enroll in the program, according to multiple media reports.

As part of the recently-approved deal to end the 43-day government shutdown, Senate Republicans agreed to hold a vote on the expiring subsidies in December.

Democrats had previously demanded extending the subsidies be included in any deal to reopen the government but retreated in exchange for a vote.

World leaders gather for Trump's Russia-Ukraine proposal

Ukrainian, American and European officials gathered in Geneva on Sunday to discuss a draft plan presented by Washington that aims to end Russia's war on Ukraine.

Trump said Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has until Thursday, Nov. 27, to approve the 28-point plan, which calls on Ukraine to cede territory, accept limits on its military and renounce its ambitions to join NATO.

Kyiv and its allies have voiced alarm over what they see as the plan's major concessions to the nearly four-year-long conflict's aggressor, Russia.

Before heading to Geneva, Secretary of State Marco Rubio insisted in a post on X that Washington had written the plan, after a GOP senator suggested otherwise. There has been considerable confusion about who was involved in drawing it up, with key European allies saying they had not been consulted in Trump's plan.

Reach out with your questions, comments and concerns. I'm at kapalmer@usatoday.com.