Reuters reported that during the first six months of Trump’s tenure, 154,000 federal employees signed up for the deferred resignation program, while more than 70,000 retired. Kamark’s report said both numbers were a marked increase (tens of thousands) compared to government exits in previous years.
“A lot of people said, ‘This is nonsense’ and walked away,” Kamark told Ars.
Kamark told Ars that his report makes it clear that DOGE “cut the muscle, not the fat,” because “they really didn’t know what they were doing.”
As a result, agencies are now struggling to assess losses and re-hire lost talent. However, their report said it appears easier for agencies associated with Trump’s policies to approve new appointments, despite Kupor telling Reuters that the government-wide hiring freeze is “over.” As of mid-November 2025, “out of more than 73,000 posted jobs, only a candidate had been selected for 14,400,” Kamark reported, adding that it was impossible to confirm how many selected candidates had officially started working.
“Agencies are having to do a lot of reassessment in terms of what happened,” Kamark told Ars, concluding that DOGE was “fundamentally a disaster.”
A decentralized DOGE could be more powerful
“DOGE is not dead,” however, Kamarck said, noting that the “reduction effort certainly continues” under the Office of Management and Budget, which “has far more power than DOGE.”
However, DOGE’s expiration does mean that “its mode of operation is over,” and this will likely come as a relief to government employees who expected DOGE to continue across agency cuts until at least July 2026, if not later.
Many government employees are still fighting dismissals as court cases drag on for long periods of time, and even Kamark has given up tracking due to inconsistencies in the results.
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