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Forty-five employees of Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) remain on the White House payroll despite the Tesla CEO’s exit in May, and they are not being furloughed under the current government shutdown.
This fact appears in a memo released on Thursday by the White House Office of Administration, which lays out who stays and who goes while Congress stalls on funding. It shows a clear picture: DOGE staff keep working while many other government workers sit at home without pay. The memo does not say why these 45 DOGE workers are untouched, but their status stands out as other White House offices shrink.
The memo also shows how President Donald Trump is handling this shutdown differently from 2018. Trump has furloughed 514 fewer staffers this time than in the last shutdown under his watch.
In that earlier plan, which former President Joe Biden had also approved but never had to use, about 61% of the Executive Office of the President was temporarily laid off. This current plan hits only 32% of the staff.
The result is that far more staffers remain on the job, but Trump is openly saying he wants to lay off federal workers outright instead of just sending them home temporarily. According to the White House, these cuts could reach the “thousands.”
Trump keeps DOGE running during shutdown
Among the offices still running at full capacity is DOGE, which Elon once led as a cost-cutting operation before falling out with Trump over the president’s deficit-expanding tax cut bill.
Elon’s departure in May came with a White House statement saying DOGE had been “decentralized,” meaning its teams across the government would report to their agency heads instead of a single leader.
But the shutdown plan proves otherwise. It shows that 45 DOGE staffers still work in the US DOGE Service, a unit inside the Executive Office of the President.
The memo, signed by Joshua Fisher, director of the White House Office of Administration, does not say why DOGE staffers escaped furloughs. But the US Digital Service, which preceded DOGE, had a history of staying open during past shutdowns because it had its own source of funding from fees charged to other agencies. This background raises questions about whether DOGE also benefits from a separate funding stream. For now, though, the memo just notes their exemption without an explanation.
Fewer furloughs in other White House offices
Other White House divisions also show big changes compared with 2018. The Office of Management and Budget now keeps 437 employees on duty, far more than the 161 retained under the earlier plan. A tax cut law known as the One Big Beautiful Bill gave the budget office $100 million in long-term funding, which may help explain the difference.
The White House Office, which covers the president’s immediate staff, keeps 175 aides on the job now, compared with 156 during the last shutdown. Even the executive residence staff almost doubles to 40 retained workers under Trump’s plan.
At the same time, Trump officials signal they will use this funding lapse to cut or close programs they oppose, especially in states that voted for his opponent last year. The White House has threatened to fire thousands of federal employees permanently in the coming days, blaming the lack of congressional funding.
The White House press office also reportedly stayed silent when asked for comment by reporters, sending only an automated out-of-office reply. That message read: “Due to staff shortages resulting from the Democrat Shutdown, the typical 24/7 monitoring of this press inbox may experience delays. Thank you for your attention to this matter.”
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