‘The dog?’: Elon Musk’s DOGE meme is lost on Republicans
What do you get when a chronically online billionaire names a presidential advisory committee? DOGE.
Republican lawmakers have admitted they’re unfamiliar with the origin of the Department of Government Efficiency’s name. Presumably, Elon Musk named the committee, led by himself and Vivek Ramaswamy, to form the acronym DOGE, in “honor” of the popular meme and cryptocurrency he seems to love so much.
Republicans have been celebrating the founding of the department, which will act as a non-official government advisory committee. This is all part of Trump’s effort to slash government bureaucracy, with DOGE’s primary objective being to cut wasteful spending within the government. A Delivering Outstanding Government Efficiency Caucus—or DOGE Caucus—has already seen several Republican members of the House join, including Sen. Joni Ernst, who is leading a Senate DOGE Caucus, and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, who is set to chair a subcommittee.
While Republicans celebrate the new department, many are unsure where the eye-roll-inducing acronym originated. The Huffington Post reached out to Rep. Aaron Bean, co-founder of a new DOGE caucus, to ask if he knew about the meme that inspired the name. “Uh, vaguely,” he responded, adding, “the dog?” Musk first pitched the concept in the summer while promoting Trump on his campaign trail. He posted an image on his social media site, X, with the caption “I am willing to serve.”
This came after Trump suggested Musk could earn a Cabinet position once Musk became one of Trump’s biggest campaign funders. That’s right, the United States Government is now a pay-to-play system, and Musk has all the money.
What is the doge meme?
The image featured Musk’s proposed name for his role a joking reference to the famous internet meme, doge. The meme features the Shiba Inu dog, Kabosu, who passed away earlier this year. Kabosu’s face is overlaid with text, which uses broken English to convey her inner thoughts. The meme later became an NFT that sold for $4 million and inspired the cryptocurrency dogecoin, Musk’s favored cryptocurrency token.
HuffPost reports that many of the Senators present at the inaugural DOGE caucus meeting were unaware of this origin story. “I did read it somewhere,” Sen. Roger Marshall said, “I didn’t know much about it, though.” Other senators, as well as DOGE co-lead Ramaswamy, declined to comment. One Senator was aware of the meme, telling HuffPost he knew about Kabosu’s passing earlier this year, saying, “God rest her soul.”
It’s not yet fully known how much impact DOGE will have on governmental operations once Trump is inaugurated. Musk and Ramaswamy have made big claims about what they can offer, suggesting they can slash trillions of dollars from the budget. These slashes could cost hundreds, if not thousands of federal worker jobs. DOGE could also become yet another advisory board easily ignored by lawmakers. If that were to happen, who knows how the currently friendly relationship between Musk and Trump will end.
Have a tip we should know? tips@themarysue.com
