Elon Musk speaks next to President Donald Trump, not pictured, in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, D.C., Feb. 11, 2025.
Kevin Lamarque | Reuters
Staffers from Elon Musk’s secretive government slashing effort, DOGE, have pushed the highest-ranking officials at the Department of Education — even those recently appointed by President Donald Trump — out of their own offices, rearranged the furniture and set up white noise machines to muffle their voices, employees at the agency said.
Deprived of her office, acting Education Secretary Denise Carter was spotted last week sitting outside the main leadership suite, one staffer said. Meanwhile, acting Under Secretary James Bergeron held off moving into his office, sources told CNBC, because DOGE staffers were occupying it.
“They took over the top real estate; they made themselves at home,” an official told CNBC. “It was that attitude of, ‘We can do whatever we want.'”
A view of the U.S. Department of Education building in Washington, D.C., U.S., Feb. 1, 2025.
Annabelle Gordon | Reuters
Sources for this story were granted anonymity because they feared retribution if they were named.
Having taken over the VIP offices on the seventh floor of the agency’s headquarters in Washington, D.C., representatives of the task force known as the Department of Government Efficiency then went looking for office equipment around the building to “move into their compound,” an Education Department staffer told CNBC.
Asked about the working arrangements and office space, deputy assistant secretary for communications Madi Biedermann told CNBC, “The DOGE employees are federal employees. They have been sworn in, have the necessary background checks and clearances, and are focused on making the Department more cost-efficient, effective, and accountable to the taxpayers.”
Trump has repeatedly stated his intention to dismantle the Department of Education. As an agency authorized by Congress, the department cannot be eliminated without congressional approval.
But in the meantime, Musk and his DOGE team can slowly starve it.
A White House spokesperson did not respond to questions from CNBC about the workflow at the Education Department.
Trump’s nominee to lead the Department of Education, Linda McMahon, will have her confirmation hearing Thursday.
Education Department officials described tension between the DOGE team and department leadership — including Republicans who arrived at the department to help implement a conservative education agenda.
Asked about the workplace dynamics, Biedermann said the DOGE staffers “are working in collaboration with Department staff. There is nothing inappropriate or nefarious going on.”
According to employees, however, the DOGE teams appear to be competing with one another to get a very big headline on budget cuts.
On Monday, that headline was indeed very big: “$881 million” worth of contracts with the Education Department had been canceled, according to the DOGE social media account.
This competitive element of the DOGE cost-cutting effort is likely due in part to the rules that govern the DOGE staffers’ employment.
Most DOGE workers are designated as “special government employees,” a category that insulates them from some federal disclosure requirements. But in exchange, the status limits the total number of days they can work per year to 130.
The way the DOGE teams appear to be operating, they have about four months to make all the cuts they can. After that, the agencies will be left to deal with the fallout.
DOGE’s shifting demands
Day to day, the DOGE team members have been “secretive,” a current staffer said. “They didn’t make conversation.”
Some employees said they feel they need to physically stay out of the way of DOGE staffers, and one official described the overall vibe from the team as “intimidating.”
Constantly shifting demands from DOGE employees about how much funding they need to cut have left employees confused and afraid, two employees told CNBC.
What’s more, they said, the demands of DOGE teams appear to be arbitrary, and not rooted in any political or policy goals.
In many cases, the DOGE teams don’t tell department staffers which contracts they need to cancel, employees said.
Instead, staffers are given a figure, typically in person rather than in writing, and told to cut that much money from programs, sources report. Other times they were given a percentage of funding and told to cut that much.
One employee recalled a demand by DOGE employees to slash around 80% of the funding for websites and services that support federal student loan applications.
Around 17 million families apply for college aid each year using the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, or FAFSA, according to higher education expert Mark Kantrowitz.