Remember the so-called Department of Government Efficiency? It was a quasi-official agency comprised mostly of tween bigots led by ketamine-addled multibillionaire Elon Musk that was basically allowed to dismantle the government and fire thousands of workers in a few short months. And ff working with the remnants of that crew sounds great to you, you’re in luck!
After Musk’s departure, a bunch of the little DOGErs fled, because it isn’t like they were genuinely interested in public service. But some DOGE employees remain burrowed into the government like a woodtick on a dog, installed at agencies where they continue to have unfettered access to government databases.
It turns out that the Trump administration has decided it needs more people like Edward “Big Balls” Coristine, who is unfortunately still employed by the federal government. Indeed, he’s been posting about job openings over on X, crowing, “Help modernize technology that impacts every American. Deliver massive impact. Your tour of civic duty starts here.”
Related | Elon Musk is gone, but 'Big Balls' remains—and we're all paying for him
Good lord. They have to make even the solicitation of tech dudes sound like a military operation. Also random government employees begging for web designer applicants on X is apparently how the government recruits employees now. Great.
The really enraging thing here is that we already had an amazing agency that did all that. It was called 18F, and it worked extensively with other agencies on just this sort of thing. It worked to modernize government technology and services and employed scores of skilled technologists committed to that effort. But Musk and his minions killed that agency.
Big Balls’ little X ad is soliciting web designers and developers to come work for the “National Design Studio.”
Did you know we have a National Design Studio? We do!
Trump invented some dumb little faux-agency as a vanity project for Airbnb co-founder Joe Gebbia, a billionaire who immediately announced that he wanted the government to be more like the Apple Store. No idea what that actually means, but it’s the kind of stupid you get when you invent a fake government agency run by someone who has no government experience whatsoever.
Apparently, actual DOGE achievements in 2025—versus their tireless efforts to wreck the government—are so thin on the ground that when Acting DOGE Director Amy Gleason began recruiting on LinkedIn, she had to go with work that was already done by the people DOGE fired. She managed to cough up two highlights—the agency’s work on online passport renewals and veterans’ benefits—but as one former USDS engineer told NextGov, “the idea that US DOGE Service is trying to build their legacy based on work done in previous eras is laughable.”
Related | American taxpayers are still footing the bill for DOGE disaster
There is no word yet as to whether the newest denizens of DOGE would be showered with the kind of cash ICE recruits are being offered, but working for DOGE seems to be one of the few ways you can get hired by the federal government these days. And hey, who wouldn’t relish a chance to report to the illustrious Big Balls?
