Tech entrepreneur Sahil Lavingia's 55-day adventure inside Trump's Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) ended with an unceremonious pink slip after he spoke to the press. The Gumroad founder details his short-lived government career in a blog post titled "DOGE Days." The saga reads like a Silicon Valley optimist crashing into the federal bureaucracy's brick wall.
DOGE, it turns out, is Trump's rebranded version of Obama's United States Digital Service, transformed via executive order in January 2025. Lavingia joined in March as an unpaid Veterans Affairs (VA) advisor, hoping to modernize veterans' services through better software.
"I just knew I wanted to write code for the federal government," he says, citing VA's massive footprint — $350 billion yearly impact and 473,000 employees.
But government tech reality hit hard. Lavingia couldn't even install basic programming tools on his locked-down government laptop. "I was constantly constrained by my restricted government laptop, which made it difficult to write and run code," he writes. "I couldn't install Git, Python, or use tools like Cursor, due to government security policies."
The administration's layoff rules shocked him too. Unlike tech companies that cut underperformers, government RIFs (Reductions in Force) start with newest hires regardless of skill. It's "brutally deterministic," Lavingia notes — a bizarre system where seniority trumps talent.
Despite these obstacles, he managed to build an AI-powered contract analysis tool and modernize the VA's internal version of ChatGPT.
But his time ended abruptly on May 9th after giving an interview to Fast Company. "Soon after publication, my access was revoked without warning. My DOGE days were over."
"I built several prototypes, but was never able to get approval to ship anything to production that would actually improve American lives – while also saving money for the American taxpayer."
Previously:
• 'Be kind' desk sign deemed contraband by Musk's DOGE enforcers
• Musk Watch tracker reveals DOGE savings overstated by 92%
• DOGE upending child safety and human trafficking programs
• Musk's DOGE boy reportedly screams at senior staffers trying to protect personal data: 'Idiots!'
• Elon Musk dispatches DOGE agents across country before he's even inaugurated
• Office of the Special Counsel finds DOGE firings illegal
