Zohran Mamdani Yanks a Page Right Out of the Trump-Musk Playbook — Launches a DOGE Knockoff Called ‘COGE’

(Adam Gray/AP photo)

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani (D) is launching an initiative straight out of Elon Musk’s bag of tricks.

On Thursday, Mamdani announced the creation of a committee to plan how the Big Apple manages its funds.

It’s called COGE, or the Commission of Government Efficiency, a knock-off of Musk’s DOGE, the Department of Government Efficiency.

“This morning we are introducing COGE — the Commission on Government Efficiency,” Mamdani said in a post on Musk’s X platform on Thursday.
”This Commission will find ways for our city to work smarter, faster, and more effectively for working people. New Yorkers deserve a city government as careful with their money as they are.”

The commission will collect information from the public on potential amendments to the city charter that will be proposed in a series of public hearings across the city, the first of which will happen on June 9, CBS News reported.

Mamdani admitted on Thursday that COGE was just a catchy name, and suggested that any comparisons to Musk’s DOGE should end there.

“It’s just a name, and what [DOGE] should have been. You know, I think Government Efficiency — these are words that somehow have been understood as if they are Republican priorities, when in fact they are the priorities of anyone who believes in the public sector,” Mamdani told reporters. “And yet Elon Musk took that language and used it to cut as many jobs that were as critical as possible for so many of the neediest people across the country and across the world. Ours is going to be a focus on actually delivering efficiency. Not as a bi-word for cutting services, but actually a sincere commitment to efficiency.”

While the name may be a take on Musk’s initiative, COGE is not a new concept. New Hampshire Governor Kelly Ayotte (R) established her own COGE in January 2025 in the Granite State.

DOGE began last year on President Donald Trump’s first day of his second term. The department’s goal, Musk said at the time, was to significantly reduce the “tyranny of the bureaucracy” by eliminating a massive amount of government spending.

The White House shut down DOGE back in November, with Office of Personnel Management (OPM) Director Scott Kupor saying it was no longer a “centralized entity” — but more of an idea.

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