Elon Musk’s Waste.gov site shut down after WordPress template discovery

Musk, who pledged transparency, took Waste.gov offline after users found a WordPress template on the site.

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A newly launched government website linked to Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) has been locked down after reports revealed it was largely an unedited WordPress template, raising questions about the transparency of Musk’s initiative.

The website, Waste.gov, was introduced under the Trump administration to track government inefficiencies and spending.

However, an investigation by 404 Media found that instead of providing substantive content, the site displayed placeholder text from WordPress’s Twenty Twenty-Four theme, including promotional material for a fictional architecture firm.

 

Musk, who has positioned DOGE as a cost-cutting and reform-driven body, has repeatedly emphasized the transparency of its operations.

“We actually are trying to be as transparent as possible,” Musk told reporters from the Oval Office earlier this week. “We post our actions to the DOGE handle on X, and to the DOGE website.”

Despite these claims, Waste.gov contained minimal information before being restricted from public access. The DOGE website itself only displays a brief message: "The people voted for major reform."

While Musk has not personally addressed the Waste.gov issue, Reuters has reported that the website was only created last week.

Before being locked down, Waste.gov did not feature any meaningful insights on government waste. Instead, the site contained generic placeholder content from a WordPress demo, describing a firm named Études, which supposedly "seamlessly merges creativity and functionality to redefine architectural excellence."

Further adding to the controversy, the website’s template text appeared to contradict executive orders issued by President Donald Trump, which seek to remove references to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives from government platforms.

The WordPress template text on Waste.gov included a reference to a “diverse clientele,” a detail seemingly overlooked before the site was taken offline.

 

The Department of Government Efficiency, under Musk’s leadership, has promoted itself as a bold step toward government reform. However, the abrupt shutdown of Waste.gov, combined with the lack of detailed public information on DOGE’s activities, has raised concerns about the initiative’s execution and oversight.

Although some updates have been shared on DOGE’s X account, much of the information regarding its activities has been uncovered through media investigations rather than official sources.

As discussions around Waste.gov continue, questions remain about whether this was an administrative oversight or a deeper indication of challenges in ensuring transparency and accountability within Musk’s initiative.