If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, then Elon Musk and President Trump should be blushing.
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani — the democratic socialist who built his brand railing against billionaires, capitalism and pretty much every conservative idea under the sun — is now shamelessly borrowing from one of the Trump era’s most recognizable political brands: DOGE.
That’s right. The same left-wing crowd that spent months screeching about Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency is suddenly very into “government efficiency” now that they’ve slapped a new acronym on it.
Mamdani rolled out his latest bureaucratic brainchild Thursday: COGE, short for the “Commission on Government Efficiency.” Because apparently New York City Hall decided the best way to convince taxpayers it’s serious about waste is by copying the branding strategy of the people they spent years demonizing.
This morning we are introducing COGE — the Commission on Government Efficiency.⁰⁰This Commission will find ways for our city to work smarter, faster, and more effectively for working people. ⁰⁰New Yorkers deserve a city government as careful with their money as they are.
— Mayor Zohran Kwame Mamdani (@NYCMayor) May 28, 2026
According to Mamdani, the commission will supposedly help the city “work smarter, faster, and more effectively for working people.” In a post on X, he declared, “New Yorkers deserve a city government as careful with their money as they are.” Sure. And the MTA is about to start running on time.
The mayor tried to downplay the obvious comparisons to Musk’s DOGE initiative, insisting reporters shouldn’t read too much into the name.
“It’s just a name, and what [DOGE] should have been,” Mamdani said. “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.”
That’s a fascinating election-year revelation coming from a movement that treated “efficiency” like a right-wing dog whistle the second Musk got involved.
🚨 LMAO!! Ugandan Mayor Mamdani just COPIED Elon Musk and President Trump’s DOGE, forming “COGE” in NYC — the Commission on Government Efficiency
You gotta be kidding me 🤡
Mamdani whines: “Elon Musk manipulated the fact that so many people across this country want to see a… pic.twitter.com/f0kYdTxyNe
— Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) May 28, 2026
Mamdani then took the predictable swipe at Musk, accusing the billionaire entrepreneur of using DOGE “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,” the mayor insisted. “Not as a by-word for cutting services, but actually a sincere commitment to efficiency.” In other words, the city wants all the buzzwords of reform without any of the painful spending cuts that real reform usually requires.
COGE will reportedly gather public feedback on possible changes to the city charter through hearings across the five boroughs, beginning June 9. In theory, that sounds nice enough. In practice, New Yorkers have seen this movie before: another blue-ribbon panel, another stack of recommendations, another promise that City Hall is finally going to get serious about waste.
Meanwhile, the city’s budget keeps ballooning, agencies remain bloated, and ordinary residents are still paying eye-watering taxes for services that too often feel broken.
The irony here is impossible to miss. Trump and Musk spent years making “government efficiency” a national conversation — sometimes clumsily, sometimes controversially, but undeniably successfully. Now even progressive politicians in deep-blue cities are trying to co-opt the language because voters are fed up with governments that spend endlessly while delivering less.
And despite Mamdani’s attempts to distance himself from DOGE, his rebrand is basically an admission that the original idea had political traction. After all, nobody launches a knockoff of something they think failed.
