Henry Hardy: Stop saying DOGE

I’d like to request that the Recorder stop referring to the Department of Government Efficiency, as it did in the article about the potential closure of the Natural Resources Conservation Service office in Amherst [“Federal office on Trump hit list,” March 10]. There is no department of government efficiency, and the president is not authorized to create departments by executive order.

If Trump declared that henceforth Elon Musk was to be referred to as “co-president,” would the Recorder start calling him that?

Technically, Trump has renamed the U.S. Digital Services (USDS) as the U.S. DOGE Service (also USDS) without spelling out what DOGE means. So, to be technically precise, the Recorder should be calling it USDS. This matters, because to refer to it as DOGE, and especially to call it “the Department of Government Efficiency,” lends credence to Trump’s illegitimate attempt to expand executive authority.

Other options exist, such as referring to “the so-called DOGE,” etc. I sort of like the idea of calling it OGRE, for the Office of Graft, Retribution, and Extremism. Any takers?

Henry Hardy

Greenfield