Waste.gov Is the Most Honest Domain Name in History
https://waste.gov on Sunday February 16 2025
When I hear about The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE, really) I think that there is something wrong with naming in the Government these days. Then I hear that waste.gov is a simple WordPress site where lots of placeholder text is waiting to be replaced with real content.
With this news, I don’t feel as bad about the quality of https://www.thesecretdeveloper.com/.
What happened
DOGE (yes, I’m going with that) has been working hard to streamline government operations. So they scrambled into action to lock down the waste.gov website as soon as people started noticing that it’s simply a basic WordPress site with minimal changes.
Image: Atsuko Sato
It was supposedly meant to track government waste, and has ultimately ended up being a self-fulfilling prophecy. The truth is that the entire site was a barely modified version of the Twenty Twenty-Four WordPress theme, complete with placeholder text for a fictional architecture firm.
Nothing says accountability like a pro-forma that speaks to “diverse clientele” while having (shall we say) opinions about diversity and DEI. Could someone look into this contradiction once the data is back, please?
It happened so fast
The site was quickly put behind a password wall after being exposed, leaving us all to wonder.
Was it an actual project?
A half-baked PR stunt?
An art project?
Or
Did someone just forget to install a plugin?
It seems clear that so much is going on that the software development side of the government is being neglected. I guess it must be like working on one of “those” projects where the criteria keeps changing, and then the project changes, and then the whole business “pivots”.
Which I suspect is happening here, as Elon Musk is at the helm. The leader of DOGE has repeatedly assured the public that his department is being as transparent as possible. It’s ironic, really. Musk built a career on making things that barely work (self-driving Teslas, Twitter’s rebranding, Neuralink’s PR strategy to name just a few), so it only makes sense that something as simple as a government website would follow the same pattern.
A Pattern of Government Efficiency?
This blunder is just another chapter in the ongoing saga of “Government IT Gone Wrong” (AKA the worst Netflix summary never made). From billion-dollar projects that never launch to federal agencies still running on COBOL, the tech side of government has always been a fascinating mix of ambition and incompetence. That’s how NASA became a dumpster fire, which in itself created the conditions for the current situation to happen.
Anyway this? This is something special. Like turning in a high school essay with “Insert Thesis Here” as the title. It’s the failure of a bureaucrat that didn’t manage to hit save on their file.
Don’t think that Waste.gov was rushed out either. This particular mess has been years in the making, and stands a perfect example of government efficiency by taking ages to deliver something no one needed.
Is This the Future of Government Tech?
If DOGE’s handling of Waste.gov is any indication, we’re in for an interesting ride.
Imagine future government projects running entirely on auto-generated content. Do we have the following snafus to look forward to?
The Department of Defense launching a new cybersecurity initiative with the password as admin.
A government AI project where ChatGPT just generates policy briefs based on whatever Elon tweets that day.
At this point, I wouldn‘t be surprised if someone at DOGE is currently scrambling to install an actual website builder. Maybe they’ll even get around to writing some original text, and it will make sense.
TBH I suspect the next version of Waste.gov will either redirect to Musk’s X profile or just 404 completely.
Conclusion
The government built a website about waste and then wasted everyone’s time is absolutely perfect.
It might even be the most efficient government project in history. No endless meetings, no bloated contracts. Just a WordPress template, a hasty cover-up, and a scandal in record time. Maybe this is the kind of efficiency we’re going to get (and deserve).
Next up, the IRS tax portal running on Squarespace.
I need to see a nice picture of a dog to calm me now. So:
