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There's not a lot of evidence the Trump administration's Department of Government Efficiency has made the government more efficient. NPR reporting has found DOGE's savings claims are off base, but the ideas behind DOGE have jumped the Atlantic. NPR's Lauren Frayer reports from London.
LAUREN FRAYER, BYLINE: The latest DOGE effort comes not from Elon Musk or Donald Trump, but from...
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PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: A friend of mine, a lot of people say one of the most powerful men in Europe, Nigel Farage.
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FRAYER: Farage is a charismatic, anti-immigrant, antiestablishment figure who's appeared on stage at Trump rallies like this one five years ago.
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NIGEL FARAGE: Oh, I'm noncontroversial and shy compared to you.
FRAYER: But Farage's party, called Reform UK, is not one of the most powerful. In fact, it's barely represented in British politics, holding just five of the 650 seats in the lower house of Parliament and 10 of England's 317 municipal councils. It gets disproportionate attention, though, for stuff like this.
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UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: It's 10 o'clock. Reform UK says it will send a unit inspired by Elon Musk into Kent County Council today to identify and eliminate wasteful spending.
FRAYER: Yesterday, the party sent what it calls a team of, quote, "world-class software engineers, data analysts and forensic auditors" into the office of one of the local councils it controls. The Kent County Council, southeast of London, is staffed mostly by part-time politicians who typically discuss things like how to...
RICH LEHMANN: Use less harmful pesticides, growing more trees in Kent. One of the really big things for me is children with special educational needs.
FRAYER: Rich Lehmann is an opposition Green Party councilor who came to work Monday and found this new DOGE team in his office with TV cameras.
LEHMANN: They were already here when I got here mid-morning. They've obviously just walked in and demanded access in a fairly intimidating way.
FRAYER: Leader Farage went on TV to declare...
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FARAGE: This is Day 1 of DOGE. The DOGE team has gone into County Hall in Maidstone in Kent.
FRAYER: But they went into that county hall, says Councilman Lehmann, in a way that feels performative.
LEHMANN: They're obviously very media savvy. They know that the people of Kent want savings. They know that everyone's fed up with paying too much tax.
FRAYER: Lehmann says he feels sidelined. After all, it's his job as the opposition to scrutinize council spending through what he calls open and transparent channels, rather than an unelected team of what Farage says are young tech entrepreneurs working for free.
Lauren Frayer, NPR News, London. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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