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Random freezes, missing sound and display glitches usually trace back to one bad driver. Find and replace yours safely.Free scan · under a minuteElaine Kamarck’s review, reported by Ars Technica on Nov. 24, 2025, counted 26,511 occasions when the administration fired people and later rehired them. That is not a verified count of 26,511 unique workers, and the review does not establish that every case involved an expert. It does identify engineers, doctors and other professionals among those rehired, including people whose work was tied to national security and public health.
What “26K rehiring occasions” actually counts
The headline figure is a tally of firing-and-rehiring occasions in Kamarck’s review, not a government-wide census of distinct people. A worker rehired after more than one firing could potentially account for multiple occasions; the reported figure does not establish how many unique employees were involved.
Nor were all the affected employees necessarily specialists. Kamarck’s review identified engineers, doctors and other professionals among those brought back. It also described operational roles such as travel booking and customer service as potentially important to agency work. The evidence supports saying that specialists were among the rehired; it does not support calling all 26,511 cases “experts.”
Why Kamarck said DOGE “cut muscle, not fat”
Kamarck, director of Brookings’ Center for Effective Public Management, told Ars Technica the reversals suggested DOGE had “cut muscle, not fat,” because “they didn’t really know what they were doing.” Those words are her assessment of the pattern, not a neutral finding established by the tally itself.
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Her concern was that some of the people dismissed had work connected to important government missions, including national security and public health. Kamarck described the reversals as “a tacit admission that the blanket firings that took place during the DOGE era placed the federal government in danger of not being able to accomplish some of its most important missions.” The figures document rehiring activity; they do not, by themselves, quantify service failures or prove how much capacity was lost.
How court rulings factored into the reversals
Kamarck estimated that about half of the rehires appeared to be court-mandated, while roughly one quarter were initiated before a court ruled, according to Ars. These are estimates from her review, not an official government-wide breakdown. The categories indicate that legal challenges were a substantial part of the story, but they should not be treated as a complete accounting of why each person returned.
Firings were only one kind of workforce departure
Ars relayed figures from Reuters and Kamarck’s review that 154,000 federal employees signed up for deferred resignation during Trump’s first six months and more than 70,000 retired. Those are separate forms of departure, not confirmed firings. Kamarck also said many people chose to leave, remarking, “A lot of people said, ‘the hell with this’ and left.”
The distinctions matter: a firing-and-rehire tally cannot be added to retirement or deferred-resignation figures to calculate a net workforce change. The measures cover different events and may have different time windows and methods.
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Hiring resumed, but selections do not equal starts
By mid-November 2025, Kamarck’s review identified more than 73,000 federal job postings and about 14,400 selected candidates, as reported by Ars. Kamarck said her review could not confirm how many selected candidates actually started work. A posting signals recruitment; a selection signals a hiring decision; neither alone establishes that a person joined an agency or restored lost capacity.
In that same Ars report, OPM Director Scott Kupor said DOGE “doesn’t exist.” Ars reported the centralized initiative had been terminated more than eight months early and that OPM had absorbed many of its functions. That describes the end of the centralized entity, not proof that related policies, personnel or work disappeared.
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What later reporting adds—and what remains uncertain
A Washington Post report dated July 19, 2026 said more than 260,000 federal employees had left government during the prior year under DOGE-led efforts. That broader departure figure has a different scope from Kamarck’s rehiring-occasion tally; the two cannot be combined or compared as if they measured the same thing.
The Post also reported that the Partnership for Public Service estimated economic costs above $165 billion, or more than $1,028 per taxpayer. That estimate includes projected or estimated components such as lost grant benefits, severance, legal costs and rehiring. It is an outside estimate, not an audited government total. The same report said OMB had no plans for a final DOGE after-action report, while agencies were hiring again and DOGE-related work persisted in other forms. Broader savings, costs, net staffing and effects on services therefore remain contested or incompletely measured in the cited reporting.
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| Figure | What it counts | Source and qualification |
|---|---|---|
| 26,511 | Firing-and-rehiring occasions, not confirmed unique people | Elaine Kamarck’s review, as reported by Ars Technica, Nov. 24, 2025 |
| About half; roughly one quarter | Estimated shares of rehires that appeared court-mandated, and those initiated before a court ruled, respectively | Kamarck’s estimates, as reported by Ars; not an official government-wide breakdown |
| 154,000; more than 70,000 | Deferred-resignation sign-ups; retirements, respectively | Figures relayed by Ars from Reuters and Kamarck’s review; separate departure types, not confirmed firings |
| More than 73,000; about 14,400 | Federal job postings; selected candidates, respectively, by mid-November 2025 | Kamarck’s review, as reported by Ars; actual starts were not confirmable from her review |
| More than 260,000 | Federal employees who left government during the prior year under DOGE-led efforts | The Washington Post, July 19, 2026; broader scope than the rehiring tally |
| More than $165 billion; more than $1,028 per taxpayer | Estimated economic costs; estimated cost per taxpayer | Partnership for Public Service estimate reported by the Post; includes estimated or projected components and is not an audited government total |
DOGE’s official work feed has said fired federal employees were being rehired as government contractors. That is the agency’s own assertion, not independent confirmation of Kamarck’s total or a substitute for a complete accounting of workforce outcomes.
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