Tech billionaire Sahil Lavingia fired from Trump’s DOGE hours after praising government efficiency
A tech CEO who joined Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency got the axe just 24 hours after telling the world that government actually works better than expected.
Sahil Lavingia’s candid admission about finding fewer inefficiencies than anticipated at the VA cost him his job faster than you can say “you’re fired.”
The Tech Entrepreneur Who Dared to Speak Truth
Lavingia isn’t just any Silicon Valley wannabe. He’s the CEO and founder of Gumroad, a successful e-commerce platform that helps content creators monetize their work.
The engineer-turned-entrepreneur had volunteered his services to DOGE, expecting to find massive government waste and inefficiency that he could help eliminate.
Instead, he discovered something that apparently didn’t align with the narrative DOGE wanted to promote.
What He Actually Found at the VA
During his 50-day stint as a senior advisor to the VA’s chief of staff, Lavingia was tasked with hunting down government inefficiencies and implementing AI solutions.
He built prototypes, reviewed contracts using large language models, and even created tools to help with layoff efforts.
But what surprised him most was the dedication he witnessed among government employees.
“I noticed the number of mission-driven people working in government,” Lavingia told Fast Company in the interview that sealed his fate.
The Uncomfortable Reality
Lavingia’s experience at the VA revealed ongoing ambitious projects that contradicted the narrative of government incompetence.
He discovered initiatives to reduce veterans’ benefits claims processing from 133 days to under a week.
He learned that several VA code repositories were already open-source, and that the world’s first electronic health record system, VistA, was built by VA employees over four decades ago.
These weren’t the “easy wins” DOGE was hoping to showcase.
The Interview That Changed Everything
When Fast Company published Lavingia’s interview, his honest assessment sent shockwaves through DOGE leadership.
“The government works. It’s not as inefficient as I was expecting, to be honest. I was hoping for more easy wins,” he admitted.
He also revealed the culture shock of government work, noting “a lot of meetings, not a lot of decisions” but acknowledging that “it’s kind of fine.”
These weren’t the talking points DOGE wanted circulating in the media.
The Swift Consequences
The day after the Fast Company interview was published, Lavingia received his walking papers without warning.
In his personal blog post detailing the experience, he wrote that he “got the boot” from DOGE immediately following the article’s publication.
Despite his 50+ days of service and multiple prototypes built, Lavingia noted he “was never able to get approval to ship anything to production that would actually improve American lives.”
His dismissal came not for poor performance, but for publicly sharing his genuine observations about government efficiency.
The Bigger Picture
Lavingia’s experience reveals the tension between DOGE’s public messaging and the reality of government operations.
He compared the organization to “having McKinsey volunteers embedded in agencies rather than the revolutionary force I’d imagined.”
His push for transparency, including a suggestion to open-source DOGE’s work during an all-hands meeting with Musk, apparently didn’t align with leadership’s vision.
The tech entrepreneur’s dismissal sends a clear message: honest assessment of government efficiency isn’t welcome if it contradicts the predetermined narrative of widespread waste and incompetence.