Trump, Musk new "DOGE" department: Coincidence or meme play?

On Tuesday, American president-elect Donald Trump appointed Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy to lead a new government initiative dubbed the "Department of Government Efficiency," or DOGE for short.

The acronym has sparked widespread speculation: was the name a coincidence, or is there a deeper, possibly playful reference to the viral "Doge" meme?

 - What is the Doge meme? -

The Doge meme, which became a viral sensation in the early 2010s, features a Shiba Inu dog with captions like "such wow" and "very doge," written in broken English with Comic Sans font.

The iconic Doge meme originally featured Kabosu, a female Shiba Inu, whose image was first shared in a 2010 blog post by her owner, Atsuko Sato.

The dog’s picture quickly gained traction as people began overlaying it with humorous, intentionally misspelled text in Comic Sans font, which was popularized through a Tumblr blog called Shiba Confessions.

The term gained more widespread recognition after being shared on Reddit in October 2010, where it started to gain significant momentum.

Now, the choice of acronym resurfaced the meme, with many questioning whether Trump’s team intentionally invoked the internet’s beloved Shiba Inu dog meme known as "Doge."

 - Musk the Memester -

Elon Musk, an avid promoter of internet culture, especially in reference to memes, could easily have influenced the name.

Known for his provocative use of memes, Musk’s ability to harness internet culture has made him a staple of meme lore, earning him a reputation as both a "memester" and an influencer of modern internet trends.

Given Musk's reputation for mixing entertainment with politics, the potential for this being a strategic play to attract attention cannot be ruled out.