GOP Governors Cheer As Trump Prepares to Cut Their Budgets

Kim Reynolds wants her own DOGE. Photo: Al Drago/Getty Images

2025 is likely to be an extremely difficult year for people serving in state governments. Aside from the regular perils of trying to govern when so many critical influences — notably the national economic environment, but also the immense ripple effect of national party politics — are beyond their control, governors and legislators will have to deal with the fallout of big fiscal decisions underway in Washington, D.C., that directly control state budgets. According to a recent analysis from Pew, federal funds represent over a third of state-government revenues. And as any governor from either party will tell you, federal dollars typically come with “strings” (i.e., mandates) that aren’t necessarily relaxed when funding is decreased. So when great ideological pressure is exerted to cut federal spending, state lawmakers face the prospect of doing more with a lot less, particularly since (now as ever) federal officials don’t tend to look that closely at programs they run themselves (e.g., defense, Social Security, and Medicare).

The fiscal math of the second Trump administration and its subservient congressional wing, focused on tax cuts and major new border-security spending amid promises of deficit reduction, will require massive cuts in federal-state programs from Medicaid to education to emergency management to housing to nutrition. States are by and large responsible for social safety-net benefits and services focused on low-income folks. These are not high priorities for any Republican administration, and certainly weren’t for Trump 1.0, which nearly decimated state budgets with a cap on federal Medicaid costs as part of its failed legislation labeled as “repealing Obamacare.”

What’s coming down the pike this year is likely to be much, much worse for states. And that’s not even counting the havoc already being wreaked in federal-state grant programs even before Congress acts via Elon Musk’s DOGE attacks on federal agencies and their disbursements, and OMB’s efforts to freeze funding for a vast array of grants, an omen of deep cuts to come.

For Republican governors and legislators, getting clobbered by their alleged partisan allies in the federal government must be particularly stressful. But so far, instead of issuing warnings, many of them are leading cheers for Trump 2.0, and even emulating the hammer-headed, chaotic approach to budget-cutting that’s been one of its hallmarks. As NBC News reports, baby DOGE initiatives are springing up like mushrooms after heavy rain:

[G]overnors and lawmakers in at least 11 states have attempted to create their own version of the Department of Government Efficiency, the outside advisory commission that Trump put tech billionaire Elon Musk in charge of to find ways to cut federal spending. 

The moves, largely centered in solidly red states, at the outset of Trump’s second term underscore the political grip he has on the GOP base and the desire of elected officials in the party to be seen as nothing less than loyal to him. 

Now it helps that the idea of looking at government programs to find improvements and efficiencies isn’t exactly a brilliant new insight; most states have something like that going on all the time. But state-level Republicans seem eager to rebrand this boring green-eyeshade stuff with the thrillingly wild excitement of Musk’s DOGE. That’s clearly the case with Iowa’s Republican governor Kim Reynolds, as KTVO reports:

Following the incoming Trump Administration’s cue, Governor Kim Reynolds is planning to launch Iowa’s own Department of Government Efficiency Taskforce through an executive order. Her office said she will be signing it soon. …

“In just a few short years we’ve turned our state into a national model for bold, get-it-done government and we’re not stopping,” Gov. Reynolds said.

Over the last two years, Gov. Reynolds said the reorganization of state government is saving taxpayers more than $200 million by reducing the number of boards, commissions, regulations and state agencies.

“To build on our success I’m launching our own state DOGE,” Gov. Reynolds said. “To find even greater savings and efficiencies in both state and local government.”

It’s unclear whether Reynolds will hire a cadre of 22-year-old software engineers to camp out at state agencies, hack their IT systems, and terrorize staff. But she clearly wants to infuse her administration with the evil glamour exuded by Musk’s DOGE. An even catchier rebranding has been undertaken by Oklahoma governor Kevin Stitt, best known nationally for his anti-abortion absolutism. KFOR quotes his announcement:

Today, I’m launching DOGE-OK to keep the focus on flat budgets and limiting government,” Governor Stitt said. “Our top responsibility as leaders is ensuring we are working on behalf of all four million Oklahomans in the most efficient way possible. DOGE-OK will help identify and root out inefficiencies and government waste. It’s an essential part of making us a top ten state.

Good luck with that, Governor. Oklahoma is also a good example of another area in which state-level Republicans are emulating Trump, according to NBC News:

As state legislatures have convened across the country in recent weeks, elected GOP officials have sought to advance bills designed to help facilitate Trump’s mass deportation plans — some of which are named after or specifically reference the president. …

Oklahoma’s state superintendent, Ryan Walters, who oversees the State Board of Education, last week approved new rules requiring all families enrolling children in public schools to provide proof of their U.S. citizenship.

The new rules — if approved by the governor and the state Legislature — would require public school districts to track students who cannot verify their immigration status and report those figures to state officials. 

ICE has a friend in Oklahoma City.

We’ll see if this eagerness about what’s happening in Washington persists when developments there begin to make life hell on Earth for Republican governors and legislators trying to balance budgets and facing their own 2026 election challenges.