Mark my words:  The impact of DOGE will be that Trump will be able to power to turn on or off federal payments, or to redirect federal payments, to extort organizations, states, individuals, etc.

For example,  he is pissed off at governor Newsom.  So he says “I will cut off federal payments to California if you don’t put out a statement praising me.”

It will start like it did with Tariffs when he threatened Mexico and Canada, with small threats and will grow in time. 

In time this will become unhinged, causing real world harm.  For example, his recent arbitrary decision to release billions of gallons of water from two dams controlled by the Army Corp of Engineers demonstrates how this can cause real world harm.  It could impact food production, causing food shortages.  The relationship between the California water system and the fires in LA are tenuous at best, but he bought the false idea.  Imagine if he could have used the Federal payments system to extort the various parts of the California water system to release large amounts of water from dams controlled by state and local agencies.  My point here is he had convinced himself that drastic action was required.  This is a worst case scenario to illustrate what could happen, not a prediction of what will happen.  There are so many ways that giving anyone this much power can go wrong.