(Reuters) -At least eight core members of the U.S. Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) have left their positions in the last six months, Politico reported on Friday, citing internal records and sources familiar with the matter. A senior White House official played down the report, telling Politico that senior people working the cost-cutting body spearheaded by billionaire Elon Musk had only been taken on for fixed terms. "It was never the plan for the highest levels of DOGE officials to make a career out of the government," the official told Politico. The report said that, on top of the eight senior staffers, at least seven DOGE engineers, most with high-level access across multiple agencies, have left. At least three more are preparing to exit, it added. Reuters could not confirm the report. The White House and DOGE did not immediately respond to a request for comment outside regular business hours. Musk, the world's richest man, pulled back from his involvement with DOGE in late May. He spent hundreds of millions on Donald Trump's re-election as U.S. President, but the two men fell out publicly in early June and launched into an increasingly fractious feud. DOGE - which has overseen job cuts across nearly every federal agency - was created by a January 20 executive order to modernize federal technology and enhance efficiency. It is a temporary White House unit that absorbed the U.S. Digital Service, not a formal department established by Congress. (Reporting by Bipasha Dey in Bengaluru; Editing by Sharon Singleton and Andrew Heavens)