Elon Musks DOGE Initiative: Modest Savings Amid Ambitious Goals

Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) aimed to drastically cut U.S. federal spending under President Donald Trump, but official data shows only modest reductions. In the four months since DOGE began its efforts, a handful of targeted agencies trimmed their combined spending by about $19 billion compared to the same period last year, according to U.S. Treasury Department summaries. This falls far short of Musk’s initial goal of $2 trillion in savings, representing about 0.5% of total federal spending.

DOGE claims to have pulled the plug on over 26,000 federal grants and contracts worth about $73 billion, and more than 260,000 government workers have been bought out, taken early retirement, or been fired. However, these tallies have been riddled with errors, making them difficult to verify. Some cuts have been reversed or stalled by judges, meaning they are not saving the government any money.

The Treasury Department’s daily reports on government spending show a 10% increase in spending during the first months of Trump’s administration compared to the same period last year, totaling about $250 billion more. Interest payments on the growing U.S. debt, which account for about 14% of federal spending, have increased by about 22% from a year ago. Spending on Social Security has also risen by 10%.

Many of the cuts made by DOGE to the federal workforce, grants, and contracting will reduce future spending but do not yet show up in the government’s checkbook. For example, while thousands of workers have taken buyouts, the government will continue to pay their wages until October. The Labor Department estimates there were only about 26,000 fewer people on federal payrolls in April than in January, after adjusting for seasonal swings.

Among the agencies hardest hit by cuts are the Department of Education, State Department, U.S. Agency for International Development, National Institutes of Health, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The Education Department, which Trump ordered shut down, has spent close to $11 billion less than it did over the same period last year. However, some cuts have been reversed by federal judges, and the department has stopped distributing $4.4 billion in remaining COVID-19 relief funds.

Other agencies have also seen declines in spending. The CDC and NIH have seen reductions of about $350 million and $1 billion, respectively. The Department of Health and Human Services has terminated close to 2,000 grants worth more than $20 billion, though $14 billion had already been spent. USAID spending is down about 40%, to about $4.6 billion, and State Department spending is down about 20% from the previous year.

Measuring the impact of the administration’s actions is difficult because many cuts will not yield savings for months or years, and some are subject to ongoing lawsuits. DOGE claims to have saved taxpayers $175 billion, but the details posted on its website add up to less than half of that figure. It is also hard to know exactly how much the government would have spent if the administration had not started cutting.