President Donald Trump and adviser Elon Musk celebrated their efforts to slash federal spending earlier than Musk stepped away from his White Home work. Musk wore a black DOGE hat over a bruised proper eye that he blamed on his younger son’s punch. That was Could 30 within the Oval Workplace. Days later, the 2 billionaires have been punching at one another on the social media platforms they personal.
Their fight started over federal tax and spending laws, with Musk calling a Trump-backed invoice “a disgusting abomination” and Trump saying he was “very upset” with Musk. Quickly, Musk claimed credit for Trump and Republicans profitable in 2024, and Trump threatened to chop off Musk’s corporations’ federal contracts.
I’m sorry, however I simply can’t stand it anymore.
This large, outrageous, pork-filled Congressional spending invoice is a disgusting abomination.
Disgrace on those that voted for it: you understand you probably did unsuitable. You realize it.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) June 3, 2025
The general public show of animosity referred to as into query the destiny of months of Division of Authorities Effectivity (DOGE) work.
Beneath Musk’s oversight and with Trump’s approval, DOGE axed billions of {dollars} in grants for state well being departments and scientific analysis. It gutted the Shopper Monetary Safety Bureau, the company created within the wake of the 2008 monetary disaster to guard shoppers. All of it however shuttered the US Company for Worldwide Improvement (USAID), the decades-old division that gives meals and healthcare to individuals in different international locations.
Nonetheless, as Musk ended his work with DOGE, it was clear that the group’s cost-cutting achievements fell wanting Musk’s targets. Every week earlier than Trump gained his second time period, Musk stated he expected to cut “not less than $2 trillion”, with out figuring out a timeframe for doing it. He later lowered that to $1 trillion.
However each figures have been wildly unrealistic. Even when Musk might have eradicated each greenback of non-defence discretionary spending – every part from air site visitors management, medical analysis, federal prosecutors and prisons to frame management, US embassies and nationwide parks – he wouldn’t have reached his $1 trillion purpose.
As of early June, DOGE’s on-line “wall of receipts” accounting of federal {dollars} reduce stated that the federal government had reduce $180 billion. However analyses by PolitiFact, The Wall Avenue Journal, The New York Occasions and the conservative American Enterprise Institute confirmed that the tallies Musk supplied have been flawed. And whole 2025 federal spending underneath Trump has continued to develop.
Nat Malkus, an schooling coverage specialist on the conservative American Enterprise Institute, stated DOGE’s cuts confirmed an “urge for food for recklessness”, and its error and exaggeration-filled wall of receipts supplied “ample grounds for scepticism” about its accuracy. “Past that, the receipts solely cowl a fraction of their actions, making their accomplishments and financial savings not possible to confirm,” Malkus stated.
Financial savings quantity unclear
DOGE’s “wall of receipts” reported that the $180bn financial savings represented a mix of actions, together with lease and grant cancellations, “fraud and improper cost deletion” and eliminating staff.
Throughout their Could 30 information convention, Musk predicted financial savings would rise to $1 trillion, however their public dispute made DOGE’s future extra unsure. Just a few high lieutenants had already departed; dozens of DOGE staff remained.
DOGE says its wall of receipts is incomplete: “We’re working to add all of our receipts in a digestible and clear method in step with relevant guidelines and laws,” the web site says, calling its record “a subset of contract, grant, and lease cancellations, representing ~30 % of whole financial savings.”
And it has errors. For instance, DOGE stated it could save $740,457 by ending a lease that housed data for the Barack Obama Presidential Library. However the federal authorities had already planned to finish that lease in 2025. The property’s leasing firm informed PolitiFact on Could 30 that the federal government continues to be utilizing the property and paying lease. If the federal government leaves earlier than September, it must proceed paying underneath the lease’s phrases, until one other tenant is secured.
A few of DOGE’s contract and grant cancellations are being litigated, and the federal government could in the end be required to fulfil them.
“Even for grants and contracts that DOGE reduce, the claimed financial savings could by no means be realised,” Joshua Sewell, a federal finances knowledgeable at Taxpayers for Frequent Sense, stated.
The $180bn determine was aspirational and projected, PolitiFact discovered.
“Itemised, verifiable cuts – these with receipts – are roughly half that quantity,” stated Dominik Lett, a finances coverage analyst on the libertarian Cato Institute. “Of these itemised cuts, there are quite a few clerical errors and inflated financial savings values.”
Authorities officers didn’t reply to our questions on what number of federal staff have been reduce. The New York Occasions reported that as of Could 12, the federal government decreased its workforce by roughly 135,000, together with cuts and buyouts. That quantities to a tiny portion of the two.4 million federal workforce, with equally modest financial savings in salaries. The Reuters information company, counting early retirements along with buyouts and firings, stated the tally was 260,000.
When 75,000 staff who took buyouts come off the books in October, that can save about $10bn a 12 months, or 0.1 % of federal spending, Jessica Riedl, an knowledgeable on the federal finances on the conservative Manhattan Institute, wrote in an essay for The Atlantic. (Trump quoted the 75,000 determine throughout his Could 30 information convention.) However the authorities might find yourself hiring contractors to carry out a few of that work, additional shrinking these financial savings.
Not each company or division confronted widespread cuts. The Justice Division’s staffing was decreased by about 1 %, The New York Occasions discovered. However practically all staff have been reduce at USAID and AmeriCorps. Almost half of the Schooling Division’s employees have been reduce.
Federal authorities spending continues to rise. In April 2025, whole spending was $594bn, $27bn greater than in April 2024, in accordance with the Congressional Price range Workplace. That’s a 5 % improve. The biggest spending lower – $17bn – got here within the Division of Schooling, which Trump promised to eradicate. However Social Safety, Medicare and Medicaid outlays rose, as did some division spending, together with in agriculture and defence.
A few of DOGE’s line gadgets present financial savings of zero {dollars}, which a White Home spokesperson stated signifies that the cash has been spent however gained’t be renewed, equivalent to for information subscriptions or coaching. It additionally confirmed some unfavorable values for grants; a State Division spokesperson stated they have been brought on by an enter error that had since been corrected, though it was nonetheless on the location as of about midday ET (16:00 GMT) on June 5.
It’s unclear whether or not DOGE’s spending cuts can be everlasting as a result of federal regulation requires the chief department to ship proposed cuts, generally known as “rescissions”, to Congress for approval. The White Home on June 3 despatched a $9.4bn bundle of rescission cuts to Congress that features slicing international help.
“DOGE can kill tasks, however the spending doesn’t turn out to be financial savings till Congress votes to ‘unspend’ the cash,” Malkus stated.
DOGE additionally elevated some authorities prices, equivalent to these incurred when defending towards lawsuits.
DOGE abruptly reduce programmes however failed to seek out mass fraud
DOGE left no state untouched, in accordance with an evaluation by the liberal Middle for American Progress. It terminated leases and grants to well being departments, universities and volunteer programmes throughout the nation.
DOGE listed terminations of tons of of thousands and thousands of {dollars} in state well being division grants, which represented a few of the group’s largest “financial savings”. These cuts focused well being departments in states together with Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Missouri, New Jersey, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Texas.
The administration stated the cuts largely affected cash used for the COVID-19 pandemic response.
Twenty-three states challenged the cuts in a lawsuit that argued the transfer brought on states “large chaos” together with “instant hurt to public well being initiatives and the termination of huge numbers of state and native public well being staff and contractors”. In mid-Could, a federal decide issued a preliminary injunction requiring the federal authorities to launch the frozen funding.
“These funds assist state and native well being departments in combatting infectious illnesses, in addition to providing psychological well being companies and funding dependancy remedy programmes,” stated Lynn Sutfin, a state Division of Well being and Human Providers spokesperson in Michigan, one of many state plaintiffs.
Different cuts included nearly $400m in AmeriCorps grants, ensuing within the terminations of greater than 32,000 AmeriCorps members and volunteers, and the historic gutting of USAID, the nation’s federal worldwide humanitarian and improvement arm.
One native AmeriCorps programme, Serve Louisiana, filed a lawsuit to cease cuts to its $700,000 grant that aimed to position 37 staff with Louisiana nonprofits, together with a meals financial institution, a library and Boys and Ladies Golf equipment, by means of August. As of June 2, the lawsuit was ongoing.
“Our nonprofit companions are actually scrambling to adapt with out the assistance they counted on,” Serve Louisiana Government Director Lisa Moore stated.
USAID programmes aimed to scale back starvation and illness and promote democracy globally. In fiscal 12 months 2024, USAID made up 0.3 % of the federal finances. Weeks after Trump’s inauguration, DOGE froze nearly all of USAID’s spending and terminated practically all staff.
Musk boasted on February 3 that DOGE had fed “USAID into the wooden chipper”, and two weeks later he wielded a chainsaw at a conservative political occasion to symbolise what he stated was his assault on federal paperwork.
USAID’s dismantling had sprawling world results.
In Ukraine – the most important recipient of USAID funds since Russia’s 2022 invasion – regional media retailers misplaced funding and medical charities shuttered programmes that screened for and handled tuberculosis and HIV, NPR reported.
US diplomats in Malawi stated US funding cuts to the United Nations World Meals Programme elevated legal exercise, sexual violence and human trafficking in a big refugee camp, ProPublica reported. American embassy officers in Kenya stated funding cuts to refugee camp meals programmes led to violent demonstrations, ProPublica stated.
Folks additionally died due to the chaotic help disruptions, in accordance with Al Jazeera, NPR, The Related Press, and different information organisations.
The results are nonetheless unspooling.
The Africa Centres for Illness Management and Prevention estimated that as much as 4 million individuals in Africa would possibly die from treatable illnesses with out USAID funding. Former USAID officers informed Reuters that, due to the cuts, meals rations value $98m that might provide 3.5 million individuals for a month are decaying in warehouses and a few are prone to be destroyed. The World Well being Group cautioned in March that USAID cuts might set off a worldwide improve in tuberculosis instances and deaths.
Musk and Trump stated that DOGE would ferret out fraud, too. Authorities reviews predating Trump’s present time period present fraud is an actual drawback, however to date DOGE has not confirmed that it has lately uncovered mass fraud.
A White Home spokesperson stated there had been 50 legal referrals stemming from DOGE’s work and pointed to a few people charged for voting as a noncitizen in New York or Florida. Statements by federal prosecutors stated that DOGE assisted with the instances. Such instances had been prosecuted earlier than DOGE’s creation.
