“ELON IS DOING A GREAT JOB, BUT I WOULD LIKE TO SEE HIM GET MORE AGGRESSIVE,” said President Donald Trump in a Saturday Truth Social post. “REMEMBER, WE HAVE A COUNTRY TO SAVE, BUT ULTIMATELY, TO MAKE GREATER THAN EVER BEFORE. MAGA!”
He was apparently referring to the work of his recent ally, multi-billionaire Elon Musk, who has taken on a position advising Trump in addition to roles as CEO of both Tesla and Space X. Musk has been busy touting the work of the new Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) on X, the social media platform he purchased and renamed.
“Will do, Mr. President!” said Musk in a Saturday X post.
While Musk is associated with DOGE (its also the name of a cryptocurrency he’s linked to), the White House said this week that he is not a DOGE employee or top administrator. Instead, it described him as a “senior advisor to the president.”
“Like other senior White House advisors, Mr. Musk has no actual or formal authority to make government decisions himself,” said a court filing from director of the White House Office of Administration, Joshua Fisher.
“Mr. Musk can only advise the President and communicate the President’s directives.”
Since Trump took office last month, DOGE has been making headlines for its moves in the federal government, which have included putting U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) workers on administrative leave on leave. Some of those actions have been met with resistance, per The New York Times, and lawsuits.
Despite the pushback, both Trump and Musk have been moving forward with plans to cut government spending.
“DOGE is looking for help from the general public! Please DM insight for reducing waste, fraud, and abuse, along with any helpful insights or awesome ideas, to the relevant DOGE affiliates (found on the Affiliates tab),” said a Feb. 16 post on the department’s X page. “For example, etc. We will add more affiliates over time.”
As of a Feb. 17 update on its website, DOGE claimed that it had already saved $55 billion with its spending cuts and Musk floated the idea of sending American taxpayers $5,000 dividend checks.
In a Friday X post, DOGE announced that 95 cancellations with savings of around $115 million including two U.S. Department of Agriculture contracts. It said included $265,000 for a “food and nutrition service 3 day leadership retreat in Atlanta” and $30K for “Malaysia study tour facilitation services.”
A Saturday post said the U.S. General Services Administration sold the Webster School building in Washington D.C. for around $4.14 million. It said: “the building was acquired via condemnation in 2003, remained empty and boarded up ever since, and accrued $24 [million] of deferred maintenance and liabilities.” In another Saturday X post, Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin said he cancelled 21 “wasteful” Diversity, Equity and Inclusion and Environmental Justice-related grants, with the help of DOGE. Zeldin said that added up to $67 million in savings.
DOGE’s site said its savings come from a “combination of fraud detection/deletion, contract/lease cancellations, contract/lease renegotiations, asset sales, grant cancellations, workforce reductions, programmatic changes, and regulatory savings.”
It said that it hopes to update the figure twice per week and eventually allow for real-time coverage. Also included on the site is a “Wall of Receipts” the department says shows savings.
However, analyses from both The Wall Street Journal and NPR indicate figures from DOGE might be off.
“A Wall Street Journal analysis of government contract data showed a much different picture: ‘Woke’ cuts were a tiny fraction of the total, and many claims of savings were overstated,” said that outlet.
NPR noted that DOGE has already corrected one mistake that brought savings from ending contracts down from $16 billion to $8.5 billion. Furthermore, it said a review of the more than 1,100 contracts in that initial release finds that DOGE’s “calculations still overstate its estimated savings totals by billions of dollars.” In fact, the outlet estimated that DOGE’s work has cut just $2 billion in spending thus far.
Jessica Riedl, a senior fellow at the center-right Manhattan Institute cited by NPR, likened the figure to saving $2 on gas while on the way to buy a $250,000 car. She said that reforms to the contracting process would save more money in the long run.
According to NPR, “spokespeople for the White House and DOGE did not respond to multiple requests for clarification about the DOGE data and savings claims shared online.”
Although some have complained that Musk wields too much power in an unelected position, the comment from Trump on Truth Social Saturday seems to confirm that the man who won the popular vote backs the work DOGE is doing.
Meanwhile, YouGov poll results released this week found that 49% of Americans have an unfavorable view of musk, compared to 43% with a favorable view. It also found that 39% have a favorable view of DOGE, compared to 36% who had an unfavorable view of the department, but that 52% were concerned about Musk “using DOGE to benefit his companies and personal interests.”