Elon Musk’s DOGE Burned Through $21.7 Billion in Taxpayer Cash
- Aug 7, 2025
- 2 min read
Elon Musk promised to slash government waste. Instead, his pet project torched over $21.7 billion in taxpayer money.
That’s the conclusion of a blistering new report from the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, which found that the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) — the Musk-led initiative launched by President Trump — created more waste than it cut, with Musk himself at the helm of the chaos.
The 55-page report, led by Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), paints a picture of stunning mismanagement and failed leadership. Musk, who vowed to root out “waste, fraud, and abuse” and save $2 trillion, instead oversaw months of erratic decisions that left agencies in disarray, employees idle, and billions flushed down the drain.
Among Musk’s most expensive blunders:
$14.8 billion spent paying nearly 200,000 federal workers not to work under a Deferred Resignation Program Musk personally greenlit in January.
$6 billion in payroll for employees stuck in administrative limbo after abrupt terminations with no clear next steps.
$263 million lost due to Department of Energy loan freezes Musk ordered without consulting agency experts.
$155 million wasted on a mandatory “weekly accomplishments” email Musk demanded from every federal worker — threatening resignation for non-compliance.
$110 million in food and medical supplies left to spoil in warehouses under DOGE’s disorganized aid review.
The report also cites Musk for squandering tens of millions more on consultant mismanagement, project failures at NIH and the IRS, and unnecessary staff relocations.
Even DOGE’s own $50 million operating budget is listed as waste — a cost tied directly to Musk’s handpicked team of private-sector allies brought in to overhaul the government, many of whom lacked any relevant experience.
“This report is a searing indictment of Elon Musk’s reckless mismanagement,” Blumenthal said. “He sold DOGE as a solution to government inefficiency — but ended up running one of the most wasteful experiments in modern federal history.”
Musk abruptly resigned in May after a public feud with Trump and just five months into the job.
Although Musk claimed DOGE had saved $170 billion, investigators found that figure was inflated and riddled with errors. Blumenthal is urging inspectors general across 27 agencies to launch investigations into the full scope of the damage. “Elon Musk didn’t drain the swamp,” Blumenthal said. “He flooded it.”
