The BillonaireThe goal of Donald Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), which Elon Musk advised, was to rename and repurpose America’s digital services. Trump appointed Musk to lead DOGE, and the two were supposed to collaborate to transform America’s digital landscape.
At one point, it was also praised as a daring way for the government to conserve money and federal funds. However, a Senate audit that found the department has cost taxpayers $21.7 billion has put it under pressure. The report claims that a significant amount of the funds were used to compensate almost 200,000 federal employees for declining to work under DOGE’s deferred resignation program.
According to The Irish Star, an extra $66 million was used to relegate highly skilled workers, such as scientists, to low-paying jobs like ticket checkers at national parks. Medical supplies and food aid worth an additional $110 million were left to deteriorate in storage facilities.
Despite DOGE’s purported objective of eradicating government waste, the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations estimates that the agency produced at least $21.7 billion in waste across the federal government, which could have twice paid for the rescissions package.bXs2iWrBEH pic.twitter.com in
July 31, 2025, Tyler McBrien (@TylerMcBrien)
As many people are aware, Musk and Trump were close allies at the start of the term. However, things have soured between them because of political disagreements that surfaced after Elon Musk criticized Trump’s big, beautiful bill and then announced the America Party, a new political party.
You know what? The Farce Showed That DOGE Spent $21 Billion in Just 6 Months: https://t.co/j0AXWIj887
July 31, 2025 #TuckFrump (@realTuckFrumper)
Trump made a harsh post on Truth Social denouncing Musk’s decision to start a new party, saying, “Third parties only bring DISRUPTION and CHAOS.” And the Radical Left Democrats have given us more than enough of it already. Republicans, meanwhile, are a well-oiled machine; the biggest bill of its sort in American history has recently passed.
After a public spat with President Trump, Elon Musk resigned, but his plans for DOGE remain. The department has announced significant layoffs across major agencies, including the Interior Department, Homeland Security, and Health and Human Services, and its website claims to have saved Americans $199 billion.
Many DOGE critics claimed that the department’s drastic reorganization was badly run, placed agencies in a precarious position, and left many suspended employees unsure of their fate. “We’re just guessing when our pay might stop, maybe this week, maybe next month,” one impacted employee told HuffPost.
DOGE’s battle on waste was calculated by Democrats. They came to the conclusion that it costs Americans $21.7 billion.qajLog4m2E https://t.co/qaj
August 1, 2025, HuffPost Politics (@HuffPostPol)
Democrats also cautioned that since legal costs and unsolved issues have not yet been completely accounted for, the actual financial harm may be substantially higher. The full extent of the waste and harm caused by DOGE’s disruptive activities is difficult to quantify because costs remain hidden and many of the consequences have not yet fully materialized, according to the report, which was reported by Irish Star despite the fact that no one has formally commented on this stance.
President Obama created DOGE as the U.S. Digital Service, and according to a Yahoo story, Donald Trump changed its name. Although it is unclear if the full assertion that Trump simply renamed the agency is accurate, it was originally made in a Substack post published on February 6, 2025, by lawyer Tom Renz, who had previously allegedly disseminated false material.
The two organizations are different, even though Obama established the agency in 2014 and Donald Trump launched the U.S. Digital Service (USDS) in January 2025. While Trump’s DOGE seeks to eliminate waste that hurts the environment, cut spending, and streamline operations, USDS started working to improve the state of government technology and digital space.
The future of DOGE is still unclear due to Elon Musk’s resignation as a crucial Trump administration supporter and fresh allegations about the department’s bad management. It’s unlikely that Trump will be able to handle everything by himself unless he assembles a new team because he already has a lot on his plate.
