Elon Musk’s DOGE made big errors in claims of government savings, GAO finds

The U.S. DOGE Service, the cost-cutting group spearheaded by Elon Musk, consistently overstated its savings in online posts, taking credit for lease cancellations initiated before the group existed, according to a report from a government watchdog to be released Thursday. DOGE also claimed contracts were terminated that had not been and loaded its database with savings that could not be verified, the report said.

In an audit spanning from June 2025 through this month, the Government Accountability Office examined savings claimed by DOGE, the group that swept through federal agencies after President Donald Trump began his second term last year, dismantling the U.S. Agency for International Development and much of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

The report, which came after a request by Democratic Sens. Gary Peters (Michigan) and Richard Blumenthal (Connecticut), provides the most comprehensive government assessment of DOGE’s public accounting of its impact, bringing the organization’s figures further into doubt.

Though Musk aimed to cut $2 trillion in federal spending, even by DOGE’s own estimates it fell well short. A sporadically updated website tallying its cuts in a “Wall of Receipts” stated that its initiatives had saved $215 billion.

The GAO examined $110 billion of this claimed savings that derived from contracts, grants and leases.

Among the issues identified by GAO:

DOGE’s “Wall of Receipts” “includes leases identified for termination before [the group] was established,” according to the report. In total, 108 of 264 leases DOGE identified on its website “were already in process for termination” when it came into being, the GAO said.

In addition, DOGE claimed to have terminated 13,476 contracts, but the GAO analysis showed nearly 2,000 of these contracts “were not terminated.”

Of $61 billion in contracts savings DOGE reported, the GAO said more than half the funds – nearly $35 billion – were either not terminated or unable to be corroborated by the investigators, because DOGE’s data was not specific enough to identify it.

Roughly $27.4 billion of the savings DOGE claimed from cancellations were from contracts that were not actually terminated, the GAO said. “In these cases, another action, such as reducing the contract value or deobligating some funds could have occurred,” it said.

From the watchdog’s analysis of federal procurement data, “we found that DOGE did not accurately report actions taken on contracts,” the GAO said in the report.

Musk and the White House did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

“Elon Musk and the Trump administration claimed billions of dollars in savings it could not substantiate, took credit for work already underway, and refused to show its work, all while putting Americans’ sensitive data at risk and hollowing out critical agencies,” Peters said.

The GAO investigation was conducted at the request of Senate Democrats who sought greater accountability of DOGE’s dealings. The findings were shared with administration officials and lawmakers ahead of its release Thursday.

Although DOGE promised massive savings, the accounting of its cuts on its website didn’t come close, fact-checkers and media outlets found. Updates to the website slowed to a trickle after Musk left and some of the “savings” were later removed. Federal workers told The Post that DOGE added red tape and extra hurdles even as it touted regulation cuts on its website.

The GAO said it sought to speak with DOGE officials and submitted written questions to the group. However, it said, “the U.S. DOGE Service did not respond to our inquiries.”

Faiz Siddiqui and Meryl Kornfield report for The Washington Post.