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“DOGE” Scam: Taxpayers Lost $21.7 Billion
A New Pantheon of Absurdity
The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) was the brainchild of Elon Musk and Donald Trump—a duo whose “meeting of minds” would almost certainly result in a fire drill at any rational government finance office.
Born during the fever dream of the 2024 presidential election, DOGE’s existence began as a campaign punchline, became an executive order on January 20, 2025, and quickly self-actualized into an epic administrative pratfall worthy of its meme-inspired moniker.
DOGE, of course, stands for “Department of Government Efficiency.” Yes, that’s a backronym inspired by the Shiba Inu meme and the Dogecoin cryptocurrency, both beloved by Musk and, apparently, tolerated by Trump. When an X (formerly Twitter) user suggested the name, Musk replied with the enthusiasm of a billionaire teenager discovering a new app: “That is the perfect name.” The entire project rapidly moved from “meme joke” to “Manhattan Project for cutting government,” with Musk and right-wing entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy crowned as czars of anti-bureaucracy and fiscal firebrands-in-chief.
Timeline of Mutual Admiration (and Comic Codependence)
- Summer 2024: Musk and Trump, fueled by an endless loop of self-congratulation, float the idea of “blowing up” government waste. Musk offers to serve with an AI image of him at a “DOGE” lectern.
- Fall 2024: As the campaign heats up, Musk claims he could shave $2 trillion off the federal budget—enough to almost shut down the government. Trump hints at giving Musk “an advisory role,” a statement with all the ominous gravitas of letting your toddler rewire the house[5][4].
- Election Night: The bromance crescendos. Musk and his circle start meeting at Mar-a-Lago. Trump, basking in Muskian glow, announces that he and Ramaswamy will “lead DOGE like the Manhattan Project.” The first of many, many joint op-eds follows[1].
- January 20, 2025: DOGE is official, by executive order. Musk and Ramaswamy begin slashing federal agencies with all the precision of Gallagher at a watermelon farm.
- Spring 2025: DOGE’s claims grow bolder, Musk says he’s already “saved” $150 billion, but fact-checkers and even the House DOGE caucus admit that’s fantasy math. Musk, always ready with helpful self-promotion, drops his target to a mere $150 billion after downgrading from $2 trillion and then $1 trillion.
- Summer 2025: The Musk–Trump “mutual admiration” tour cools. A spat over tax credits, NASA jobs, and prickly egos leads to mud-throwing on social media. In June, Musk storms out, calling Trump’s tax bill “a disgusting abomination.” Trump gifts Musk a key (yes, literally—a symbolic, oversized novelty key) at an Oval Office “goodbye” event.
- July 2025: DOGE’s official tally is in, and it’s a doozy: $21.7 billion in waste dumped on the backs of taxpayers.
Cutting “Waste” by Creating Massive New Waste
DOGE’s numbers read like a satirical ledger. Musk and his Silicon Valley apostles promised to “root out waste, fraud, and abuse,” except their unique brand of disruption cost taxpayers $21.7 billion in just six months. The minority staff of the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations (PSI) called this a “searing indictment” of DOGE’s bogus claims—the very definition of government waste, but with a performance art twist.
- The boondoggle included paying tens of thousands of federal workers to not work (courtesy of DOGE’s “deferred resignation” plan), canceling productive contracts, firing then hastily rehiring employees after lawsuits, and producing a cascade of productivity losses.
- Lawsuits piled up, legal defense costs ballooned, and lost tax collection—from slashing IRS staff—just sweetened the tab.
- While the DOGE team insisted they were “saving money,” the Senate found the much-publicized “cuts” amounted to little more than regulatory chaos, actual increases in the deficit, and billions wasted in restructuring and re-litigating the meaning of “efficiency.”
Musk: “World’s Richest Man” Cuts… Himself a Check
All the while, Musk was po-faced on TV about government waste, cheerleading mass layoffs and the evisceration of federal agencies. Yet, his own companies—SpaceX and Tesla—were vacuuming up federal contract dollars at a record pace, even as DOGE was axing those very agencies’ jobs and budgets[13]. SpaceX alone doubled defense contracts as DOGE lopped off federal spending.
Of course, Musk didn’t work for free. His mega-donations—$295 million to Republicans in 2024, most of it to Trump—bought him unparalleled influence. He even claimed credit for Trump’s election win, declaring, “Without me, Trump would have lost.” This, naturally, made the Musk-Trump breakup all the more cartoonish as their falling out played out on social media, with Musk criticizing Trump’s “big, beautiful tax bill” for adding trillions to the deficit.
From Mutual Admiration… to Mutual Assassination
The courtship phase was a spectacle: endless Cabinet meetings with Musk outshining handpicked Secretaries, Trump lauding “Elon’s genius,” and their families—Musk’s son X reportedly a fixture in the Oval Office—playing White House tourist. And yet, when the political romance soured—inevitably—so did their public discourse, careening from saccharine mutual praise to schoolyard-style social media jabs.
The punchline? While Musk and Trump attempted a live-action Reddit meme to “save the country money,” DOGE delivered one of the largest new public sector boondoggles of the decade. And the grand $21.7 billion price tag doesn’t even count losses from missed tax collections, nor the cost of Musk’s endless self-promotion. As a Senate Democrat dryly put it: “DOGE was clearly never about efficiency or saving the American taxpayer money.”
It’s a saga for the history books—a testament to what happens when governance is run by those most famous for breaking things, with taxpayers left holding the broken pieces.
The mutual admiration between Elon Musk and Donald Trump was less a meeting of visionary minds and more a spectacle of egos leveraging each other for personal and political gain, punctuated by public displays of excess and a sharp eventual fallout.
Early in the DOGE era, both men flattered and enabled each other: Musk- needing access and influence, Trump- needing credibility from big tech and a marquee outsider. Their working rapport was marked by outsized praise, photo ops, and performative camaraderie: Musk in the White House, Trump hailing Musk as an “incredible guy,” both dining out on their power and proximity.
This dynamic reflected little genuine respect and much self-interest. Their “mutual admiration” was transactional—each man looking to amplify his own brand. Musk spent lavishly to secure his place at Trump’s side, while Trump offered Musk unprecedented access and policy influence[6]. Their public bromance coincided with decisions that boosted Musk’s companies (SpaceX, Tesla contracts), consolidating power while claiming to save taxpayers money—yet, as the fallout of the DOGE experiment showed, their disruptive brand of efficiency actually fueled billions in waste.
The whole relationship displayed layers of hypocrisy. Musk, known for deriding “big government,” benefited mightily from government contracts and used his proximity to secure favorable deals, even as the two claimed to be slashing cronyism and bureaucracy. Meanwhile, Trump, eager to be seen as pro-business, cozied up to the world’s richest man—until political calculus shifted and the alliance became inconvenient.
The breakdown was inevitable, driven by clashing egos and mutual suspicion. When political or business interests diverged—over tax incentives, defense contracts, or public image—the admiration quickly curdled into contempt and open hostility. Analysts have pointed out that both men’s narcissism and sensitivity to perceived slights fueled an especially dramatic breakup: each accused the other of betrayal, disloyalty, and hypocrisy. Their feud became almost performative, featuring public spats, insults, and attempts to undermine one another’s credibility both in the media and online.
In sum, the Musk–Trump “mutual admiration” was a case study in opportunism and performative politics—less about shared vision or respect, more about spectacle, self-promotion, and ultimately, mutual sabotage. Far from exemplifying public service or efficient governance, their alliance revealed the risks of letting personal brands and unchecked egos substitute for accountable leadership.
[1] A timeline shows how Elon Musk turned against Donald Trump https://www.firstpost.com/explainers/elon-musk-donald-trump-relationship-timeline-feud-13894859.html
[2] Why the Musk and Trump relationship is breaking down https://theconversation.com/why-the-musk-and-trump-relationship-is-breaking-down-a-psychologist-explains-258213
[3] Elon Musk, Trump and a MAGA friendship that went south https://www.foxbusiness.com/markets/elon-musk-trump-maga-friendship-went-south
[4] What’s behind the Trump-Musk break-up? | Inside Story – YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6KBuyFy0Hc8
[5] Trump–Musk feud – Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trump%E2%80%93Musk_feud
[6] Elon Musk on DOGE and why he doesn’t want to “take responsibility … https://www.cbsnews.com/news/elon-musk-on-doge-trump-administration-and-responsibility-for-cuts/
[7] Musk Says Trump’s Comments About Him Are ‘Just Plain Wrong’ https://www.forbes.com/sites/siladityaray/2025/07/02/trump-musk-feud-musk-says-trumps-comments-about-him-are-just-plain-wrong/
[8] Elon Musk is criticizing Donald Trump — and Trump isn’t hitting back … https://www.yahoo.com/news/elon-musk-may-only-person-153013856.html
[9] Trump defends his new travel ban as feud with Musk erupts – PBS https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/trump-defends-his-new-travel-ban-as-feud-with-musk-erupts
