DOGE Cuts Now Into the Billions: White House

Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk gestures as he speaks during the inaugural parade inside Capital One Arena, in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 20, 2025. Angela Weiss/AFP via Getty Images

After three weeks, Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) has made over $1 billion in cuts, according to to numbers from the White House.

Some of the biggest savings reckoned by the White House stem from the cancellation of more than 100 contracts relating to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI). Trump’s day-one executive orders included one seeking to end DEI in the federal government. The White House estimates those cancellations alone saved over $1 billion.

DOGE also ended a $748 million contract for a new embassy in South Sudan.

Smaller cuts hit subscriptions for the news outlet Politico from NASA—$500,000—and $26 million in contracts for “executive coaching” and “strategic communication.”

DOGE’s X account unveiled almost $1 billion in additional cuts on the evening of Feb. 10.

They encompass $101 million worth of DEI-related training grants from the Department of Education, a department that Trump has floated eliminating, along with $881 million in other contracts involving it.

DOGE also publicly announced the end of $9 million in contracts with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, including for a “Women in Forest Carbon Initiative Mentorship Program” and “Central American Gender Assessment Consultant Services.”

Rep. Blake Moore (R-Utah), co-chair of the bipartisan House DOGE Caucus, told The Epoch Times DOGE was “going through and creating some waves—and they’re definitely creating some airwaves.”

Rep. Adriano Espaillat (D-N.Y.) told The Epoch Times that DOGE was designed “to take from the poor to give to the rich.”

“I feel that a lot of it is illegal,” he added.

The DOGE Fight

DOGE is a time-limited organization repurposed from the United States Digital Services and situated in the Executive Office of the President. Before Election Day in 2024, Trump announced his intentions to create DOGE and place tech entrepreneur Musk, by that point a key campaign benefactor, at its helm.

Trump issued the executive order establishing DOGE on the first day of his new administration. The order mandates DOGE teams of at least four in every agency, placing them under a temporary organization “dedicated to advancing the President’s 18-month DOGE agenda.”

Its interactions with other executive-branch agencies, including the Department of Labor and the Treasury Department, have sparked protests attended by Democrats from the House and Senate, including Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.).

Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) and other Democrats protest outside the Department of Labor in Washington on Feb. 5, 2025. Labor groups and Democrats were opposing access to department data by the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), Elon Musk's time-limited commission. Nathan Worcester/The Epoch Times

DOGE and its advocates have toted up wins and losses in the courts, where litigation concerning the commission and its employees is proliferating.

On Feb. 7, a D.C. federal judge, John Bates, ruled against restricting DOGE’s access to Department of Labor data in response to a lawsuit from various unions.

The next day, in a ruling on a different DOGE-related lawsuit, federal Judge Paul Engelmayer of the Southern District of New York, issued a temporary restraining order preventing DOGE employees from obtaining Treasury payment system data and requiring that they destroy any materials they may have obtained.

A hearing in the case is scheduled for Feb. 14.

Musk took to his social media platform, X, to call for the judge’s impeachment, describing him as “a corrupt judge protecting corruption.”

The Department of Justice sought to lift the restraining order in a Feb. 9 filing, arguing that it could be construed to prevent Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent from accessing Treasury payment system data.

The cuts and legal maneuvers are playing out as Musk and DOGE’s engineers face threats, including on social media.

A review of material on the social media platform Bluesky by The Epoch Times found numerous posts naming and, in multiple cases, threatening Musk and DOGE staff. One anonymous user named various DOGE engineers, referring to them as “Nazi scum” before adding, “The only good nazi is a dead nazi.”

The U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia, Ed Martin, has vowed to pursue those who break the law in threatening or harming DOGE employees “to the end of the Earth to hold them accountable.”

As Musk and his engineers surf a wave of reaction, economists concerned about the debt and deficit have responded to DOGE’s cuts with both enthusiasm and skepticism.

Ryan Bourne, who co-authored a report on DOGE for the libertarian Cato Institute, told The Epoch Times in an email that DOGE “could have a big qualitative impact, both on permanently changing the character of the civil service and undermining public trust in certain programs through a drumbeat of stories about wasteful spending.”

But Jessica Riedl of the Manhattan Institute wrote on X that DOGE’s declamations ring hollow given the scope of spending during Trump’s first administration and his unwillingness to make serious cuts to social spending and at the Pentagon—both significant contributors to persistent deficits.

“You have to stop cutting taxes and then address Social Security, Medicare, defense, and a lot of other popular programs. Wake me when the GOP goes there,” Riedl wrote, adding, “Don’t brag about your coupon-clipping frugality at the same time you are buying a $250,000 Ferrari.”

DOGE’s newest targets include the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services as well as the Pentagon. In a Feb. 9 Fox News interview, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said he was looking forward to partnering with DOGE.

Rep. Derrick Van Orden (R-Wisc.), a retired Navy Seal, is handling the Veterans Affairs and Pentagon portfolios for the House DOGE Caucus.

“I could very, very reasonably cut tens of billions of dollars and improve veterans’ experiences, health care outcomes, education benefits. And we can do the same thing with the Department of Defense—get rid of these legacy programs that aren’t working, and then we’ll increase lethality and readiness,” he told The Epoch Times.

He would not comment on whether the outcome would be a lower overall Defense Department budget—a sticking point for many congressional Republicans seeking more money for the Pentagon.

Rep. Eric Burlison (R-Mo.), another pro-DOGER, said DOGE’s concern with Medicare or Social Security is confined to spotting “improper payments.” Medicaid, he told The Epoch Times, presents more opportunities for immediate reform.

“I think there are ways we can make these systems work and save quite a bit,” he said of the federal government’s large social programs.

“If we get to that point after we address the low-hanging fruit and we still have a problem, then at that point, we can address that,” Burlison added.

John Cochrane, a Hoover Institution economist, wrote in an analysis of Trump’s tax policy that the spending pinpointed by DOGE “is the means, not the end.”

“The US does need that great reform. But this isn’t the time. Get through the first year, maybe build a record of success,” Cochrane wrote on his blog, The Grumpy Economist.

Bourne, of the Cato Institute, also sees DOGE as a potential on-ramp for larger changes.

“Some might argue that the only way to get buy-in for entitlement reform in the future is to show the public you’ve made every effort to root out waste, mismanagement, and non-priority spending areas from the budget already,” he told The Epoch Times.

He said he suspects federal lawmakers must act to shore up DOGE’s moves—a goal that could face resistance in a narrowly divided Congress caught in perpetual battles over funding.

Sen. Andy Kim (D-N.J.) has signaled that Democrats could use the government shutdown deadline, now little more than a month away, as leverage against DOGE.

Schumer has announced a four-pronged plan to fight the Trump administration that includes a panel for government employee whistleblowers—and he and his counterpart in the House, Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.), have introduced legislation to curb DOGE’s Treasury data access.

On the other side of the aisle, Sens. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) and James Lankford (R-Okla.) have introduced packages of DOGE-related bills. Ernst created the Senate’s DOGE Caucus, of which Lankford is also a member.

Sen. James Lankford (R-Okla.) speaks during an interview with The Epoch Times at his office on Capitol Hill in Washington on Jan. 30, 2025. Madalina Vasiliu/The Epoch Times

Moore, the House DOGE Caucus co-chair, told The Epoch Times pro-DOGE lawmakers were engaged in “parallel work,” independent of Musk and DOGE, though with some communication between Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) and DOGE.

Moore said he had not recently communicated with DOGE, though there was some communication when it began.

In time, the parallel work in the executive and legislative branches “will converge,” Moore added.