Mr. Elon Musk made a pretty bold promise five days ago, saying he was gonna be cutting $4 billion per day from US government spending from then until September. But so far, all he has managed to succeed at is a lot of Dem fury.
Elon’s Department of Government Efficiency (D.O.G.E.)—born from a Trump executive order on Inauguration Day—is supposed to be a temporary 18-month task force inside the White House slashing federal waste by as much as $2 trillion.
But instead of clean savings, Elon has Democrats on his back, GOP lawmakers getting nervous, and Treasury officials caught in the crossfire. The guy hasn’t even spoken about the $4 billion/per day pledge again.
D.O.G.E. has canceled dozens of contracts, scrapped millions in building leases, and gutted diversity and inclusion programs. According to the department’s official X account, there has been $110 million in total savings as of Feb. 6. “Today, 78 contracts were terminated for convenience across DEI, Non-Performing, Media, and Consulting categories, including one for groundwater exploration and assessment in the Islamic Republic of Mauritania,” said D.O.G.E.
Treasury access alarms Congress as Elon digs into contracts
The drama exploded when Elon’s crew, led by tech insiders like Tom Krause, gained “read-only” access to the Treasury Department’s payment systems, according to a letter Treasury officials sent to Congress on Tuesday.
These systems handle the government’s payments and hold financial data on millions of Americans. Krause, handpicked by Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, is now digging into the federal payment infrastructure to identify where Elon thinks taxpayer money is leaking.
Bessent, with his Wall Street roots, interviewed Krause last December, knowing full well what Elon’s mission was. He even recommended Krause for “special government employee” status, allowing him to bypass certain hiring restrictions and avoid standard financial disclosures.
Democrats are seething. “We don’t pledge allegiance to Elon Musk,” Senator Chris Murphy, a Democrat from Connecticut, said. “We don’t pledge allegiance to the creepy 22-year-olds working for Elon Musk.”
Representative AOC said, “The people elected Donald Trump to be President – not Elon Musk. Having an unelected billionaire, with his own foreign debts and motives, raiding US classified information is a grave threat to national security. This should not be a partisan issue.”
Senator Elizabeth Warren said, “Elon Musk’s companies have a lot riding on government contracts and enforcement actions. Why in the world would we trust him to police his own conflicts of interest?”
Governor and former VP nominee Tim Walz said, “The richest man in the world is sitting at the Resolute desk, about to defund your public school. Trump should stop him.”
Meanwhile, some GOP lawmakers have been warning Trump that Elon might be stretching the D.O.G.E. mission further than anyone expected. According to a Bloomberg report, six Republican senators privately contacted the White House, telling them Elon’s team shouldn’t be snooping through Treasury’s systems just to score savings.
D.O.G.E. slashes DEI programs, leases, and scholarship funds
In D.O.G.E’s first two weeks, Elon’s team announced it had axed 85 contracts related to diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives across more than a dozen federal agencies, saving an estimated $1 billion. Another $165 million came from killing 36 contracts at six agencies.
These cuts targeted DEI programs, consulting gigs, and bloated real estate leases. One $45 million scholarship program for Burmese students didn’t survive either.
On Jan. 29, Elon bragged on X (formerly Twitter) that D.O.G.E. was eliminating $1 billion in federal waste per day, primarily by freezing unnecessary job hirings and wiping out DEI contracts. “A good start, though this number needs to increase to > $3 billion/day,” D.O.G.E. added in a follow-up post.
But Elon didn’t stop there. His goal is $4 billion per day by FY2026—a number that analysts say remains far out of reach. Leases for federal buildings are another target. D.O.G.E. said it had canceled 22 leases in six days, saving $44.6 million.
On Tuesday, the agency cut another 12 contracts at the Government Services Administration and Department of Education, resulting in $30 million in savings and another 12 leases worth $3 million. But these piecemeal savings aren’t what Elon promised, are they?
Meanwhile, Trump’s inner circle is stuck managing Elon’s whirlwind approach. Susie Wiles, Trump’s Chief of Staff, and White House lawyers are trying to steer Elon’s team away from causing too many problems, according to press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Elon doesn’t always wait for approval.
Some Cabinet officials have already run into issues with Elon jumping the gun on contract cancellations, and Trump aides have had to clean up the aftermath. But for now, Trump himself is letting Elon do his thing, though he occasionally reminds people that he—not Elon—sits in the Oval.
“Sometimes we won’t agree with it, and we’ll not go where he wants to go,” Trump said at a press conference on Monday. “But I think he’s doing a great job.”
This articles is written by : Nermeen Nabil Khear Abdelmalak
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By Nermeen Nabil Khear 