In a move that feels more like a plot twist than a policy update, nearly $1 billion has mysteriously disappeared from a high-profile government savings program spearheaded by none other than Elon Musk — and so far, there’s been no clear explanation.
The Department of Government Efficiency — or “DOGE” (yes, really)—was launched after Donald Trump’s return to the presidency, with Elon Musk brought in as a headline-grabbing figure to lead the charge on trimming government fat. The initiative promised bold results and boasted that it had already saved taxpayers $65 billion by eliminating waste, axing redundant programs, and selling off federal assets.
But this week, watchdogs and reporters noticed something strange.
According to investigative outlet NOTUS, nearly $962 million in previously reported savings quietly vanished from the DOGE website on April 15. Along with the missing money, hundreds of data entries were changed or deleted entirely — and the site, which hadn’t been updated in weeks, offered no public explanation.
In total, DOGE’s savings estimate is now sitting at $155 billion — which sounds impressive but has skeptics raising serious questions.
“The DOGE team has surely made some cuts,” The New York Post reported back in February, “but the sloppy accounting and secrecy are feeding concerns about mismanagement.” ABC News went a step further, describing the figures as “unverifiable” and pointing out that much of DOGE’s self-reported data can’t be independently checked.
So what’s actually going on?
DOGE claims its savings come from things like reducing staff, canceling grants, selling assets, and cracking down on fraud. But experts are puzzled, especially given the sudden and silent removal of nearly a billion dollars in claimed savings. NOTUS reported that around 650 grants and dozens of contracts and leases have vanished from the site in recent weeks — without explanation.
And while DOGE has promised transparency from day one, that promise appears increasingly hollow. The site’s last visible update was April 14 — just a day before the data purge.
Adding to the spectacle, DOGE’s website features an “Agency Efficiency Leaderboard,” which ranks departments based on how much spending they’ve supposedly cut. At the top? The Department of Health and Human Services. At the bottom? The Department of Commerce.
Critics are now calling out the administration, accusing the program of inflating numbers and dodging scrutiny. But the White House isn’t budging. Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt defended DOGE, claiming that “rogue bureaucrats and activist judges” are trying to undermine the initiative and “subvert the will of the American people.”
In the meantime, the biggest question remains unanswered:
Where did the $962 million go — and why won’t anyone explain what happened?
For a program that promised transparency, DOGE may be digging itself into a credibility crisis. And as the numbers keep shifting, so does public trust.
