The Trump–Musk DOGE Failure: Chaos, Corruption, and $21.7 Billion in Waste Arrow

In 2025, Donald Trump and Elon Musk took a sledgehammer to the federal government, slashing services, shuttering agencies, and laying off thousands of federal workers. Their so-called "Department of Government Efficiency" didn't cut waste - it created it. DOGE generated at least $21.7 BILLION in wasteful spending, and was forced to rehire thousands of the employees it fired. DOGE was a failure - and even Musk now admits he wouldn't do it again.

In response, DNC Rapid Response Director Kendall Witmer released the following statement:

"DOGE was one of the biggest failures of the year - hands down. Donald Trump and his frenemy Elon Musk slashed essential services, gutted agencies, and destroyed thousands of jobs - only to turn around, rehire workers, and saddle taxpayers with billions of dollars in waste. If Trump and Musk were serious about cutting waste, fraud, and abuse, Trump wouldn't be handing out massive tax cuts to his billionaire friends while sticking working families with the bill. DOGE was never about government efficiency - it was about ego, chaos, and corruption."

As DOGE cut health care, nutrition assistance, and emergency services, it failed to meaningfully root out waste, fraud, and abuse and instead cost taxpayers billions of dollars. DOGE recklessly gutted the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), a move which researchers estimate has already caused 600,000 deaths globally, two-thirds of them children, and undermined the United States' standing abroad. DOGE also made massive cuts to the VA that have had detrimental impacts on veterans seeking treatment and disrupted studies for patients seeking experimental medicines. An error-ridden AI tool built by a DOGE staffer led to the cancellation of nearly 600 contracts. The cuts at the VA "have disrupted studies involving patients awaiting experimental treatments, forced some facilities to fire support staff and created uncertainty amid the mass cancellation, and partial reinstatement, of hundreds of contracts."

Even the White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles knows that DOGE was a disaster, calling Elon "an avowed ketamine [user]," adding that he is "a complete solo actor" and "an odd, odd duck" whose actions weren't always "rational" and frequently left her aghast.