There’s been no shortage of headlines about President Donald Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), spearheaded by Tesla founder Elon Musk. In recent weeks, DOGE has uncovered wasteful government spending by a slew of agencies. Here’s a rundown.
1. USAID
The USAID saga began at the beginning of the month when Trump took executive action to freeze the vast majority of all foreign aid payments made through USAID. DOGE played a major role in this.
“We spent the weekend feeding USAID into the wood chipper,” Musk wrote on X on Feb. 3.
From that point on, the reports detailing how USAID spent taxpayer dollars were jaw dropping.
As Mia covered, USAID was actively paying for "sex-change" procedures in Guatemala, as well as other woke “diversity” causes.
That’s not all. In March 2023, USAID set aside up to $1 million to help disabled people in Tajikistan become "climate leaders." In May 2023, USAID unveiled a $1.5 million effort aimed at "empowering women to adapt to climate change in northern Kenya.”
USAID enabled the border crisis by providing $45 million to provide emergency food assistance and economic support for Venezuelan migrants in Colombia. Additionally, the U.S. State Department paid for $14 million in cash vouchers for immigrants at the southern border and allocated $3.2 million toward helping migrants "readjust to life in Tunisia" after being deported.
Not to mention, USAID spent tens of millions of dollars on birth control and condoms abroad.
Matt reported how USAID paid for a radical Islamic terrorist’s college tuition. The terrorist, Anwar Awlaki, lied about his country of birth to obtain funding from the United States for college.
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Matt also reported how it was revealed that USAID subsidized POLITICO, the left-wing news outlet, with millions of dollars.
"I was made aware of the funding from USAID to media outlets, including Politico, who I know has a seat in this room," White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a press briefing. "I can confirm that the more than 8 million taxpayer dollars that have gone to essentially subsidize subscriptions to Politico on the American taxpayers' dime will no longer be happening."
POLITICO responded to these claims, stating that they were false.
On Feb. 11, Paul Martin, inspector general of USAID, was fired after his office criticized the Trump administration’s reorganization of the agency.
Of course, the vast majority of donations from USAID workers went to Democrats, which Townhall also reported. As the agency is absorbed into the State Department, many of its workers will be furloughed.
2. Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA)
As Katie noted, DOGE discovered that FEMA was spending an egregious amount of money housing illegal aliens in luxury hotels in the Big Apple. Musk took to X to unveil this.
“The @DOGE team just discovered that FEMA sent $59M LAST WEEK to luxury hotels in New York City to house illegal migrants,” he wrote.
“Sending this money violated the law and is in gross insubordination to the President’s executive order. That money is meant for American disaster relief and instead is being spent on high end hotels for illegals!”
This added insult to injury for hurricane-stricken North Carolinians who did not receive adequate help from FEMA in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene.
As a result, four FEMA workers were axed, including the chief financial officer, for “circumventing leadership and unilaterally making the egregious payment for hotels for migrants in New York City,” a Department of Homeland Security spokesperson told Fox News.
Reportedly, $19 million was for direct hotel costs while the remaining amount funded food, security, and other things, as Matt noted.
3. Fauci Museum Exhibit
Sarah noted that DOGE announced that it slashed funding for a museum exhibit dedicated to Dr. Anthony Fauci, the former Director of the National Institutes of Health who pushed radical social distancing, masking, and vaccine policies during the COVID-19 pandemic.
As part of a massive $180 million cut, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) did away with the $170,000 contract for the Fauci exhibit at the NIH Museum in Silver Spring, MD.
“In the past 48 hours, HHS canceled 62 contracts [sic] worth $182 million," DOGE confirmed in a post on X. "These contracts were entirely for administrative expenses – none touched any healthcare programs. This included terminating a $168,000 contract for an Anthony Fauci exhibit at the NIH Museum.”
4. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau
On Friday, Feb. 7, Musk’s DOGE team entered the headquarters of the CFPB, according to POLITICO. The outlet added that the “allies” of Musk, “some of whom are tied to his Department of Government Efficiency, have now embedded with the consumer bureau.”
That same day, Musk published a post on X stating, “CFPB RIP.”
Reportedly, the CFPB staff are “mad as hell” about this, a source told POLITICO.
Predictably, Democrats flew off the handle about this.
That’s not all. Trump fired Rohit Chopra, the director of the CFPB, on Feb. 1. Then, Russell Vought, Trump’s director of Office of Management and Budget, directed the bureau to stop working.
After this, two directors of supervision and enforcement at the agency stepped down, according to NPR.
Musk foreshadowed all of this in November.
“Delete CFPB. There are too many duplicative regulatory agencies,” he wrote at the time.
5. Funding for “LGBTQ+ Refugees”
On Wednesday, DOGE shared on X that they identified a $25,000 award called “Empowering LGBTQIA+ Refugees in Greece.” This grant was meant “to provide material, legal and psychological support to LGBTQIA+ asylum seekers and refugees; inform and raise awareness of civil society on issues faced by the LGBTQIA+ community.”
The grant has since been cancelled, DOGE noted.
According to the X thread, this grant was discovered when Greek MP Emmanouil Fragkos asked Musk to inform him if the United States funded Greek NGOs that reserve luxury hotels for illegal aliens.
“We have taken notice of you post on X, concerning improper use and corruption on funds of the US Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) that were finally wasted on luxury hotels for illegal migrants,” the letter to Musk said, referring to the fact that FEMA in the United States was using tax dollars to put illegal aliens up in luxury hotels.
“We are writing to formally request information regarding any identified instances of, direct or through NGOs, misallocated funding intended to assist illegal migrants in Greece,” it added.
“The parallel, yet powerful ‘deep state’ system of corruption and waste of public money, working cross-border, in order to enforce the ideology of unstoppable illegal migrant must be identified and unrooted,” the letter concluded.
Musk shared a post highlighting this finding, stating “So many situations like this.”
6. The U.S. Department of Education (ED)
On Thursday, DOGE confirmed that several initiatives spearheaded by the ED’s Institute of Education Sciences (IES) were cancelled. This included millions of dollars aimed at coordinating virtual meetings.
DOGE shared the ED’s post, confirming that the millions of dollars spent on IES initiatives that were not helping students were cancelled.
That’s not all. On Monday, the ED terminated 89 contracts worth $881 million. Additionally, 29 DEI training grants totaling $101 million were nixed.
“Eliminating the agreements effectively halted the work of the Institute of Education Sciences,” USA TODAY noted.
On Thursday, DOGE added that the ED terminated grants to four "Equity Assistance Centers." The agency shared a professional learning video about race that was used at one of the centers.
The Department of Education terminated grants to the four “Equity Assistance Centers” totaling $33M.
— Department of Government Efficiency (@DOGE) February 13, 2025
One provided “professional learning around critical race theory and racial literacy”. Video below: pic.twitter.com/yovAO4NXiN
Trump has floated the idea of eliminating the ED entirely.
7. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
On Tuesday, Lee Zeldin, the administrator of the EPA, shared that the agency would not be renewing their membership with POLITICO and POLITICO E&E, which would save taxpayers over $400,000.
On X, DOGE added that the EPA cancelled three DEI contracts, totaling $45 million.
According to POLITICO E&E, DOGE aides are embedded in the agency “looking for contracts that may run up against President Donald Trump’s executive orders.”
In an interview with Fox News, Zeldin said, “DOGE is making us better.”
“They come up with great recommendations, and we can make a decision to act on it,” he added.
On Thursday, Zeldin announced that he cancelled a $50 million environmental justice grant that was pro-Palestine.
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