Elon Musk pivoted away from the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) in May 2025. Although he promised the unit would continue even without him at the helm, the vow was but short-lived as DOGE quietly disbanded eight months ahead of its originally scheduled conclusion, according to Office of Personnel Management (OPM) director’s statement to Reuters this past November.
Despite DOGE’s anticlimactic end, one can’t help but wonder how much the department actually worked towards achieving the one goal it was meant to serve: “Reduce waste, fraud and abuse across the federal government.” As it turns out, the department formerly headed by billionaire Elon Musk may have ended up doing the exact opposite by increasing government spending. A report now suggest that these expenses may have risen nearly 6%.
DOGE increased US govt spending?
According to a tool from the Brookings Institution’s Hamilton Project, which tracks government money, indicated that federal spending didn’t slow down contrary to the big promises made. As per the findings highlighted by the Brookings Institution, outlays had risen from $7.135 to 7.558 trillion as of December 19. This constitutes for a nearly 6% increase.
In turn, Cato Institute’s analysis of the report noted, “DOGE had no noticeable effect on the trajectory of spending. But it did help engineer the largest peacetime workforce reduction on record.” The reported data further showed that all this increase in spending was mapped out even when the federal employment was slashed by 271,000, accounting for a 9% slump since January 2025.
Nonetheless, CATO didn’t seem shaken by the revelation, as it wrote, “DOGE failed to cut spending because most federal spending was for entitlement programs, where spending remains high due to structural reasons and policy autopilot. Congress alone has the authority to cut these programs, so it’s unsurprising that DOGE did not reduce spending.”
In the first 10 months after Trump reclaimed office, his Department of Government Efficiency became the subject of a seemingly endless trail of headlines surrounding federal layoffs and job cuts. The department etched its name in infamy as entire agencies were gutted in light of the US government’s sudden shift in approach.
The same was ultimately symbolically reflected in repeated visuals of Elon Musk wielding the so-called “chainsaw for bureaucracy” at public events as DOGE continued to downsize the federal government.
DOGE’s initial trillion-dollar promise fail
When DOGE first set out achieve its mission of shrinking the federal government workforce, it envisioned to cut down $2 trillion in what it deemed waste, fraud and abuse. The bar was shortly lowered to $1 trillion and then once again to just $150 billion.
Cato Institute’s analysis of the figures indicates the federal government spent $7.6 trillion in the first 11 months of calendar year 2025. This accounted for approximately $248 billion more than where the numbers stood by November 2024. Moreover, overall spending in each month of 2025 was higher than in every other year.
But why did this happen? According to a New York Times analysis, DOGE’s largest reported savings were inaccurately news flashed. The US news outlet’s finding highlighted that 28 of the top 40 savings claims Musk’s former department under the Trump admin made were false.
This meant that DOGE listed both real and fake admissions, debunking the prior claims of the department being “the most transparent organisation in government ever,” as Musk once said.
Two Defence Department contract, one for information technology, one for aircraft maintenance made it to top of the list, as per NYT. The American outlet foregrounded that DOGE listed them all as “terminations,” claiming they helped taxpayers save $7.9 billion. However, NYT revealed in its December report that the contract were still ongoing