Elon Musk's 13 largest DOGE 'chainsaw' cuts were bunk, blockbuster report uncovers
By VICTORIA CHURCHILL, US POLITICAL REPORTER
Published: 16:03 EST, 25 December 2025
Elon Musk's much heralded chainsaw couldn't make the cut.
Despite the Trump administration's efforts to slash government spending through the Department of Government Efficiency, federal expenditures actually increased in fiscal year 2025.
A new investigative report from the
New York Times released this week showcased that many of the contracts cut by the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, led by tech billionaire Musk for the start of Trump's term, were already winding down, or were not on track to reach their maximum spending allotment.
The findings were stark: Of the top 13 contract cancellations in DOGE's database all 13 were incorrectly characterized, according to the Times. Among the top 40 listed cancellations, 28 were deemed inaccurate.
Of the top 40 contracts and grants that were listed as cancelled, 28 were deemed incorrect by the analysis.
One $500 million contract from the Department of Energy was counted as cancelled twice.
Other cancellations were already in the works during the final weeks of the Biden administration, and others still simply expired but were still counted by DOGE as a win.
Perhaps most telling: 80 percent of the cancellations touted on DOGE's public dashboard claimed savings of $1 million or less—a rounding error in the federal budget.
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https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-15411755/Elon-Musks-DOGE-cuts-bunk-report.html
