I’ve learned to be skeptical of anything that Elon claims that makes him look good because he has a history of exaggeration.
According to Elon Musk’s Grok:
As of the latest updates, the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) has claimed to identify significant savings within the federal government. According to information posted on its official website around mid-February 2025, DOGE reported finding $55 billion in savings. These savings were attributed to efforts such as reducing the federal workforce, canceling or renegotiating leases and contracts, selling assets, terminating grants, achieving regulatory savings, and making programmatic changes. Notably, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) was highlighted as a major contributor, with approximately $6.5 billion in savings from contract adjustments.
However, there’s some uncertainty around the precision of these figures. Analysis from various sources, including posts on X and media reports, suggests that while DOGE claims $55 billion in total savings, only about $8.6 billion has been directly tied to specific, verifiable actions like the termination of over 1,000 federal contracts. This discrepancy indicates that roughly $46.5 billion of the reported savings lacks detailed public evidence as of early February 2025. DOGE has promised to provide regular updates—twice weekly—on its website, aiming for greater transparency, though the full documentation for all claimed savings is still being rolled out.
Additionally, posts on X from early February 2025 have cited higher figures, with some claiming savings exceeding $61 billion. These claims, however, appear to be unverified or speculative at this point, as they exceed the official website’s reported total and lack supporting breakdowns.
…estimated savings from the initial DOGE list of just over 500 contracts that NPR found to be cancelled runs closer to $2 billion, with roughly half coming from the gutting of the Department of Education, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and the U.S. Agency for International Development.
Musk’s accounting of the litany of accomplishments at DOGE shares a similar lack of specificity with Tesla investor calls.
He boasts about sales volumes going up or costs going down, for example, but provides very few numbers. Musk makes confident predictions about “orders of magnitude” growth rates that are “insane,” with very little to support those claims.
It’s up to investors to dig into Tesla’s SEC filings — or, in this case, whatever data DOGE makes public — to get the details.
Yahoo: “DOGE is claiming $55 billion in savings — but its own ‘wall of receipts’ shows just $7.2 billion.”
