In brief
A watchdog audit by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) casts doubt on Doge’s reported $110bn savings, pointing to opaque calculation methods, premature lease terminations, and a bogus $1.7bn defense contract savings claim. The report, requested by Senators Gary Peters and Richard Blumenthal, highlights that 96% of the reported savings lack transparent methodology and that many savings were already in progress before Doge’s establishment. Despite Elon Musk’s high‑profile promise to cut federal spending by up to $2tn a year, Doge shut last month, prompting questions about its actual fiscal impact. Democrats urge deeper investigation into the body’s practices while the administration cites ethics training and financial disclosures as defenses. The case underscores a broader debate on whether aggressive cost‑cutting truly benefits taxpayers or merely misleads the public.
Some estimates made by Doge, the body charged with reducing U.S. government spending, that it saved billions of dollars are "incorrect or lack supporting evidence", the Government Accountability Office (GAO) has said.
The GAO released an extensive review Thursday of Doge’s so‑called "Wall of Receipts", which it said reported savings of $110 bn (£82 bn) across contracts, grants and leases. The audit found several issues that limit the transparency and reliability of the reported savings.
'Several issues limit the transparency and reliability of these reported savings', the report states.
White House officials said the administration told the GAO that all employees had completed ethics training and followed financial disclosure requirements, but the audit has not found evidence that the methodology used to calculate 96% of Doge-reported savings is transparent.
'Doge did not provide sufficient information to verify the method used to calculate 96% of Doge-reported savings', the GAO said.
A specific finding was that 108 of the 264 leases identified by Doge for termination were already in the process of ending before the body was established. That accounts for roughly $15.3m of the $53.5m in savings Doge claimed.
'The Wall of Receipts does not include an explanation of how the savings from terminated leases were calculated', the GAO added.
The audit also noted that Doge claimed $1.7 bn in savings from ending a defence department contract for IT services, but that contract was never terminated, meaning no savings were realized.
'The Wall of Receipts includes some information about the data and sources underlying reported savings, but does not sufficiently disclose limitations affecting data quality', the GAO assessed.
The audit covered savings reported from 20 January 2025 through 7 July 2026, at the request of Democratic Senators Gary Peters and Richard Blumenthal.
'Everyone supports rooting out waste, fraud, and abuse in the federal government, but Doge was a slapdash and deceptive effort that misled the American people while doing real damage to the government's ability to serve them', Senator Peters said.
Under Musk, Doge pushed for massive reductions in the federal workforce, the shuttering of programmes and agencies such as the US Agency for International Development (USAID). Some moves were reversed after legal challenges, such as when the group fired bird‑flu officials at the US Department of Agriculture, prompting the administration to re‑hire them within days.
In a social media post last month announcing its closure, Doge said: 'While the formal mission of Doge has come to an end, the mission to eliminate waste, fraud, and abuse will continue.'
The GAO audit raises questions about whether Doge’s high‑profile promises of up to $2 tn in savings were ever realistic, and whether the Trump administration’s cost‑cutting strategy was truly beneficial to taxpayers.
