--- title: "Elon Musk Admits That His Efforts Have Been a Dismal Failure" description: "Elon Musk told president Donald Trump that DOGE anticipated to save $150 billion, falling well short of the original goal of $2 trillion." date: "2025-04-11" modified: "2025-04-11" authors: - name: "Victor Tangermann" job_title: "Senior Editor" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/victor" url: "https://futurism.com/elon-musk-doge-failing" categories: - "Elon Musk" - "Future Society" - "The Industrialists" tags: - "doge" - "donald trump" - "elon musk" - "white house" --- # Elon Musk Admits That His Efforts Have Been a Dismal Failure ![Elon Musk told president Donald Trump that DOGE anticipated to save $150 billion, falling well short of the original goal of $2 trillion.]() *\Image: Samuel Corum/Getty Images\* Late last year, billionaire Elon Musk [vowed to cut $2 trillion]() from the government's budget with the help of his so-called Department of Government Efficiency. It didn't take long for that number to [drop to $1 trillion](), indicating little thought had gone into the original calculation. And judging by the latest news, DOGE is woefully behind even that target. As the [*New York Times* reports](), Musk told president Donald Trump this week that DOGE anticipated "savings in '26 from reduction of waste and fraud by $150 billion," referring to the fiscal year that runs from October 2025 to the end of September 2026. (It's even unclear if Musk meant that the so-called department had saved $150 billion so far, or if that was how much he's now predicting it would save in total.) Needless to say, that would mean DOGE had missed its targets by an overwhelming trillions of dollars, though a Trump administration official told the *NYT* that $1 trillion is still "the goal." Either way, DOGE's existing claims of how much it has cut from the government's budget so far remain hotly contested. Earlier this year, experts found that DOGE's public ledger, or "wall of receipts," was riddled with errors. The ledger [double- or triple-counted some contracts](), massively inflated some totals, and included claims that entire projects had been cut, even though they had only been partially reduced. And some contracts it took credit for were already terminated during George W. Bush's administration, decades ago. In late February, DOGE claimed it had already saved the [federal government $55 billion](), raising plenty of eyebrows among experts. Less than a week later, DOGE [tried to make its mistakes harder to find]() by obscuring its calculations on its website, revising its tally to just $10 billion from a total of 3,489 cut federal grants. As of mid-March, that number rose to $115 billion, claims that were also met with [widespread skepticism](). Earlier this month, Bank of America Securities analysts [contested DOGE's claims]() that it had cut $24.8 billion from canceled or renegotiated contracts alone, arguing that they were "overstated." Put simply, nobody really knows how much money DOGE is saving, including the operatives in charge of slashing budgets. Musk's repeated claims of having found widespread fraud in government have also been challenged. The billionaire has accused the Social Security Administration of being an "[immense waste]()," promising to address "extreme levels of fraud." However, as the [*Washington Post* reported]() last month, that fraud is proving extremely hard to find, as less than one percent of the agency's payments in recent years were determined to be improper in a 2024 audit. In short, DOGE appears to be dramatically far off of Musk's original target of $2 trillion, indicating the billionaire has massively oversold on his promises yet again. The mercurial CEO has [already garnered a reputation]() for making overreaching and misleading claims when discussing his businesses — and it appears that the same goes for his efforts to [make the lives of Americans as miserable as possible](). **More on DOGE:** *[When Elon Musk Hears About Lives He's Destroyed, He Reportedly Responds With Laugh-Cry Emojis]()* ## Author I've been at Futurism since 2017, where my role has evolved to encompass design, writing, and increasingly editing. I've always been fascinated by space exploration and advanced transportation, which I've leaned into by interviewing luminaries in those fields while closely following the dimensions of policy and regulation that allow next-generation projects to succeed -- or, sometimes, to fail. I'm also keenly interested in the effects of generative AI on society, policies, and democratic institutions, as well as clean energy, physics and biology, and the vagaries of tech leadership. My work for Futurism has been cited by publications including Ars Technica, Gizmodo, PC Magazine, Jalopnik, Fox News, and the New York Post. I spent my childhood living in locations including Manila, the Philippines, and Geneva, Switzerland, attended McGill University, and now live in Toronto, Canada. Before Futurism I worked at AskMen and a small photography studio. In my free time, I'm an avid gardener, foodie, and craft beer lover, as well as a maker of artisanal hot pepper sauces. I have a magnificent dog named Freida. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()