But Elon Musk Leave a legacy of massive cuts to government programs that infuriated many members of Washington, DC, and he failed to achieve all the lofty goals he set at the beginning of the era. Government Efficiency Bureau.
According to the May 26th update Doge’s websitethe initiative saved an estimated $175 billion through asset sales, contract cancellations, fraudulent payment crackdowns and other spending cuts. This will save about $1,087 per taxpayer.
Importantly, $175 billion is far from the original $2 trillion, which is a third of the total federal spending.
So, what was wrong?
Richard Stern, an economic policy expert at the Heritage Foundation, told Fox News Digital that Doge “will overestimate the legal flexibility they have and in fact have in order to make it better.”
President Trump mocked “last day” but in fact “for Elon Musk of Doge”: Set set on Friday
Elon Musk leaves behind a legacy of massive cuts to government programs that have infuriated many members of Washington, D.C., but he has failed to achieve all the lofty goals he has come into his time as head of government efficiency. (AP/Evan Vucci and AP Photo/Etienne Laurent, files)
From the start, Doge not only infuriated the tsunami of negative press, but also infuriated Democrats as well as a string of lawsuits.
This, coupled with the reality of most of the major end-cuts that require Congressional approval to carry out Congressional approval, has driven out the impact of doges around the edges of large programs and institutions that are likely to be sought to be eliminated entirely.
Despite the efforts of masks, in many cases Consumer Financial Protection Bureau It’s only reduced and limited, and completely removed requires Congressional acts.
Last week, US District Judge Beryl Howell blocked the Trump administration Dismantling of the American Institute of Peaceruling that the removal of board members and the acquisition of headquarters by Doge members is a “null and void” action.
Stern argued that “at the end of the day, they were a bit enthusiastic about the amount of legal authority that they must be able to ultimately cut this many cuts themselves.”
Elon Musk “disappointed” by Trump’s spending bill, says it undermines what Doge is doing
A federal judge blocked Doge’s efforts to demolish the US Institute of Peace (USIP), where the building is shown in a March 2025 file photo. (Getty Images)
What Stern believes Doge can have the greatest impact is focusing on the information gathering and whistleblower aspects of its mission.
“You can break down the Doge into two very large buckets,” he assumed. “The first big bucket that’s hardly done is actually directly reducing spectacular spending. I think the second bucket has identified which cuts you can make.”
“The original plan was that Doge could come in and do both of these things to reduce certain expenditures, and the other part was to identify this information and make it public that it would allow for reductions in spending that people aren’t really thinking about. From the councilHe explained.
Although not flashy, Stern believes this could have the biggest impact on future doges.
The White House will send a $9.4 billion Doge Cuts package to Congress next week
Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla Inc., will arrive at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) held in National Harbor, Maryland on Thursday, February 20, 2025. Photographer: Jason C. Andrew/Bloomberg by Getty Images (Getty)
“There are many think tanks that include heritage and we have put together a very long time on policies that we think are good, and we have explained.
Click here to get the Fox News app
“So, by being in power, Doge remains in a position to actually shine the spotlight on it in a way that is in a position to actually make it public and actually do most other things,” Stern continued. “It can feed a retirement bill and a cut in Congress. But some administrators actually had to do that, and Doge is finally doing it.”
Greg Norman of Fox News Digital contributed to this report.
