Donald Trump made a campaign promise to ‘make America rich again’, yet it appears his administration’s spending is reaching new heights.
A significant component of Trump’s campaign involved pledges to reduce government spending, with Elon Musk appointed to lead the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).
As of April 30, DOGE reports having achieved $160 billion in savings through “a combination of asset sales, contract/lease cancellations and renegotiations, fraud and improper payment deletion, grant cancellations, interest savings, programmatic changes, regulatory savings, and workforce reductions,” according to its website.
However, the figures presented on the website have not been independently verified.
What DOGE’s website does not disclose is the expenditure of DOGE and other government departments, which exceeds the savings they claim to have made.
An analysis by CBS News reveals that Trump has spent significantly more money in his initial 100 days in office compared to the same period the previous year — specifically, $220 billion more.
The news outlet derived this figure from the Treasury Department’s daily financial reports.
CBS News reported that “many of the largest persistently rising costs are direct payments to the military and seniors.”
So far this year, the government has reportedly spent over $52 billion on Veteran Affairs Benefits.
Considering the government’s apparent spending patterns, it’s believed that America’s debt may now be at a staggering $36.2 trillion — if accurate, this makes DOGE’s reported $160 billion in savings seem minimal.
Additionally, it has been claimed that US taxpayers spent $135 billion this fiscal year for the Musk-led agency to achieve the purported $160 billion in savings.
A significant portion of these savings is believed to have been achieved by reducing the number of federal employees.
Max Stier, president of the Partnership for Public Service, remarked on this: “We haven’t seen much focus on the waste [DOGE] is creating. This is an effort that was created to address waste, but we were seeing the opposite.”
Trump, however, described the widespread layoffs as a means of eliminating excess that the nation is “riddled” with.
“We’re getting down to a point we think probably over the next two or three months, we’ll be pretty much satisfied with the people that are working hard and want to be members of the administration and our country,” he stated at the end of March, as reported by The Independent.
“Our country was riddled with fat, and we’re getting rid of the fat,” he added.