The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) in the Trump administration was revealed to have massively overinflated its savings claims, according to a damning report from the US Government Accountability Office (GAO).

For instance, DOGE reported $49.2 billion in savings from cutting grants but could only verify a tiny fraction of this figure. The GAO stated that for 13,553 out of 15,887 grants reported as terminated, there was insufficient information to validate the claimed savings.

The report also criticized DOGE's methodology in calculating savings from contracts and leases, stating it did not adhere to its own methods. Sens. Gary Peters (D-Mich.) and Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) requested this investigation after discovering armed guards, locked doors, and trash-covered windows at some of the agencies involved.

The total claimed savings by DOGE amounted to a staggering $215 billion, far short of Elon Musk's ambitious goal of $1 trillion. In response, Sens. Peters stated that these unverifiable claims had “hollowed out critical agencies” and compromised sensitive data security.