DOGE Is Trying to Make It Harder to Track All Its Savings Lies

Elon Musk has promised that his efforts to slash the government would be “maximally transparent”—but instead, the billionaire’s Department of Government Efficiency has only worked to obscure the facts of its operation to slash the federal government.

DOGE’s first batch of published savings was riddled with errors, with experts pointing out that the math wasn’t adding up in its accounting. By Wednesday, the group reported—without receipts—that it had saved the government $115 billion 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.”

Fact-checking DOGE’s details, however, revealed that the organization has confused billions with millions, tripled the savings from nixing one contract, claimed credit for canceling programs that ended under the Bush administration, and said it spared $1.9 billion for ending an IRS contract that was actually axed under President Joe Biden. The group later deleted these details from its “savings” page.

But rather than push to improve accuracy in its reporting, DOGE decided to go the opposite route and make its new claims even harder to check.

On March 2, Musk’s group posted a note that it had saved taxpayers another $10 billion by terminating thousands of federal grants. But instead of pointing to specifics for the savings—as it had done before—DOGE opted not to include identifying details related to the slashed grants, The New York Times reported Thursday. The White House claimed the new policy was instituted for security reasons.

Regardless, the Times was able to identify the relevant receipts by examining DOGE’s publicly available source code, which momentarily retained the federal identification numbers of the grants, and discovered that DOGE’s latest batch of savings was just as dishonest and illegitimate as previous rounds. DOGE deleted the ID numbers from their source code shortly after the grant details became known—but not before the Times retained a copy.

“At least five of the 20 largest ‘savings’ appeared to be exaggerated, according to federal data and interviews with the nonprofits whose grants were on the list,” the Times reported.

The largest item DOGE claimed to have produced savings from included a $1.75 billion grant distributed by USAID. But the recipient of the grant, a public health nonprofit called Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, told the Times that not only had the grant not been terminated but the funds had already been fully distributed. That means that slashing the program would have resulted in exactly $0.00 in federal savings.

The MAGA right is seething after anti-vax conspiracy theorist Dave Weldon—Trump’s pick to head the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention—had his nomination pulled at the last minute.

Weldon, a former physician and representative, was getting ready for his Senate confirmation hearing on Thursday when the call to withdraw his nomination came down, according to Axios. Even Robert F. Kennedy expressed doubt with Weldon’s confirmation, a source told Axios. But the far right is taking Weldon’s axing personally. 

“Weldon—who is ‘Make America Healthy Again’—his nomination was pulled. The rumor is about they didn’t want questioning on measles,” Steve Bannon said on his War Room podcast. “That would be unsatisfactory. You can’t pull him over measles. No way. Impossible. So we gotta get to the bottom of that. 

“This just puts the last nail in the coffin. CDC is no longer a legitimate agency.  No one is going to believe anything they say anymore,” one far-right account posted on X. “Just SHUT IT DOWN and let the states make their own health recommendations.”

“This is absolutely devastating for MAHA. The antisemites are out for blood, and Trump is showing weakness in the last area he should: commitment to @SecKennedy agenda. It’s beginning to look very bleak,” said another. 

“Dave Weldon, a good man, no longer in the running for CDC.  Weldon recognizes the problem with mercury in vaccines, supports parents who do not want to have their newborns vaxxed vs STDs, and drafted the ‘Weldon Amendment’ protecting physicians of conscience. If not Dave—who?” one supporter opined.

“Personally, I’m devastated to hear this news. Dave Weldon has been a figure in this fight before RFKjr. He’s remained out of the spotlight since he left congress, but the groundwork he laid made those of us with vax injured children hopeful when Trump nominated him,” yet another MAHA supporter wrote on X. “This is such a profound loss. Whoever they get won’t be nearly as aware & committed to doing the research that should have been done decades ago. The autism epidemic marches on. Sad day.”

Donald Trump’s family members are in discussions to take a financial stake into Binance, a cryptocurrency firm that pleaded guilty in 2023 to money laundering.

Meanwhile, the company’s founder and largest shareholder, Changpeng Zhao, who served four months in prison on related charges, is also seeking a pardon from President Trump, The Wall Street Journal reports. Binance reached out to Trump allies in 2024, hoping to strike a business deal with the family to restore the company’s presence in the U.S.

The details of the financial stake, or whether it’s contingent on a pardon are not yet known. The Trumps could make a direct investment or go through World Liberty Financial, a cryptocurrency venture launched in September in which the Trump family has a stake. Steve Witkoff, who works in the Trump administration as an envoy to the Middle East and for the war in Ukraine, is also reportedly involved with the talks, although the Trump administration denies it.

The move would raise questions of a conflict of interest, especially if a pardon comes with it. Trump’s businesses have been involved in dealings that seem to conflict with his duties as president, especially the Trump Organization’s deal with Saudi Arabia for a new Trump Tower.

Trump’s decision to create a cryptocurrency “strategic reserve” seems to be aimed at making his wealthy associates richer, and the launch of “meme coins” by himself and his wife Melania are a blatant grift designed to line the couple’s pockets. If a deal with Binance goes through, the president and his family will once again prove that all they care about is money.

Donald Trump railed against The Wall Street Journal Thursday, after the paper revealed that business leaders were being two-faced about the president’s disastrous tariffs. 

“The Globalist Wall Street Journal has no idea what they are doing or saying. They are owned by the polluted thinking of the European Union, which was formed for the primary purpose of ‘screwing’ the United States of America,” Trump raged in a post on Truth Social. 

“Their (WSJ!) thinking is antiquated and weak, and very bad for the USA. But have no fear, we will WIN on everything!!! Egg prices are down, oil is down, interest rates are down, and TARIFF RELATED MONEY IS POURING INTO THE UNITED STATES. ‘The only thing you have to fear, is fear itself!’”

Trump’s absurd meltdown appears to be in response to an article published Thursday in The Wall Street Journal airing the concerns of American business leaders who have been forced to come to terms with just how disastrous Trump’s tariffs are for the U.S. market. 

Trump could also have been blowing up in response to a Fox Business interview Thursday with the Journal’s editor in chief Emma Tucker, who discussed the article and described how the once “upbeat” attitude American business executives had about the Trump administration had gone sour since the World Economic Forum in Davos in January. 

“The American chief execs that were there were all so excited, the talk was all of deregulation  growth, no tax rises. Boom, boom! America! And Europe was absolutely stuck in the doldrums, very unhappy,” Tucker explained. “But, it’s very interesting how that mood has shifted—pretty much since all the tariffs started coming in.

“I think businesses realize this now, Trump is serious about this. But the problem they’ve got is that they’re being imposed in a very haphazard way, and that’s creating so much instability,” Tucker said.

During his address at Davos, Trump had openly warned business leaders to move their manufacturing to the United States or face steep tariffs. At the time, CEOs must not have taken his threats seriously. But Trump’s tariffs have since swapped U.S. soft power for a tit-for-tat trade war, sure to decimate the U.S. economy. 

Tucker also said that Trump’s “no pain, no gain” rhetoric during his interview Sunday with Fox Business’s Maria Bartiromo had only made the situation worse. Trump had refused to say that he wasn’t about to drag Americans into a recession, sending the stock market plummeting the next day. 

Tucker said that CEOs were “reluctant to say anything publicly,” and were waiting until the market dropped 20 percent before they would go on record saying anything critical about the president. 

Trump’s meltdown over the Journal comes as he threatened a new round of tariffs Thursday—this time a whopping 200 percent tariff on alcohol from the European Union, in response to entirely predictable reciprocal tariffs on U.S. exports.

Robert Morris—the televangelist who “spiritually advised” Trump during his 2016 campaign—has been indicted by a grand jury in Oklahoma on five felony counts of lewd or indecent acts with a 12-year-old girl that began in the 1980s. 

“After almost 43 years, the law has finally caught up with Robert Morris for the horrific crimes he committed against me as a child,” said his victim, Cindy Clemishire, now 55 years old. 

“It was kissing and petting and not intercourse, but it was wrong,” Morris begrudgingly confessed last year. “This behavior happened on several occasions over the next few years. In March of 1987, this situation was brought to light, and it was confessed and repented of.” Clemishire, however, reported that Morris did indeed attempt to have intercourse with her when she was 16 years old—after having abused her throughout those years. 

Clemishire met Morris when she was 11 and he was 20.  Morris preached at her church and even stayed in her family’s home during that time. He first abused her on Christmas of her 12th year, telling her, “Never tell anyone about this because it will ruin everything.” 

Morris faces up to 100 years in prison if convicted of all counts. 

In 2007, the televangelist and megacurch pastor had the gall to blame Clemishire for initiating her own sexual abuse. 

“It was your client who initiated inappropriate behavior by coming into my client’s bedroom and getting in bed with him, which my client should not have allowed to happen,” Morris’s lawyer wrote. He also accused Clemishire herself of acting “inappropriately with two other men.” Clemishire was abused by those men as well. 

This disgusting predator of a pastor hosted Trump at his megachurch in 2020 and was present at a White House Rose Garden ceremony for Amy Coney Barret’s Supreme Court nomination.