Donald Trump's Administration Made a Spending Cut of 55 Billion Dollars

Almost a month after its creation, the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), led by Elon Musk, reported having achieved a public spending cut of around 55 billion dollars since President Donald Trump took office last month.

DOGE highlighted this figure, current as of Monday, during the launch of its public web portal, noting that the savings come from a combination of measures such as fraud detection and elimination, contract and rental cancellations, renegotiation of agreements, asset sales, subsidy cancellations, reduction of public employees, program adjustments, and regulatory savings.

The website is expected to be updated twice a week as DOGE implements a reporting system in "real-time," according to the department.

The revamped site includes a "Receipt Wall," listing hundreds of government contracts and other expenses, along with the savings achieved by DOGE, such as the reduction of government subscriptions to media like Politico Pro and others.

A massive deficit

Annually, the United States government managed a budget of approximately 6.75 trillion dollars with a projected deficit of about 1.8 trillion dollars for the fiscal year 2024, which concluded on September 30 of last year.

To date, DOGE estimates that the largest savings were achieved through cuts in the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), the Department of Education, the Office of Personnel Management (OPM), the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), and the Department of Agriculture (USDA).

USAID, which made extravagant expenditures of millions worldwide, was one of DOGE's main targets. The Trump administration took steps to integrate it into the Department of State, although this process is being challenged in court.

Meanwhile, the White House made clear its desire to completely eliminate the Department of Education, and DOGE claims to have achieved cuts totaling close to one billion dollars.

Trump introduced DOGE last November, shortly after his victory in the 2024 elections, and appointed tech magnate Elon Musk and biotech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy as co-directors. However, Ramaswamy resigned from the position to run for governor of Ohio.

DOGE faced a barrage of complaints from state employees and Democratic politicians, who, after several years living off the state and taxpayer money, reject the cuts.

Since its inception, DOGE has had access to the extensive payment systems of the Department of the Treasury, which manage trillions of dollars in expenses, to identify areas of waste and inefficiency.

DOGE stated on Monday that its team discovered approximately 4.7 trillion dollars in payments without a key tracking code, which, according to the agency, made proper monitoring of transactions "practically impossible."