The DOGE Disaster: How Trump’s Efficiency Czars Blew $21 Billion

You gotta hand it to the Trump administration—when they screw up, they really go big.

The Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE as the crypto bros liked to call it, was supposed to be the silver bullet for government waste. Get Elon Musk involved, apply some Silicon Valley magic, and boom—suddenly the feds would run like a Tesla factory.

Instead, DOGE burned through $21.7 billion in taxpayer cash faster than you can say “government efficiency.” That’s billion with a B, folks. And for what? Paying people to sit on their asses at home.

The Great Paid Vacation Scam

Here’s where it gets really stupid. Senator Blumenthal’s office dug into the numbers and found that DOGE spent $14.8 billion on something called the “Deferred Resignation Program.” Sounds fancy, right?

What it actually means: They paid nearly 200,000 federal workers full salary to do absolutely nothing for up to eight months. Not reduced duties. Not work-from-home. Nothing. Zip. Zilch.

Do the math—that’s about 74 grand per person to perfect the art of Netflix binging on the government’s dime. Meanwhile, teachers are buying classroom supplies with their own money and infrastructure is falling apart.

But wait, there’s more! Another $6.1 billion went to over 100,000 employees who were either getting fired or about to get fired. Apparently, even getting canned takes forever in DOGE-world, and you get paid the whole time.

When Food Goes Bad and Bills Pile Up

The cherry on top of this shit sandwich? DOGE managed to let $110 million worth of food and medical supplies rot in warehouses. Not distribute to people who need it—just let it sit there and spoil like some kind of twisted social experiment.

They also racked up $253 million in fees and interest on frozen energy loans. Because nothing says “efficiency” like turning renewable energy projects into expensive paperweights.

Musk’s Reality Check

Elon Musk was supposed to be the genius who’d fix everything. Guy can land rockets and revolutionize electric cars, so how hard could government be?

Turns out, pretty damn hard. While Musk was busy tweeting and presumably doing other Musk things, his efficiency department was achieving levels of waste that would make even the Pentagon blush. Public approval ratings for DOGE were in the toilet faster than you could say “hyperloop.”

The problem is that running government isn’t like running a tech company. You can’t just fire half the workforce and expect things to work better. There are laws, unions, and this crazy concept called “due process” that tend to complicate the whole “move fast and break things” approach.

The Numbers Don’t Lie (Unlike DOGE)

Want to know how bad this really is? The $21.7 billion DOGE wasted is roughly double what Trump’s entire budget-cutting package was supposed to save. They spent twice as much money trying to save money as they actually planned to save.

That’s like hiring a financial advisor who charges you $200,000 to help you save $100,000. Except worse, because it’s your tax dollars getting flushed down the drain.

The whole WIC program that feeds pregnant women and kids? That runs on about $6 billion a year. DOGE could have funded that program nearly four times over with the money they blew on people not working.

Trust? What Trust?

This isn’t just about money—though $21.7 billion is nothing to sneeze at. It’s about the basic promise that government agencies should at least try to do what they say they’re going to do.

DOGE was supposed to prove that running government like a business actually works. Instead, it proved that some people can screw up a one-car parade if you give them enough taxpayer money to work with.

Americans are already pretty cynical about government waste. Now they’ve got a department literally named “Government Efficiency” that managed to be less efficient than the DMV on a bad day. That’s not just ironic—it’s politically toxic.

What Happens Next?

The 2024 election is coming up fast, and you can bet this is going to come up in every debate, attack ad, and campaign speech from here to November. Trump’s whole brand is supposed to be about running government like a successful business. DOGE is what happens when that business is Enron.

Congress needs to figure out who knew what and when. Someone signed off on paying 200,000 people to do nothing for months. That person—or people—need to explain themselves, preferably under oath.

But the bigger question is whether anyone learned anything from this clusterfuck. Government reform is still necessary. Federal agencies really are inefficient in a lot of ways. The problem is that DOGE’s spectacular failure makes it harder to have serious conversations about real solutions.

The Bottom Line

DOGE was supposed to be the poster child for conservative government reform. Instead, it became a $21.7 billion reminder that good intentions and business experience don’t automatically translate into effective governance.

The American people deserve better than this. They deserve government agencies that actually try to accomplish their stated missions without lighting piles of money on fire in the process.

Whether they’ll get it remains to be seen. But after the DOGE disaster, the bar for “government efficiency” is now set so low you’d need a submarine to find it.