Despite confirmation, Elon Musk's "DOGE" Cryptocurrency Incurred a Burden of $21.7 Billion on Taxpayers
In a shocking revelation, a new report by the US Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations (PSI) has found that the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), led by CEO Elon Musk during the Trump Administration, wasted at least $21.7 billion in taxpayer funds within its first six months of existence.
The report, titled "The $21.7 Billion Blunder," was released on July 31, 2025, and highlights the wasteful spending that occurred despite Musk's promise to shave $1 or $2 trillion in "waste and fraud" off the federal budget.
Key findings of the report include:
- The $21.7 billion figure is an estimate based on available data, likely representing only a portion of the total financial impact.
- The waste included costs from mass layoffs, canceling grants and contracts for partisan reasons, and stifling income-generating activities across federal agencies.
- This amount could have more than covered President Trump’s rescissions package, which was promoted as codifying DOGE’s purported savings for several years.
- The waste also excludes additional administrative, legal, and indirect economic costs linked to DOGE’s activities, such as impacts on public safety, disaster response, and health threats.
- Senator Richard Blumenthal, the PSI minority ranking member, urged Inspectors General at 27 federal agencies to conduct comprehensive reviews of DOGE’s actions and their costs within each agency.
The report sharply criticizes DOGE for reckless wastefulness occurring simultaneously with cuts in health care, nutrition assistance, and emergency services purportedly aimed at increasing efficiency.
Meanwhile, Tesla, Musk's electric vehicle company, is facing its own set of challenges. Tesla sales have fallen by more than 33% across Europe since the beginning of the year, with the year-on-year stats for July being particularly alarming. In Norway, while Tesla sales have blown through the roof in recent months, the strong showing is attributed to the new Model Y makeover.
However, political reasons may be deterring some potential buyers. As many as 43 percent of respondents in a Norwegian EV Association survey stated that they would not buy a Tesla for political reasons.
Tesla also faces potential liability of $1.19 billion as a result of allegedly false or misleading statements about its autopilot and full self-driving features. Additionally, SpaceX, Tesla, and The Boring Company were collectively fined $713,114 from 29 citations from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA).
SpaceX was fined $633,009 for multiple failures to follow rocket launch requirements in 2023. The legal liability for Neuralink, another Musk-led company, includes up to $1.59 million in civil and criminal penalties for alleged violations of the Animal Welfare Act, and $281 million in potential liability from alleged false or misleading statements about its product risks.
The report comes at a time when President Trump is grappling with the ongoing Jeffrey Epstein scandal, and Tesla's reputation is in crisis. Blumenthal's office suggests that further investigation is needed, particularly in areas such as substantial administrative and legal expenses, undermining public safety and natural disaster response, and human costs and health threats.
The PSI report advises that Musk's position may allow him to evade oversight, derail investigations, and make litigation disappear whenever he chooses. The report was released just days after Republican members of Congress voted to claw back billions in federal spending, which was supposedly aimed at memorializing the "savings" achieved by DOGE.
In light of these findings, the call for a comprehensive review of DOGE’s actions and their costs within each federal agency is more urgent than ever. The report presents DOGE’s activities under Elon Musk’s leadership as a major source of federal government waste, with the potential to impact public safety, health, and economic stability.
- The PSI report, titled "The $21.7 Billion Blunder," has criticized the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) for reckless wastefulness that could have more than covered President Trump’s rescissions package.
- In addition to the $21.7 billion waste, the report also mentions administrative, legal, and indirect economic costs linked to DOGE’s activities, such as impacts on public safety, disaster response, and health threats.
- Tesla, Elon Musk's electric vehicle company, is facing potential liability of $1.19 billion due to allegedly false or misleading statements about its autopilot and full self-driving features.
- Senator Richard Blumenthal has urged Inspectors General at 27 federal agencies to conduct comprehensive reviews of DOGE’s actions and their costs within each agency, citing concerns about potential financial and human costs, as well as impacts on public safety and health.
