How much is the Elon Musk Dog from the US government costs?

The Ministry of Government of Elon Musk – designed to reduce US government spending – claims that they have saved an average of more than $ 10 billion a week since President Trump entered office.

“We're talking about nearly $ 200 billion and we are rising fast,” Trump told the BBC when he talks about Mr. Musk's driving about cost reduction on April 23.

The DOG website says it focuses on cancellation of contracts, grants and leasing contracts introduced by previous administrations, as well as to deal with fraud and reduce governmental workforce.

The BBC Verify examined the agency's most largest savings, examining the numbers and talking to experts.

Our analysis found that behind some of the large numbers there is no evidence to support them.

In October, Musk promised to reduce “at least $ 2 trillion” from the budget of the federal government. Subsequently, he halved this target and on April 10, he spoke of saving $ 150 billion from “cutting fraud and waste” by the end of the next financial year in 2026.

The US federal budget for the last financial year was 6,75TN.

Doge publishes a total amount of its estimated savings on its website – which stood on $ 160 billion. The last time the site was updated on April 20.

However, less than 40% of this figure is broken into individual savings.

We downloaded the Doge website on April 23 and added the general savings of contracts, grants and leasing contracts.

Our analysis discovered only about half of these detailed savings had a connection to a document or other form of evidence.

The US media also emphasized some accounting errors, including Dodge mistakenly claims to have saved $ 8 billion from cancellation of an immigration contract which actually had a total value of $ 8 millionS

Dodge says he is working to upload all receipts in “digestible and transparent way” and that as of April 20, he has published receipts, “representing about 30% of all common savings.” He also lists some receipts as “inaccessible for legal reasons.”

The BBC checked the four largest savings listed on the Doge website, which has receipts.

The department claims that they are adding up to $ 8.3 billion, but after examining the evidence provided and talking to people familiar with federal treaties, this figure seems to be overestimated.

For three of the savings, Doge is linked to documents in the Federal Public Procurement Data System (FPDS). This is a database that records contracts given by the US government.

The documents show the start and end date of the contract, the maximum amount that the government has agreed to spend and how much of this has been spent.

David Drabin, an expert on federal contracts, who helped develop the FPDS database, said the maximum number listed should be treated with caution.

“FPDS does not reflect the actual paid price for a period of time after the contract is completed and the contract is not recorded,” he says.

“For example, when you buy studies and developments in a vaccine, no one really knows how much it will cost – so when a price is a price, it is not a fixed price, but rather an upper limit.”

So, if the dog counts the maximum figure, it can be the estimated cost of several years, not direct savings on the country's annual costs.

The largest listed individual Doge savings are $ 2.9 billion.

Comes from the cancellation of a contract – which began in 2023 with President Biden – up to 3000 unbuttoned migrants for a Texas facility in Texas.

It seems that Dog has taken the “total value of the contract” by 2028 – the listed end date – and they have taken out the amount spent so far to receive the $ 2.9 billion figure.

But the contract was reviewed annually, which means that they renewed it until 2028 was not guaranteed.

A source familiar with this contract – which speaks to anonymity – he said to the BBC, verified that the Dodge figure is “based on speculative, never used figures” and that the actual costs depend on how many children are placed in the facility and services they need.

“In fact, the government has never borne these costs and can never reach that amount of the ceiling. The real, documentary savings from early termination are approximately $ 153 million,” they said.

It is said that this figure comes from the collection of fixed running costs for $ 18 million a month (for things like staff and security at the facility) since February – when DOG announces the reduction – until November – when the contract is subject to an annual review.

They also told us that the site – which closed the same day as the Dodge message – had never reached its maximum capacity of 3,000 children, and about 2000 remained in the Texas facility in their peak before the numbers drop significantly as the border crossings were reduced.

We have contacted the administration for children and families and the Ministry of Health and Human Services, which award the contract, but will still be heard back.

The second largest savings listed by Doge comes from the cancellation of a contract between the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and an IT company called Centennial Technologies, which it claims to cost $ 1.9 billion.

Document Which Doge is associated with a total contract value of $ 1.9 billion, and all other costs, including the amount already spent, is for $ 0.

However, Drabkin told us that this did not necessarily mean that nothing was spent on the contract.

He said several government services have poor records, which means that the amount spent during some contracts cannot always be updated in a timely manner.

The date of the contract date is indicated as August 2024 and is evaluated until 2031.

However, Centennial Technologies Executive Director In front of New York Times that the agreement was actually canceled last fall during the Biden Administration.

The company did not answer our requests for further comment.

Another IT contract, this time with the Ministry of Defense, is the third largest savings.

Dodge says $ 1.76 billion was saved by canceling a contract with an IT services company called A1fedimpact.

To The contract documentThe total value is indicated as $ 2.4 billion online database from State Contracts called a higher government He says this amount was the value of the ceiling.

Again, there are $ 0 recorded for the amount that was spent at the time when the contract was terminated.

It is unclear where the Dog number of $ 1.76 billion came from – we asked the Pentagon and the supplier for it.

The fourth largest claims to save $ 1.75 billion comes from the cancellation of GAVI's USAID grant, a global health organization that campaigns to improve access to vaccines.

Dog is associated with USASPENDING.GOV PageS This shows that a GAVI grant was paid in three installments during the Biden Administration, totaling $ 880 million.

Gavi confirmed that $ 880 million had been paid by USAID, but said it was not said that the grant had been discontinued.

“Gavi has not received a notice of termination related to this grant,” a spokesman told us.

We have not found any evidence to save $ 1.75 billion, stated by the DOG, and a source familiar with the treaty said it was not clear where it was coming from.

We asked the service of the USAID General Inspector for the grant, but she did not answer us.

Although Dodge may have reduced a significant amount of government spending, the lack of evidence provided for its largest savings requested that it impossible to confirm exactly how much.

Dog has no press office, but the BBC Cerify contacted the White House to ask for more evidence of these claimed savings.

Additional reporting by Ned Davis and Alison Benjamin.