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The Trump administration has already spent $155 billion more than former President Joe Biden did over the same period of time after their inaugurations, according to Treasury Department data. And Elon Musk is now claiming that his Department of Government Efficiency has only managed to save $150 billion.
That means that despite tens of thousands of government workers being fired, agencies shuttered, contracts cut and federal services dramatically reduced, the current administration has already racked up an additional $5 billion of debt than the Biden administration in the same space of time.
And it’s not clear that DOGE has saved anywhere near $150 billion. Every time Musk posts “receipts” to show off DOGE’s savings, they’re riddled with errors.
He initially vowed to save $2 trillion by slashing government agencies and social benefits, than halved that to $1 trillion. Now he claims he has only cut a fraction of that.
The increased spending by the Trump administration was discovered in an analysis by the Wall Street Journal of daily financial statements issued by the Treasury Department.
Costs are continuing to climb even as Trump and the Republicans aim to negotiate a $5 trillion tax cut that’s expected to add an additional $5.7 trillion to the government’s debt over the next decade. The current debt is already $37.3 trillion.
Many of the government’s costs are fixed social benefits that continue to climb. Social Security is now paying a cost-of-living boost and an increase in the number of retiring baby boomers. Another huge cost is servicing the federal debt.
The highest payments in 2024 were Social Security at $1.5 trillion, interest on the debt at $881 billion, the Department of Defense at $807 billion and Medicare at $865 billion.
Social Security payments are $32.7 billion higher since Trump took office. The U.S. has also paid out $25.5 billion more in interest on the debt since Trump returned to the White House than in the same period last year, the Journal reports.
Total mandatory costs, like Social Security, ate up $4.9 trillion last year, while total discretionary costs (like defense spending) cost $1.8 trillion.
DOGE impacts have been mixed and will be impacted by Republicans’ planned tax cuts, which would slash government income. Some firings and cuts have been blocked by court orders. In some cases job buyouts may have raised costs, at least in the short term.
“I think the net effect of DOGE on federal spending, at least insofar as we can track it in the daily Treasury statement, has been pretty small,” Don Schneider, deputy head of U.S. policy at investment bank Piper Sandler, told the Journal.
“It will take time for those savings to accumulate, but it will also be dependent on the administration prevailing in court over some of these actions.”
