Musk's team claimed to have saved the U.S. $55 million, but this statement has been disputed by the Washington Post.

The Department of Government Efficiency led by Elon Musk (DOGE) has announced a savings of $55 billion for the United States. However, analysis has revealed that this figure is inflated.

This information comes from RBC Ukraine citing The Washington Post.

Earlier this week, the DOGE service claimed to have saved approximately $55 billion through a combination of layoffs, canceled contracts, renegotiated leases, and other measures.

Yet, according to WP, the published list of contracts and leases indicates that this figure is exaggerated.

DOGE has promised to significantly reduce the size of the federal government in terms of both workforce and expenditures. Its representatives have been sent to more than a dozen agencies to assess programs and work on staff reductions. Its rapid actions have drawn criticism from some who argue that these efforts are detrimental to core operations.

On its website, DOGE lists a selected group of 1,125 contracts that it has canceled, along with reported savings of $7.2 billion. These savings from contracts account for only 20 percent of the total savings from last month.

However, the Washington Post's analysis of the contract data found that many of the canceled contracts had already been completed, meaning their cancellation did not return funds since they had been fully paid. According to their findings, 417 deals on the DOGE list indicate that they saved $0. Additionally, 51 saved just under $1 million.

According to the Post's analysis, in more than 80 other instances, the DOGE website contains listings and links to older modified versions of contracts in the Federal Procurement Data System (FPDS).

Experts suggest that this may render the overall savings estimate inaccurate, as in about 50 of these contracts, DOGE accounted for the entire amount as savings. At the same time, some of these contracts also included funds that had already been paid and would not be refunded even if the contract was canceled.

It is worth noting that American President Donald Trump and Musk, who currently heads the Department of Government Efficiency, are attempting to cut government spending within the presidential administration.

Additionally, the Department of Government Efficiency under Musk has led efforts to eliminate the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), a primary mechanism for delivering American foreign aid and a critically important tool of U.S. "soft power" to gain influence abroad.

Specifically, the Department has also reduced the U.S. Department of Education's budget by over $900 million.

Notably, as part of this initiative, even the Pentagon announced a reduction of 5,400 jobs.