Elon Musk Says DOGE Will Save Government $150 Billion Next Fiscal Year

Topline

Elon Musk—key adviser to President Donald Trump and leader of the Department of Government Efficiency—said he expects the agency will find $150 billion in savings from “reduction of waste and fraud” in fiscal year 2026, a number significantly lower than the $1 trillion he said last month he was confident DOGE would find.

Elon Musk, Tesla and SpaceX CEO and Senior Advisor to the President, attends a Cabinet meeting at … More the White House on April 10, 2025 in Washington, DC.

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Key Facts

Musk said he anticipates the $150 billion savings in the next fiscal year at Trump’s cabinet meeting Thursday.

Musk repeated his claim that fraud and waste were “very common” in the government, this time giving the example, without evidence, of “people getting unemployment insurance who haven’t been born yet.”

As recently as last month, Musk told Fox’s Bret Baier he expected DOGE to reach $1 trillion in savings by the time his tenure as a government employee is up in a matter of months.

As of April 8, DOGE claims on its website it has already saved the government $150 billion through asset sales, contract cancellations, fraud deletion, workforce reductions and more.

This story is developing and will be updated.

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How Much Has Musk Said Doge Will Save?

Back in October—prior to DOGE’s official creation—Musk said he hoped to find $2 trillion in savings, though he backtracked on that goal in January, saying $2 trillion was a “best-case outcome” but that he had a “good shot” and hitting $1 trillion, NBC News reported.

How Long Will Musk Be With Doge?

As a special government employee, Musk can only work for 130 days in a 365-day period, meaning his time with the government could be up as soon as late May. It’s unclear what will happen to DOGE when Musk stops overseeing it, and when asked if the agency would continue without Musk, Trump said “I can’t tell you that … but you know at a certain point, I think it will end.” According to the executive order creating DOGE, it is set to end on July 4, 2026, which would be prior to the end of fiscal year 2026.