Elon Musk made big promises when he took charge of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) in early 2025.
His mission: slash government waste, reduce the size of the federal workforce, and save trillions.
But by the end of the year, Musk’s efforts at the now-defunct agency have resulted in a government workforce that’s smaller, but with federal spending that’s actually rose by nearly 6%.
Massive Job Cuts, But Spending Rises
One of the clearest outcomes of Musk’s time at DOGE was the reduction in federal employees.
According to federal data, the workforce dropped by 9% in less than a year—from 3.015 million in January to 2.744 million in November.
That’s a reduction of more than 270,000 positions, many of which were a mix of voluntary exits and layoffs, some later reversed.
The biggest wave of cuts came in October, when tens of thousands took a deferred resignation package Musk had introduced earlier in the year.
Agencies like the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) were shut down entirely and folded into other departments.
Others, including the Department of Education and the Federal Communications Commission, saw deep spending cuts.
But despite all this, the federal government spent more money overall in 2025 than it did the year before.
A tool from the Brookings Institution’s Hamilton Project, which tracks government spending in real time, showed that federal outlays rose nearly 6%, jumping from $7.135 trillion in 2024 to $7.558 trillion in 2025.
“DOGE had no noticeable effect on the trajectory of spending,” the Cato Institute said in its year-end review.
“But it did help engineer the largest peacetime workforce reduction on record.”
Where the Cuts Were Felt
Musk pitched DOGE during the 2024 campaign as a way to slash $2 trillion a year from the federal budget.
By early 2025, that promise was revised down to $1 trillion, and eventually to $150 billion. Even that scaled-back goal fell flat.
Some agencies did see real changes. For example, USAID, which spent more than $30 billion in 2024, didn’t make it past November before being dismantled.
The Department of Education is on track to spend more than $40 billion less this year. The State Department’s budget dropped by nearly $10 billion.
Regulators were also hit. The FCC is projected to spend only a third of what it did in 2024.
The Securities and Exchange Commission and the Federal Trade Commission also faced lower funding.
But Increases Elsewhere Dwarfed the Savings
While DOGE cut some departments, other areas of government spending surged. Outlays rose at the Department of Commerce, the Department of Justice, Homeland Security, and the Department of Defense.
Meanwhile, mandatory spending remains the government’s largest budget driver and was mostly untouched.
Social Security payments rose by over $100 billion this year.
Interest payments on the national debt also grew by about $100 billion, as the debt itself increased by more than $2 trillion.
The Cato Institute summed it up: “DOGE failed to cut spending because most federal spending was for entitlement programs,” adding that this part of the budget remains on “policy autopilot.”
Transparency Tool Reveals the Gaps
The Hamilton Project’s real-time spending tracker made it easier for the public to see how federal dollars were actually flowing, especially during a time when DOGE’s restructuring efforts raised questions about whether funds were being distributed lawfully.
This tool uses Treasury data to show exactly how much money is going to specific agencies, programs, and departments.
It confirmed that, despite the rhetoric around freezes and efficiency, money continued moving through most federal channels at or above historical levels.
Musk Reflects on His Time in Government
Elon Musk stepped down from DOGE at the end of May. In a December podcast interview with Katie Miller, he said the department had been “a little bit successful” and claimed it stopped “entirely wasteful” spending. But he admitted he wouldn’t want to do it again.
Musk, who at one point appeared to be distancing himself from the GOP, has since resumed donating to Republican causes.
He’s now returned to focusing on his businesses, including Tesla and SpaceX.
Despite falling short on his spending goals, Musk posted on social media celebrating the workforce cuts: “The matrix was reprogrammed,” he wrote.
DOGE, as a standalone agency, no longer exists. Its website hasn’t been updated since August, although it continues to post occasionally on social media.
Bottom Line
Elon Musk did succeed in cutting down the size of the federal workforce, a historic drop in peacetime employment.
But the overall result was not lower spending. Instead, government expenditures rose by nearly 6% in 2025, driven largely by factors Musk and DOGE didn’t control.
The promise to root out inefficiency and save trillions fell flat. What remains is a smaller workforce and a bigger bill.
IMAGE CREDIT: “Elon Musk” by Gage Skidmore, via Flickr. Licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0. Image adjusted for layout.