By Katabella Roberts
Contributing Writer
Elon Musk said on Thursday that he expects the Department of Government Efficiency to save $150 billion from the federal budget in fiscal year 2026.
Musk said in March that he was confident DOGE could find $1 trillion in savings. The Tesla and SpaceX CEO provided the latest figures during President Donald Trump’s weekly cabinet meeting.
“I’m excited to announce that we anticipate savings in FY26 from reduction of waste and fraud by $150 billion,” Musk said during a Cabinet meeting at the White House on Thursday.
Musk, a special government employee, repeated his previous statements that fraud and waste are common in the federal government.
Referring to the alleged fraud and waste, the tech entrepreneur said, “Go in any direction, that’s how you find it. … It’s as the military would say, target-rich environment.”
He pointed to the recent findings of a DOGE survey of unemployment insurance claims, published on Wednesday.
According to DOGE, since 2020, 24,500 individuals over the age of 115 have claimed a total of $59 million in unemployment benefits, while 28,000 claimants between the ages of 1 and 5 have received $254 million in benefits.
An additional 9,700 people with birth dates more than 15 years in the future were paid $69 million in benefits. In one case, an individual with a birthdate of 2154 claimed $41,000 in unemployment benefits, DOGE stated on social media platform X.
Referring to the survey findings, Musk told the cabinet meeting that there are “people getting unemployment insurance who haven’t been born yet.”
“It’s just crazy,” the billionaire said.
Musk also repeated previous comments that DOGE’s cost-cutting efforts will result in increased savings for American taxpayers as well as improved government services.
“We’re going to be spending their tax dollars in a way that is sensible and fair and good,” he said.
DOGE’s Cost-Cutting Plans
According to DOGE’s official website, the $150 billion in savings will come from a combination of fraud detection and deletion, contract and lease cancellations and renegotiations, asset sales, grant cancellations, workforce reductions, programmatic changes, and regulatory savings that have been implemented across federal agencies.
The cost-cutting efforts will amount to savings of $931.68 for each American taxpayer, according to DOGE.
So far, the biggest savings have arisen from DOGE’s cuts to the Department of Health and Human Services, the Department of Education, the General Services Administration, the Small Business Administration, and the Department of Labor.
Musk told Fox News host Bret Baier in March that he believed DOGE would have accomplished much of the work required to reduce the deficit by $1 trillion, or roughly 15%, within the time his tenure as a special government employee is up.
Musk can only work on government business for 130 days each year. Neither he nor the White House has stated when he is officially set to leave.
“Our goal is to reduce waste and fraud by $4 billion a day, every day, seven days a week,” Musk told Baier. “So far, we are succeeding.”
Musk initially touted a $2 trillion reduction in the deficit during a pre-election rally at New York’s Madison Square Garden in November. He later reduced that figure in January during a conversation on the social media platform X, which he owns.
Speaking to political strategist Mark Penn, Musk stated that the $2 trillion figure represents the most optimistic outcome and that DOGE has “got a good shot at getting one [trillion dollars].”
Bill Pan contributed to this report.
