Musk’s DOGE claims multi-trillion gap in US government spending

Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) claims has uncovered a massive gap of nearly $5 trillion in US federal spending that it cannot account for. DOGE has claimed that Treasury records made some payments untraceable.

Since the inauguration of US President Donald Trump on January 20, DOGE has been pressing ahead with budget and spending audits along with job cuts across federal agencies in an effort to reduce government spending by $2 trillion by 2026.

The department, headed by the Tesla and SpaceX CEO, explained that the Treasury Access Symbol (TAS), used to describe the account the money is linked to, was missing on a number of payments the department had been making.

“In the Federal Government, the TAS field was optional for ~$4.7 Trillion in payments and was often left blank, making traceability almost impossible,” DOGE said on Tuesday in a post on X (formerly Twitter).

“As of Saturday, this is now a required field, increasing insight into where money is actually going,” the agency added, having thanked the US Treasury for their work in identifying the optional field.

Musk took to X, which he owns, to hail the revelation, saying that “major improvement in Treasury payment integrity going live.” He paid tribute to the “nice work” that came as a result of a combined effort of DOGE, the Treasury, and the US Federal Reserve.

According to the Bureau of the Fiscal Service, a division of the Treasury, TAS codes classify every financial transaction reported to the Treasury and the Office of Management and Budget.

Last week, DOGE set up an official website tracking the size of the federal workforce and documenting the number of federal regulations. The portal reports $55 billion in estimated savings since the launch of the department.