An expert on the federal work force estimates that the speed and chaos of Musk’s cuts to the bureaucracy will cost taxpayers $135 billion this fiscal year.

Trump and Elon Musk promised taxpayers big savings, maybe even a “DOGE dividend” check in their mailboxes, when DOGE was let loose on the federal government. Now, as he prepares to step back, Musk has said without providing details that DOGE is likely to save taxpayers only $150 billion.

That is about 15% of the $1 trillion he pledged to save, less than 8% of the $2 trillion in savings he had originally promised and a fraction of the nearly $7 trillion the federal government spent in the 2024 fiscal year.

The errors and obfuscations underlying DOGE’s claims of savings are well documented. Less known are the costs Musk incurred by taking what Trump called a “hatchet” to government and the resulting firings, agency lockouts and building seizures that mostly wound up in court.