Elon Musk touts $150B in savings in FY2026 after claiming DOGE could cut $1T

Elon Musk claimed his Department of Government Efficiency will save $150 billion from the federal budget in fiscal year 2026 — a far cry from the $1 trillion the tech titan was confident he could slash.The Tesla CEO appeared at President Trump’s West Wing Cabinet meeting on Thursday to announce the savings DOGE has found in its hunt for waste, fraud, and abuse in executive branch agencies.“Thanks to your fantastic leadership, this amazing Cabinet, and the very talented DOGE team, I’m excited to announce that we anticipate savings in [Fiscal Year] ‘26 from reduction of waste and fraud by $150 billion,” Musk triumphantly proclaimed.In an interview just last month, Musk boasted that the bureaucratic geniuses at DOGE would be able to slash $1 trillion in federal spending within the first 130 days of his tenure as a special government employee.“Our goal is to reduce the deficit by one trillion dollars.From a nominal deficit of two trillion, to try and cut the deficit in half to one trillion,” Musk told Fox News’ Brett Baier.“I think we will have accomplished most of the work required to reduce the deficit by a trillion dollars within that time frame,” the SpaceX CEO said, then emphasizing that the steep amount would be cut within the weeks-long period.The $150 billion mark results in savings for American taxpayers of $931.68 each, according to the DOGE website, which lists cuts to the Department of Health and Human Services, the Department of Education, and the General Services Administration as producing the most savings.As part of its waste and abuse eliminating measures, DOGE announced Thursday that millions of dollars in unemployment claims have gone to “fake people,” including some who haven’t even been born yet.DOGE claimed in a post on X that since 2020, 24,500 people over 115 years old claimed $59 million in unemployment benefits, 28,000 people between the ages of 1 and 5 years old claimed $254 million in benefits, and 9,700 people wi...