Rachel Abrams

From The New York Times, I'm Rachel Abrams. This is The Daily. Today. Since the moment President Trump took office, Elon Musk and Doge have wielded an unprecedented level of power to help the new administration slash the U.S. government. And so far, they've claimed to have cut tens of billions of dollars in wasteful spending.

Today, my colleague David Fahrenthold explains why those claims are not what they seem and what that tells us about Musk's project to shrink the federal bureaucracy. It's Tuesday, March 4th. David, we've been hearing a lot about what Doge, the Elon Musk group tasked with saving $2 trillion, has been up to in recent weeks. They've done massive layoffs. They've done job purity tests.

Today, my colleague David Fahrenthold explains why those claims are not what they seem and what that tells us about Musk's project to shrink the federal bureaucracy. It's Tuesday, March 4th. David, we've been hearing a lot about what Doge, the Elon Musk group tasked with saving $2 trillion, has been up to in recent weeks. They've done massive layoffs. They've done job purity tests.

And they actually have made billions of dollars in cuts. But you've been looking into exactly what they say they've done, which is kind of like an audit, if you will, of Doge. And I'd love it if you could explain how you went about doing that.

And they actually have made billions of dollars in cuts. But you've been looking into exactly what they say they've done, which is kind of like an audit, if you will, of Doge. And I'd love it if you could explain how you went about doing that.

You know, I looked at it and it actually, the look of the website sort of looks like this HTML meets crypto trading platform meets Twitter.

You know, I looked at it and it actually, the look of the website sort of looks like this HTML meets crypto trading platform meets Twitter.

And $65 billion, just to point out, that is not chump change.

And $65 billion, just to point out, that is not chump change.

So how did you actually start to analyze all of this and start sifting through all those receipts?

So how did you actually start to analyze all of this and start sifting through all those receipts?

Wait, so these line items were just like zero? It would actually say that we made this cut and there's nothing? Interesting. Yeah.

Wait, so these line items were just like zero? It would actually say that we made this cut and there's nothing? Interesting. Yeah.

Okay, so cutting $8 billion would have been like shuttering that agency, basically.

Okay, so cutting $8 billion would have been like shuttering that agency, basically.

So what happened there? Why was that listed as $8 billion?

So what happened there? Why was that listed as $8 billion?

Right. Somebody who actually had experience with this agency or maybe with these kinds of contracts would have been like, hey, wait a second. That does not make any sense.

Right. Somebody who actually had experience with this agency or maybe with these kinds of contracts would have been like, hey, wait a second. That does not make any sense.

Can you give me an example of that?