News Reporter: Fact Checker: Trump says DOGE found ‘tens of billions’ in savings. Not even close.

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The truth behind the rhetoric.

By Glenn Kessler

President Donald Trump, with billionaire Elon Musk at his side, this week asserted that Musk's U.S. DOGE Service had already identified "tens of billions" of "waste, fraud and abuse." He suggested it could be as much as $500 billion and "when you get down to it, it's going to be probably close to a trillion dollars. It could be close to a trillion dollars that we're going to find."

The president's numbers do not come anywhere close to matching figures posted on the DOGE account on X, Musk's social media site. (DOGE stands for Department of Government Efficiency, though it is not a Cabinet-level agency.) We added up all the figures posted, taking most of them at face value, though virtually no documentation was presented. The numbers add up to about $6 billion a year, though $4 billion comes from a proposed cap on National Institutes of Health research overhead payments to universities, medical centers and other grant recipients. A judge has blocked that for now.

In other words, DOGE has claimed only about $2 billion in annual savings from specific line items — most of which appear to come from ending diversity or climate change programs. Whether that constitutes "waste, fraud and abuse" is a matter of opinion.

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No, Janet Yellen doesn't back Trump's tariff claim

As President Donald Trump pushes forth with new tariffs — on Monday, he imposed 25-percent tariffs on imported steel and aluminum — the White House has cited an unexpected ally in his frequent claim that tariffs do not raise prices on consumers: former treasury secretary Janet L. Yellen.

"FLASHBACK: Biden's Treasury Secretary admits tariffs will not lead to increases in consumer prices," declared the White House rapid response social-media account.

Yellen is a longtime Democratic stalwart. She not only was Joe Biden's treasury secretary, but she also was appointed Federal Reserve chair by Barack Obama and led the Council of Economic Advisers for Bill Clinton. Her economic credentials are without peer, so it would be a real feather in Trump's cap if she agreed — contrary to basic economic principles — that tariffs do not raise prices for consumers.

But here's the problem: The White House only can make this claim by quoting Yellen out of context.

To read the full fact check and learn the Pinocchio rating, please click the link below.

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