The Huge Fraud of DOGE

Last Updated on: 5th August 2025, 12:34 am

Under an article Tina Casey recently wrote about the costs of Elon Musk’s DOGE (“Department of Government Efficiency”) to US taxpayers, one of our readers, “Matthew2312,” provided a truly superb comment that deserves a lot more attention. This is a very important topic, and while it’s not very cleantech focused, it does have relevance for some EV, Tesla, and solar matters. Either way, though, it covers some critical points that need more attention. So, read on. —Zach Shahan

It has been obvious since February that the entire DOGE enterprise was built on lies. They claimed the USAID was riddled with fraud (the apple was “all worms” said Musk). The biggest fraud in foreign policy history! But wait, that was dwarfed by the biggest fraud in the history of government when DOGE discovered “tens of millions of dead people” were getting social security. The list of DOGE-discovered fraudsters extended from the now-defunct Institute for Peace and USAID to the Pentagon to Social Security and every corner of government. Even Trump wondered privately, “is this real?”

So how many people have been indicted for this massive fraud? Zero. How may arrested? Zero. Biggest fraud in the history of the world and not a single arrest? Is there even an ongoing investigation? No. Why? The tale was all a lie, a fantasy invented by Musk and his tech-bros who did not understand the government or how to read the data. The massive investigation of over 100,000 (down from ten million) DOGE-identified Social Security fraud cases yielded two possible actual cases. Two. Out of ten million.

Meanwhile, on the basis of these lies, Musk and Trump were able to illegally (recision after the fact does not make it legal) dismantle programs that helped some of the most vulnerable people in America and abroad. Mark Rubio’s Department of State accidentally let slip an analysis that USAID cuts alone will kill 600,000 women and children. Shrug.

People tell me it is just a car and to drive what you like. Normally I would agree, but buying a Tesla is not just about buying a car, it is about empowering an evil man who will gleefully destroy the most vulnerable on the basis of no more than innuendo and a narrative that fits his prejudice. He will happily “smash up things and creatures and then retreat back into his money and vast carelessness, and let other people clean up the mess he has made.” We know his type.