As President Trump marks his 100th day in office on Tuesday, the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) says that it has cut at least $160 billion in waste, fraud, and abuse in the federal government, including several high-profile cuts that have been highlighted over the past few months.

Questionable spending in USAID’s $40 billion budget, including ‘Sesame Street’ in Iraq

One of the most talked about DOGE targets in Trump’s first term was spending at the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID).

Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, the Senate DOGE Caucus Chairwoman, who says she speaks to Musk about spending cuts every few days, published a list of projects and programs she says the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) has helped fund across the years.

Ernst highlighted that the agency ‘authorized a whopping $20 million to create a ‘Sesame Street’ in Iraq.’ 

Under the Biden administration, USAID awarded $20 million to a nonprofit called Sesame Workshopto produce a show called ‘Ahlan Simsim Iraq’ in an effort to ‘promote inclusion, mutual respect and understanding across ethnic, religious and sectarian groups.’ 

Several more examples of questionable spending have been uncovered at USAID, including more than $900,000 to a ‘Gaza-based terror charity’ called Bayader Association for Environment and Development and a $1.5 million program slated to ‘advance diversity, equity and inclusion in Serbia’s workplaces and business communities.’

Fox News Digital previously reported that nearly 15,000 grants worth $60 billion are set to be eliminated, according to internal documents. The grants amount to about 90% of foreign aid contracts and come after a review on spending by the State Department. 

DOGE’s efforts at USAID did not come without opposition, including a federal judge in Maryland who ruled that the moves were unconstitutional. In March, a federal appeals court granted the Trump administration’s motion to extend a stay allowing DOGE to continue operating at USAID.

Slashing DEI contracts across the board 

On the campaign trail and since taking office, President Trump has made it clear he aims to slash DEI spending in the federal government while making the case that a system of meritocracy should be the focus.

DOGE has announced over the last few months that it has cut hundreds of millions in DEI contracts. 

Earlier this month, DOGE announced it had worked with the U.S. National Science Foundation to cancel 402 ‘wasteful’ diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) grants, which will save $233 million, including $1 million for ‘Antiracist Teacher Leadership for Statewide Transformation.’

The Department of Defense could save up to $80 million in wasteful spending by cutting loose a handful of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs, the agency announced last month. 

The Defense Department has been working with the Elon Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) in slashing wasteful spending, DOD spokesman Sean Parnell said in a video posted to social media.

Parnell listed some of the initial findings flagged by DOGE, much of it consisting of millions of dollars given to support various DEI programs, including $1.9 million for holistic DEI transformation and training in the Air Force and $6 million to the University of Montana to ‘strengthen American democracy by bridging divides.’

The Trump administration announced earlier this month it is slashing millions of dollars in DEI grants from the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) as part of its overall DOGE push.

In February, the Department of Education (DOE) said it is canceling more than $100 million in grants to DEI training as part of DOGE’s efforts. 

Cutting the federal workforce

DOGE has made efforts to cut federal spending by cutting the federal workforce, which it argues has become bloated with many employees doing jobs that are unnecessary or could be streamlined.

In February, DOGE terminated employment for 3,600 probationary Health and Human Services employees in a cut it says is estimated to save about $600 million in taxpayer dollars annually.

FOX Business reported in early April that over the previous two months, DOGE’s cutbacks have been attributed to 280,253 layoffs of federal workers and contractors at 27 agencies, according to Challenger tracking. There were an additional 4,429 job cuts attributed to the downstream effect of cutting federal aid and ending contracts, mostly at nonprofits and health organizations.

Roughly 75,000 federal employees accepted a deferred resignation program, Fox News Digital reported in February, which DOGE has argued will save the government money in the long run. 

‘Gold bars’: DOGE-inspired EPA locates $20 billion in waste

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), inspired by DOGE’s crackdown on federal spending, said it had located $20 billion in tax dollars within the agency that the Biden administration reportedly ‘knew they were wasting.’

‘An extremely disturbing video circulated two months ago, featuring a Biden EPA political appointee talking about how they were ‘tossing gold bars off the Titanic,’ rushing to get billions of your tax dollars out the door before Inauguration Day,’ EPA administrator Lee Zeldin said in a video posted to X on Wednesday, citing another video from December. 

The EPA found that just eight agencies were controlling the distribution of tens of billions of taxpayer dollars to different entities ‘at their discretion,’ such as the Climate United Fund, which reportedly received just under $7 billion.

‘The ‘gold bars’ were tax dollars, and ‘tossing them off the Titanic’ meant the Biden administration knew they were wasting it,’ Zeldin said, vowing to recover the ‘gold bars’ that were found ‘parked at an outside financial institution.’

Zeldin said that the ‘scheme was the first of its kind in EPA history, and it was purposely designed to obligate all the money in a rush job with reduced oversight.’ 

In a Fox News interview, the EPA administrator praised DOGE’s work at the agency and said that the cost-cutting department is ‘making us better.’

‘They come up with great recommendations, and we can make a decision to act on it,’ Zeldin said.

Fox News Digital’s Louis Casiano contributed to this report

President Donald Trump unveiled new plans Tuesday to swap out the retiring A-10 Warthog aircraft based out of Selfridge Air National Guard Base in Michigan with 21 brand-new F-15EX Eagle II fighter jets. 

Trump shared details of the new fighter jet mission during a speech to National Guardsmen at the Michigan base for an event commemorating his 100th day in office. 

Selfridge will become the fourth military installation to operate the fighter jet, which only entered operational service in July 2024. 

‘Fresh off the line. That means they are brand new,’ Trump said. ‘They’ve never been anywhere. This is where they’re going to be for a long time. And I saw one of them, flew over my head, and I said, ‘What the hell is that?’ That plane has serious power. So this is the best there is anywhere in the world, the F-15EX Eagle II. This will keep Selfridge at the cutting edge of Northern American air power.’

The next-generation fighter jet is currently only operating at three other bases, all National Guard: Portland Air National Guard Base in Oregon; Fresno Air National Guard Base in California; and New Orleans Air National Guard Base in Louisiana. 

The fighter jet is an updated version of the F-15C Eagle aircraft that the Air Force introduced in 1989, and features bolstered fuel efficiency, radar and avionics, according to the Air National Guard. The jet is designed to work alongside other Air Force aircraft, including the F-22 Raptor and F-35 Lightning II fighter jets. 

‘America’s military will soon be stronger and more powerful than ever before, and Selfridge Air National Guard Base will remain at the center of the action,’ Trump said. 

Trump’s announcement comes amid lengthy debate between Congress and the executive branch about how to phase out the A-10. While Congress put a stop to former President Barack Obama’s administration’s attempts to retire the aircraft, Trump’s first administration called to keep the aircraft in service. 

Meanwhile, former President Joe Biden’s administration moved to start retiring the aircraft more aggressively in 2023. 

The Air Force introduced the A-10 in 1977, and the aircraft experienced combat for the first time during the Gulf War. 

In March, Trump shared that Boeing would build the Air Force’s next-generation fighter jet, known as the F-47. An experimental version had been covertly flying for years, he said. 

The Next Generation Air Defense initiative that the Biden administration put on the back burner will oversee the effort. However, the Trump administration revived the program. 

‘I’m thrilled to announce that at my direction the United States Air Force is moving forward with the world’s first sixth-generation fighter jet,’ Trump said in March. ‘Nothing in the world comes even close to it, and it’ll be called the ‘F-47,’ the generals picked that title.’ 

A prominent NBA team owner was among three of President Donald Trump’s diplomatic nominees confirmed by the Senate on Tuesday evening.

Tilman Fertitta, owner of the Houston Rockets and CEO of Landry’s Restaurants group was confirmed as the upper chamber to be Trump’s ambassador to Italy and San Marino by a margin of 83-14.

Investors Tom Barrack and Warren Stephens were also up for ambassadorship posts to Turkey, and the United Kingdom and Northern Ireland respectively.

Barrack’s nomination passedby 60-36 Stephens was confirmed 59-39.

Fertitta is a GOP donor and has spoken fondly of Trump’s business sense.

During Trump’s first term, Fertitta told CNBC the president was doing ‘a fantastic job for the economy.’

‘Businesses are booming, unemployment is low. He understands what drives this country,’ Fertitta said in 2018.

Fertitta’s praise of Trump often steers more toward business-focused than overtly-political, as in the CNBC interview.

Trump’s choice of Barrack played into two different aspects of the investor’s history.

Before he was a friend of the future president’s, Barrack served as an undersecretary in the Reagan Interior Department, focusing on energy policy including Middle East oil.

Barrack, who is fluent in Arabic, would therefore fit well with a Turkish ambassadorship.

Later in that decade, Barrack helped Trump secure financing for his short-lived ownership of the Plaza Hotel – during which time the future president famously told a lost Kevin McCallister its lobby was ‘Down the hall, and to the left’ in 1992’s Home Alone 2: Lost in New York.

The two real estate moguls remained friends in the years after Trump ultimately gave up the Midtown landmark.

Barrack was a strong supporter of Trump’s first presidential campaign and raised millions for his first inauguration’s events.

Stephens’ family bank has a footprint in London, and he is a noted fan of the Tottenham Hotspurs Premier League soccer team, which draw parallels to his ambassadorship nomination.

The billionaire will be the eyes and ears for Trump in London, where the president has a cordial relationship, albeit one wherein lies a politically contrasting view of global politics, with Prime Minister Keir Starmer of the Labour Party.

Stephens has a history of donations to Republican causes and many Arkansas candidates, per OpenSecrets.

Recipients have included former Sens. Mark Pryor, D-Ark., Mitt Romney, R-Utah, Bob Dole, R-Kan., ex-Arkansas Govs. Asa Hutchinson and Mike Huckabee, and media executive Steve Forbes’ presidential run in 1995.

The Department of Agriculture (USDA) terminad $2.5 billion in ‘wasteful’ grants that went toward gender-based causes, the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) said Tuesday. 

The USDA got rid of 420 grants for a savings of $2.3 billion, according to DOGE. 

Among the programs the money was used for, $361,000 went toward ‘gender non-conforming, non-binary, two-spirit’ BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and people of color) farmers in New York.

Another $150,000 was used for ‘gender-lensed curricula designed to be transdisciplinary in the food, agriculture, natural resources and human sciences.’

Even Ghana benefited, with $100,000 earmarked for ‘climate resilience and sustainable agriculture’ in the African nation. 

In addition, federal agencies eliminated 179 contracts with a ceiling value of $1.87 billion and savings of $280 million. 

The federal government spent $207,000 on a U.S. Department of Health and Human Services consulting contract for a ‘grant writing workshop’ and an $89,000 Treasury Department contract for a ‘country program manager in Namibia.’

Another $1.8 million Trade & Development contract was spent on ‘energy and climate advisory services.’

The U.S. Treasury Department and the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) discovered that hundreds of millions of dollars in improper payment requests were identified after going live with its first automated payment system last week.

In fact, the system found $334 million in improper payment requests that were flagged because of missing budget codes, invalid budget codes and budget codes without authorization.

DOGE, which is led by billionaire Elon Musk, announced the discovery in a post on X.

In the post, DOGE said an example of an invalid budget code was if the payment was not linked to the budget. It also provided an example of a budget code without authorization, saying the budget had already been fully spent.

The news comes months after DOGE learned about an identification code linking U.S. Treasury payments to a budget line item that accounted for nearly $4.7 trillion in payments, which was oftentimes left blank.

‘The Treasury Access Symbol (TAS) is an identification code linking a Treasury payment to a budget line item (standard financial process),’ DOGE wrote in a post on X in February. ‘In the Federal Government, the TAS field was optional for ~$4.7 Trillion in payments and was often left blank, making traceability almost impossible. As of Saturday, this is now a required field, increasing insight into where money is actually going.’

DOGE thanked the U.S. Treasury for its work in identifying the optional field.

According to the Bureau of the Fiscal Service, which is under the Treasury, TAS codes are used to describe any one of the account identification codes assigned by the Treasury and are also referred to as the ‘account.’

All financial transactions made by the federal government are classified by TAS when reporting to the Treasury and the Office of Management and Budget.

DOGE’s announcement on Tuesday comes as it continues to find savings and fraud across all aspects of the government.

On the department’s site, it says $160 billion in savings have been discovered, equating to $993.70 in savings per taxpayer.

DOGE has been aggressive in its mission to root out wasteful spending and to downsize the scope of the federal government. 

Elon Musk, the world’s richest man, is starting to transition from his role with the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) and is no longer working regularly from the White House, according to a report from the New York Post.

His impending exit is no surprise, as the White House confirmed earlier this month that the plan was always for Musk to refocus on Tesla once he completed ‘his incredible work at DOGE.’

The Tesla CEO was appointed as an unpaid special government employee under DOGE and remains involved in the agency remotely.

Fox News’ Bret Baier previously asked the DOGE leader during an interview with him and members of his team if he would be working past the 130 days typically expected of special government employees.

To which Musk responded, ‘I think we will have accomplished most of the work required to reduce the deficit by a trillion dollars within that timeframe.’ 

Musk has also reportedly told his investors that he would be ‘allocating far more of my time to Tesla’ in the coming months during a Tesla earnings call.

Although the exact amount of money DOGE has recovered is unknown, Musk has said that he believes enough work has been done to reduce the deficit by a trillion dollars.

White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles told The NYP that Musk working remotely ‘really doesn’t matter much’ when it comes to accomplishing goals.

‘Instead of meeting with him in person, I’m talking to him on the phone, but it’s the same net effect. He hasn’t been here physically, but it really doesn’t matter much,’ Wiles said.

Wiles also said Musk’s team is still working from the Eisenhower Executive Office Building next to the West Wing.

‘He’s not out of it altogether… He’ll be stepping back a little, but he’s certainly not abandoning it,’ she told the outlet.