DOGE has cut tens of thousands in federal funds; Musk’s companies haven’t lost a dime

Donald Trump warned Elon Musk that DOGE could come for him too So far there has been only a single instance of Musk being on the receiving end of a funding cut And the regime didn t certainly recoup any money from the terminated contract In early June the the Department of Authorities Efficiency website updated to include newly axed cabinet contracts One of those terminations represented a first It was for a federal contract awarded to Musk s SpaceX NASA had awarded SpaceX the relatively small amount of for a contract called Aspire Public-Private Talent Campaign SpaceX Immersion It was based out of Vandenberg Space Force Base in Santa Barbara County where the company s West Coast launch site is located and categorized as an Learning Training personnel contract on a federal spending website The contract is now listed among the waste on DOGE s site But the previously unreported termination wasn t exactly a cut per se After the contract began on Oct all the funds were forthwith disbursed to the company federal records show The contract was marked as terminated on April and listed on DOGE s website on June But as DOGE s site says the actual savings are SpaceX never lost out on any money That s not uncommon for DOGE Over contracts and over grants listed on its savings page have an estimated savings value of But it s notable that Musk s companies have gone thoroughly unscathed as the cost-cutting effort he once led tears through executive awards Musk has his hands in a half-dozen companies two of which are worth over billion There s SpaceX Tesla the electric car giant X formerly Twitter xAI the artificial intelligence venture Neuralink the neurotechnology developer and The Boring Company a tunnel construction company In several instances companies that directly or indirectly compete with Musk s have lost out on millions of dollars because of his cost-cutting efforts NOTUS reviewed the grants and contracts as of now listed on DOGE s site and discovered there was not one instance of any of Musk s six companies losing out on a single dollar awarded by the federal cabinet That s not for a lack of federal funds flowing to Musk s enterprises Taken together the companies have benefited from a combined minimum of billion in federal funding a Washington Post research determined That doesn t count classified federal awards that companies like SpaceX have received Musk s companies are set to benefit from billions of dollars in already approved awards in the coming years Starlink the growing internet organization provider under SpaceX that has partnered with T-Mobile directly competes with companies like AT T which lost out on a million contract DOGE lists the savings as million despite federal records showing it was worth less Comcast another internet system provider also saw a contract cut as did Verizon Aurora Innovations a self-driving automobile company saw two cut contracts listed on DOGE s site Beam Global a company focused on electric wagon chargers also lost a contract Tesla which specializes in electric cars with self-driving equipment also has a solar panel division Other solar competitors like REC Solar lost out on multiple cabinet contracts Solar provider Ameresco lost tens of millions in federal funds And while there is no private space company that comes close to matching SpaceX s dominance of the sector several smaller aerospace firms lost their federal awards to DOGE After a tentative four-week truce Musk last week renewed his attacks on President Donald Trump s signature piece of statute as it made its way through the Senate before being signed into law by Trump on July Lawmakers who voted for the bill Musk wrote on X ought to all be primaried Trump didn t take the criticism in stride I think what is going to happen is DOGE is going to look at Musk and if DOGE looks at Musk we are going to save a fortune Trump communicated reporters I don t think he should be playing that championship with me On the one hand the threat represents Trump s latest attempt to wield the might of the federal establishment to punish those who speak against him On the other Trump suggested something similar four weeks ago but when the DOGE website updated in June for the first time since the Trump-Musk split and over new awards were added none of Musk s companies were among those affected Despite the site s claim that its Wall of Receipts page where DOGE lists what it cuts will initially be updated weekly four weeks passed between the largest part current update and the last DOGE also has claimed for months that eventually the website will improve and the updates will converge to real-time although there is no sign of progress on that front DOGE s June update also continued the trend of every single other update since the website s launch of steadily walking back its vastly overstated real estate cuts The number of leases DOGE claimed credit for cutting had already fallen from to In the most of up-to-date update that total fell again to In that single update DOGE shed of its previously claimed savings from cutting federal leases revising down its estimate by million NOTUS determined If Trump is serious about cutting Musk s contracts as he first floated a month ago DOGE s site suggests there s been no momentum in that direction This story was produced as part of a partnership between NOTUS a publication from the nonprofit nonpartisan Allbritton Journalism Institute and NEWSWELL home of Times of San Diego Santa Barbara News-Press and Stocktonia