After discovering $382 million in illegal unemployment claims since 2020, the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) identified California, New York, and Massachusetts, all of which have Democratic supermajorities, as the primary sources of unlawful payments.
DOGE officials stated the three deep blue states were liable for $305 million in misdirected money.
Furthermore, DOGE reported that California alone accounted for 68% of the benefits provided by former President Joe Biden to parolees identified by federal authorities as being on the government’s terrorism watchlist or with criminal records.
California, New York, and Massachusetts all have a Democratic trifecta: Democrats control the state House, Senate, and governorship. Furthermore, these states have a Democratic trifecta, with party control of the Attorney General, Secretary of State, and governorship.
“This is another incredible discovery by the DOGE team, finding nearly $400 million in fraudulent unemployment payments. The Labor Department is committed to recovering Americans’ stolen tax dollars. We will catch these thieves and keep working to root out egregious fraud,” Labor Department Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer said, per Fox.
Musk is preparing to step down from his special assignment as head of the Department of Government Efficiency, but he took time this week to reveal the five most outrageous things his team has found in an interview with Fox News’ Jesse Watters.
When Trump signed an executive order creating DOGE on Inauguration Day, the agency set an ambitious target of trimming $2 trillion from the federal budget.
Under Office of Government Ethics rules, “special government employees” like Musk may serve no more than 130 days per year, meaning Musk’s term will end on May 30. He has already begun scaling back his hours at the agency, Fox noted.
So as his time with DOGE comes to an end, he revealed to Watters the most egregious government waste that he and his team found in just a few short months.
Funding a member of the Taliban
Earlier this year, DOGE uncovered that the United States Institute of Peace (USIP) had paid $132,000 to Mohammad Qasem Halimi—a former Taliban member who served as Afghanistan’s Chief of Protocol. On March 31, DOGE announced the contract’s cancellation.
Halimi was detained by U.S. forces at Bagram Air Base for a year starting January 2, 2002. After his release, he held various Afghan government posts and was appointed Minister of Hajj and Religious Affairs in 2020.
School district parties in Las Vegas
Earlier this year, Fox News Digital reported that DOGE audits found schools spent $200 billion in COVID‑relief funds on items “with little oversight or impact on students,” including Las Vegas hotel rooms and even an ice cream truck.
Granite School District in Utah used $86,000 of its COVID‑relief funds on hotel rooms at Caesars Palace for an educational conference, while California’s Santa Ana Unified spent $393,000 to rent a Major League Baseball stadium, according to a Parents Defending Education report shared by DOGE. Granite has since denied any impropriety in sending educators to the Las Vegas event.
The Department of Government Efficiency also found that schools spent $60,000 on swimming‑pool passes and that one California district used relief funds to buy an ice cream truck.
‘Sesame Street’ … in Iraq
Sen. Joni Ernst (R‑Iowa), chair of the Senate DOGE Caucus, who has worked with Musk on cutting waste, revealed that USAID “authorized a whopping $20 million to create a ‘Sesame Street’ in Iraq.”
Ernst said that during President Biden’s administration, USAID gave $20 million to a nonprofit called Sesame Workshop to produce a show called “Ahlan Simsim Iraq” in an effort to “promote inclusion, mutual respect and understanding across ethnic, religious and sectarian groups.”
Billions in ‘improper payments’
DOGE got a boost from a March GAO report showing federal agencies made $162 billion in improper payments—a figure that, while staggering, was $74 billion lower than the prior fiscal year.
GAO’s analysis revealed that of the 16 government agencies reporting improper payments, 75% of the waste found was concentrated in five programs at HHS, Medicare/Medicaid, the Treasury Department, the Department of Agriculture, and the Small Business Administration.
DEI funding
In recent months, DOGE has announced cuts totaling hundreds of millions of dollars from DEI contracts.