White House struggles to back up baseless claims about 'fraudulent' spending

[LetMyPeopleVote]

To hear Trump tell it, Elon Musk’s DOGE operation has already uncovered “massive” fraud and waste. Reality tells a very different story.

White House struggles to back up baseless claims about ‘fraudulent’ spending

To hear Trump tell it, Elon Musk’s DOGE operation has already uncovered “massive” fraud and waste. Reality tells a very different story.
#FvckTrump
#FvckMusk

— Turquoise Cat 💙😻✌️ (@turquoise-cat.bsky.social) 2025-02-13T18:23:44.743Z

White House struggles to back up baseless claims about ‘fraudulent’ spending

To hear Trump tell it, Elon Musk’s DOGE operation has already uncovered “massive” fraud and waste. Reality tells a very different story.

Link to tweet

https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/white-house-struggles-back-baseless-claims-fraudulent-spending-rcna192024

The answer, of course, is that everyone should take issue — because the boasts aren’t true. A fact-check report in The Washington Post explained:

The president’s numbers do not come anywhere close to matching figures posted on the DOGE account on X, Musk’s social media site.... 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.

The Post gave the White House an opportunity to dispute the findings. It did not.

Around the same time that fact-check report was published, reporters asked White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt to substantiate the president’s excessive claims about the DOGE operation’s successes. Trump’s chief spokesperson waved around pieces of paper showing federal expenditures that the White House believes are at odds with the president’s agenda.
The answer, of course, is that everyone should take issue — because the boasts aren’t true. A fact-check report in The Washington Post explained:

The president’s numbers do not come anywhere close to matching figures posted on the DOGE account on X, Musk’s social media site.... 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.

The Post gave the White House an opportunity to dispute the findings. It did not.

Around the same time that fact-check report was published, reporters asked White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt to substantiate the president’s excessive claims about the DOGE operation’s successes. Trump’s chief spokesperson waved around pieces of paper showing federal expenditures that the White House believes are at odds with the president’s agenda.
https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:4llrhdclvdlmmynkwsmg5tdc/post/3lhysqzaxpz2b

Link to tweet

The problem with that, of course, is that there's a qualitative difference between stuff that Trump doesn’t like and actual waste. Indeed, pressed further on whether the spending items on her list constituted fraud or items “contrary to the president’s policies,” Leavitt replied, “I would argue that all of these things are fraudulent.”

But the phrase “I would argue that ...” was doing a lot of work in that sentence. Fraudulent government spending is a serious issue. For the White House to give it a new definition for the sake of political convenience is to fundamentally deceive the public.

That said, if Trump and his team are serious about rooting out fraud and abuse, there’s nothing wrong with such a goal in the abstract. In fact, the president could start by rehiring the inspectors general that he fired without cause, while restoring the anti-corruption measures that his administration has kneecapped in recent weeks.

If that’s too much to ask, the Republican and his operation could also try coming up with a real list of fraudulent spending that Musk’s not-quite-real department has uncovered, but I wouldn’t hold my breath waiting for one.

[LetMyPeopleVote]

1. 'A tiny drop in the bucket': DOGE claims of fraud fall apart under WaPo scrutiny

Musk has not found any fraud

Link to tweet

https://www.rawstory.com/trump-doge-fraud/

Despite claims from Donald Trump, Elon Musk and White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt that the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) has uncovered massive fraud being committed against taxpayers, an analysis by the Washington Post called the assertions all sizzle and no steak.

In an analysis by the WaPo's Aaron Blake, he made a distinction between accusations of criminal fraud –– of which there is little evidence –– and waste which has long been an obsession on both sides of the aisle.

More importantly, he noted that Trump and his allies are conflating fraud with programs the president "simply doesn’t like or agree with."

As he wrote, Musk made a big deal about discovering that a mine is being used to store government paperwork as a example of the yeoman work his DOGE people have been doing –– only for Blake to note "that mine was actually exposed 11 years ago by The Washington Post, in a story called, 'Sinkhole of bureaucracy.'"

As he wrote, "This has been the story of Trump’s broader efforts to overhaul the government: big, hyperbolic claims without much to back them up. Even if you expand the money supposedly being rooted out to include fraud and alleged waste, The Washington Post’s Fact Checker, Glenn Kessler, notes that DOGE has publicly identified 'only about $2 billion in annual savings from specific line items' — a tiny drop in the bucket."

[Norrrm]

2. Well, there is always $50 million for condoms.

[underpants]

3. He's totally out of touch

None of this makes any sense. He’s doing his KING thing.

There is absolutely no economic analysis here. None. One thing just doesn’t counteract another but actually exacerbate them.

[LetMyPeopleVote]

4. Musk has found no fraud