Pentagon largely spared from major DOGE cuts so far

WASHINGTON (TNND) — Coming to a government agency near you, massive cuts, thanks to the Department of Government Efficiency.

During a March 24 Cabinet Meeting, President Donald Trump celebrated the changes he said are being made to help the country.

Our country was riddled with fat like no country probably anywhere in the world and we're getting rid of the fat."

Since taking office, thousands of federal workers have been fired and entire agencies have been dismantled with plans to make far more cuts.

The "wall of receipts" on DOGE’s website shows that the estimated $140 billion it has reportedly saved the top ten agencies for cuts does not include the one that spends the most money, the Department of Defense.

In a recent interview with The National News Desk, President of the Government Accountability Institute Peter Schweizer said, "The reality is the kind of waste that we’re seeing in government agencies happens in the Pentagon happens even more so. Part of it is there is this sacred cow that is protected. There are a lot of members of Congress who have special projects that are in their Congressional districts."

That includes the F-35 fighter jet, made by Lockheed Martin, which has a two trillion dollar price tag, despite being used less and less by the military.

Far more? The number of those serving at the top is what some see as a questionable trend.

“The reality is today we have basically 10 % of the fighting men and women that we did in World War II, but we have more four-star generals and admirals now than we did during the second world war," Schweizer said.

The government agencies with the largest cuts so far have had some of the smallest budgets, despite the vast majority of this country’s fiscal obligations being with the Department of Defense.

Elon Musk himself holds multiple DOD contracts, including one worth $733 million for SpaceX.

Problems have plagued the Pentagon for decades now. In November, it failed its seventh audit in a row.

A January Inspector General report also found $1.2 billion in transactions on DoD credit cards were never reviewed, plus another $500,000 was spent at casinos, mobile apps, bars and nightclubs,

Also in January, President Trump fired the DOD Inspector General, whose job it was to oversee spending at the agency, with rising concerns from government watchdogs that top Pentagon officials continue to operate as if the rules don’t apply to them.

“They kind of avoid scrutiny because of this political consensus that we need to have a strong national defense," Schweizer said. "But the reality is just like in education, just because you spend more money doesn't mean you get a better product.”

That’s not to say no cuts have been made at the Department of Defense.

On Friday, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth signed a memo to reduce the size of the over 900,000-person workforce, though the details have yet to be released.

In a video, he said, "We are initiating the Workforce Acceleration and Recapitalization Initiative. It’s an important new opportunity to right size DoD."

Finding the right size of the largest government agency has proven already to be a major task.