Breitbart, in its Trump touting, has published some interesting stuff, some of which cannot be put into a dollars and cents framework, while some if it can.
An example of the first type - hard to price - is:
Mexican Government Announces Arrest of Top Cartel Commander Right After Trump’s Phone Call
[with headline capitalization in the original]. The item speaks for itself that sequence, phone call then arrest is circumstantial proof the call was causative and not coincidental.
Enough of that. There is Elon-touting with numbers -
DOGE Announces Termination of 20 Consulting Contracts, Saving Taxpayers $26 Million
The federal annual budget is well over a trillion dollars, so the relative reported "savings" in the item represent a piss in the ocean, not in the local pool, percentage wise. Another item by Brietbart absent anything but a baldly asserted number, would be a piss in the pool, if true.
Report: Biden Admin Made Improper Payments Totaling $236 Billion in 2023
Without any reliable Inspector Generals anymore, how to trust asserted numbers by an outlet like Breitbart, without attribution or a link, is for the reader to decide.
To put numbers in perspective, Trump cancelled foreign aid spending except to Israel, and strangly, Egypt. Reporting by
https://www.amcham.org.eg/information-resources/trade-resources/egypt-us-relations/us-foreign-assistance-to-egypt?form=MG0AV3
is
Since 1946, the United States has provided Egypt with over USD 85 billion in bilateral foreign aid, with military and economic assistance increasing significantly after 1979. U.S. foreign assistance has been significantly decreasing over the past two decades as Egypt’s economic fundamentals continued to dramatically improve, and bilateral relations began emphasizing the notion of “trade, not aid.”
In FY 2023, aid from all U.S. agencies totaled USD 1.43 billion, with USD 1.44 billion requested for FY 2024. Currently, Egypt ranks third in the MENA region, after Israel and Jordan, in terms of assistance funds requested for FY 2024.
while AP reports Israel got $17.9 billion since last October.
Egypt got funds after Carter got the peace agreement between Began and Sadat.
Of interest, other speculation exists on Egyptian aid per Trump decisionmaking.
In any event, the $236 billion number is legit per a GAO report from March 2024:
https://www.gao.gov/blog/federal-government-made-236-billion-improper-payments-last-fiscal-year
So the scale of things is GAO has defined an uncertainty/error level, and Israel got less, Egypt much less, and Musk's actions so far, cancelling DEI programs and some contracts got far, far less for the effort. Or that seems the appearance of things to the extent Crabgrass could find reliable reported numbers.
BOTTOM LINE: Musk/DOGE so far has done jack, beyond purging Ramaswamy and gaining database access, apparently with dubious guardrails.
But it is very early in a four-year term, so there is more we will be seeing.
_____________UPDATE____________
To avoid any misimpression, it is not to be minimized that a Trump phone call and tariff threat may have gotten one Mexican cartel figure in one cartel into Mexican custody, but with no impressive follow-up it really is minimal.
If the Mexican government will not, or cannot control the cartels, Hegseth should offer to do the job and see what happens. Real tariffs, actually applied for a length of time might lead Mexico to crack down on crime, and that would be good. But the cartels have gotten powerful, there being arms smuggling for profit to arm them, so what really can and should be done?
Presumably Trump is exploring ideas, and he has heavyweight options in hand if he and Hegseth choose to use them. Who knows, if there's another Mexican War like the last one we might steal more land from Mexico, like before, where we could turn it into a Gaza Strip surrogate, for deportees to cram into together and be miserable.
Not a recommended thing, but with Trump and Hegseth, who's to say.