$1,300 coffee cups, 8,000% overpay for soap dispensers show waste as DOGE locks in on Pentagon

President Donald Trump's squad of zealous cost-cutters nether Elon Musk volition soon acceptable their sights connected the U.S.’s largest discretionary budget. 

With an yearly fund of $850 billion, the Pentagon has agelong been plagued by accusations of discarded and inefficiency successful its defence programs and precocious failed its seventh consecutive audit.

"We’re going to find billions, hundreds of millions of dollars of fraud and abuse," Trump predicted successful an interrogation with Fox News' Bret Baier connected Sunday. 

Congress appropriates the Department of Defense (DOD) fund each twelvemonth successful large detail, and urging lawmakers to trim costs whitethorn beryllium wherever Republicans publically interruption with Musk and his burn-it-all-down style. 

Here is simply a look astatine wherever the Department of Government Efficiency squad could acceptable their sights.

MUSK'S NEXT TARGET? TRUMP SAYS DOGE WILL LOOK AT DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION, PENTAGON FUNDING

President Donald Trump’s squad of cost-cutting gurus nether Elon Musk, pictured here, volition soon acceptable their sights connected the U.S.’s largest discretionary budget. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

Personnel and contracting 

The inclination of Musk and his squad seems to beryllium to cull national employees, but cost-cutting advocates reason that outsourcing enactment to contractors could person the other effect.

Typically, astir fractional the Pentagon’s budget goes to contractors, corporations that person a nett motive dissimilar the authorities itself. The authorities relies connected contractors for bundle support, training, weapons and to enactment arsenic paramilitary forces successful overseas missions. 

"A large operator of Pentagon discarded is really work contracting for what are truly halfway authorities functions and administrative capacities, similar elemental things [such] arsenic IT support," said Julia Gledhill, a researcher astatine the Stimson Center's National Security Reform program. 

"It might tally contrary to their larger task based connected efforts to chopped the civilian workforce, but determination are a batch of areas to chopped Pentagon discarded by really gathering up authorities capableness to bash basal administrative functions alternatively than outsourcing them astatine a precise precocious cost." 

HEGSETH WELCOMES IN ELON MUSK'S DOGE FOR 'LONG OVERDUE' DOD SPENDING OVERHAUL

The Pentagon is seen from Air Force One arsenic it flies implicit Washington, D.C., connected March 2, 2022. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky, File)

In 2015, the Defense Business Board, astatine the petition of DOD leaders, recovered that the Pentagon could prevention $125 cardinal implicit 5 years by renegotiating work contracts, streamlining the bureaucracy done attrition and aboriginal retirements, and consolidating IT processes. 

The study recovered the Pentagon was paying an eye-watering 1,014,000 contractors to capable back-office jobs acold distant from the beforehand lines. The DOD presently lone lists astir 1.3 cardinal progressive work troops. 

However, the program was ne'er wide implemented, and Pentagon leaders took steps to "bury" it for fearfulness of fund cuts, according to a Washington Post report. 

In October 2024, a two-year audit by the Defense Department Inspector General recovered Boeing overcharged the Air Force by 8,000% for soap dispensers that the work subdivision paid $149,072 implicit marketplace terms for. Of a selected 46 spare parts that were scrutinized by the audit, the study recovered the Air Force overpaid astir $1 cardinal for 12 of them for its C-17 transport planes. 

That followed a 2018 legislature enquiry that revealed the Air Force was spending $1,300 for each reheatable java cupful connected its KC-10 craft – and past replacing them alternatively of repairing them erstwhile their handles broke. Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, recovered the Air Force spent $32,000 replacing 25 cups. 

Weapons programs: F-35s and land-based ICBMs

Musk has suggested that helium volition look to destruct the F-35 stealth combatant pitchy program, agelong dogged by outgo overruns, glitches and delays. In posts connected X, helium called it the "the worst subject worth for wealth successful history," and the pitchy itself "an costly & analyzable jack of each trades, maestro of none" and added that "manned combatant jets are obsolete successful the property of drones anyway."

However, doing distant with the F-35 has tally into absorption successful Congress each clip it has been suggested. 

A recent report enactment retired by Taxpayers for Common Sense, Quincy Institute and Stimson called for retiring the F-35 jets and eliminating a ballistic rocket program. 

Elon Musk has suggested that helium volition look to destruct the F-35 stealth combatant pitchy program, agelong dogged by outgo overruns, glitches and delays. (Andrej Tarfila/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)

Halting the F-35 combatant pitchy program, dogged by outgo overruns, glitches and delays, arsenic immoderate person advocated for, would trim $12 cardinal per year, according to the associated report. 

However, Congress would request to get connected committee with defunding the F-35 successful its yearly defence bill, and Lockheed Martin produces the plane's parts successful galore states crossed the country, wherever lawmakers person constituents with jobs astatine risk.

"Defunding weapons that are overpriced, underperforming, and retired of measurement with existent missions, similar the F-35 combat craft and the Sentinel intercontinental ballistic missile, would let america to put much successful existent priorities portion besides tackling the nation’s tremendous debt," said Gabe Murphy of Taxpayers for Common Sense.

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"The ICBM nary longer needfully the astir accurate, you know, limb we person successful our atomic arsenal," added Gledhill. 

"We person our oversea and aerial legs of the atomic triad that are conscionable arsenic close and, you know, not arsenic susceptible arsenic our ICBMs are because, you know, ICBMs are successful the ground, we cognize wherever they are. It's nationalist knowledge."

The study recovered that eliminating the Sentinel ICBM programme would prevention $3.7 cardinal per year.

Base realignment 

The Stimson study recovered that "targeted closures and realignments" of U.S. subject bases could prevention different $3-5 cardinal per year.

"Even if say I judge each the missions we person present successful the world, you could astir apt chopped immoderate overseas bases without adjacent truly rethinking strategy," said Ben Friedman, argumentation manager astatine Defense Priorities. 

"If you judge that we're trying to negociate the Middle East done US subject unit beingness oregon astatine slightest the quality to deploy troops and say, okay, we could bash with less bases." 

The Trump squad is reportedly considering shutting down its beingness successful Syria, wherever 2,000 troops are presently stationed. 

In the 1980s, nether President Ronald Reagan, the authorities took up an effort known as Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC), a post-Cold War process to coordinate the extremity of unit postures that are nary longer needed. Five rounds of BRAC unopen down 350 installations astatine a savings of $12 billion, but the past BRAC process ended successful 2011. 

Targeted basal closures could prevention taxpayers betwixt $3-5 billion. (Photo by Hedil Amir/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)

Defense research 

Some of the Pentagon’s $143.2 cardinal fund for probe whitethorn besides travel nether scrutiny. 

Lawmakers past twelvemonth demanded to know however an AI researcher successful China acquired $30 cardinal successful U.S. grants. In 2021, Song-Chun Zhu was the pb researcher connected 2 projects totaling $1.2 cardinal from DOD grants seeking to make "high-level robot autonomy" that is "important for DoD tasks," and "cognitive robot platforms" for "intelligence and surveillance systems." 

Additionally, the Defense Department inspector wide recovered past summertime that $46.7 cardinal successful defence funds from 2014 to 2023 had gone to EcoHealth Alliance, the nonprofit that funded gain-of-function probe astatine the Wuhan Institute of Virology, a laboratory galore fishy was the root of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa., a veteran, is chairwoman of the Senate DOGE Caucus and has called retired wasteful spending astatine the Pentagon. (Reuters)

Use-it-or-lose-it spending 

Under a use-it-or-lose-it policy, successful the past period of the fiscal year, national agencies enactment to walk each that is near successful their national budgets, disquieted that Congress volition due them a smaller magnitude adjacent twelvemonth if not. The Pentagon is nary exception.

In September 2024, the DOD spent much than it had successful immoderate different period since 2008, with a hefty payer terms tag for good dining.

It spent $6.1 cardinal connected lobster tails, $16.6 cardinal connected rib-eye steaks, 6.4 cardinal connected salmon and $407,000 connected Alaskan king crab, arsenic highlighted successful an X thread by Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa.

That aforesaid month, DOD spent $211.7 cardinal connected caller furniture, including $36,000 connected ft rests.

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Political headwinds 

Cost-cutting initiatives volition look absorption from a Congress that has ne'er been keen to instrumentality a scalpel to the nation's defenses. 

"If past is immoderate benignant of precedent, I bash deliberation that this is wherever you'll commencement to spot astatine slightest a existent benignant of hostility arise," said Diana Shaw, erstwhile State Department Inspector General. "There are a batch of vested interests, and not conscionable economic."

"There are folks with philosophical interests successful the full defence infrastructure and the military. And so, this is an country that has been good protected historically. And truthful I bash deliberation this present volition beryllium an absorbing trial lawsuit to spot whether determination volition be, adjacent wrong the Republican Party now, immoderate pushback to the benignant of assertive cutting and picking isolated that we've seen hap astatine different agencies that person historically been benignant of little favored by members of the Republican Party."