Though Elon Musk leaves behind a legacy of massive cuts to government programs which left many members of the Washington, D.C., establishment enraged, he was not able to accomplish all the lofty goals he set at the beginning of his time as head of the Department of Government Efficiency.

According to a May 26 update on DOGE’s website, the initiative has saved an estimated $175 billion through asset sales, contract cancellations, fraud payment crackdowns and other spending cuts. That translates to about $1,087 in savings per taxpayer.

Though significant, the $175 billion is a far cry from the original $2 trillion–nearly a third of the federal government’s total spending–that Musk originally set out to cut.

So, what went wrong?

Richard Stern, an economics policy expert at the Heritage Foundation, told Fox News Digital that DOGE ‘overestimated what legal flexibility they would have, and the agencies would have, to actually make good on that.’

From the start, DOGE was hit with not only a tsunami of negative press and outraged Democratic lawmakers, but also a series of lawsuits, which bogged it down in protracted legal battles.

This, coupled with the reality of most of the major end cuts requiring congressional approval to carry out, relegated DOGE’s impact on cutting around the edges of the big programs and agencies it likely would have liked to eliminate entirely.

Despite Musk’s efforts, in many cases agencies such as the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau could only be shrunk and limited, while total elimination requires an act of Congress.

Just last week, U.S. District Court Judge Beryl Howell blocked the Trump administration’s dismantling of the U.S. Institute of Peace, writing in a ruling that the removal of its board members and the takeover of its headquarters by members of DOGE are actions that are ‘null and void.’ 

Stern asserted that ‘at the end of the day, they were just a little overzealous about how much legal authority they would ultimately have to be able to make this many cuts themselves,’ 

Where Stern believes DOGE can have the greatest impact is on focusing on the information-gathering and whistleblower aspects of its mission.

‘You can kind of break down DOGE into two very large buckets,’ he posited. ‘The first large bucket, which is the one that’s mostly been not done, is actually making grand spending cuts themselves directly. I think the second one was identifying what cuts could be made.’

‘The original plan was that DOGE could come in and do both these things that they could find specific spending to cut … and then the other part of that was identifying this information and making it public that people didn’t have that would allow for really thought-out spending cuts to come in from Congress,’ he explained.

Though less flashy, Stern believes this is where DOGE, going forward, can have its greatest impact.  

‘There’s a lot of think tanks, including Heritage, that have put together lists for a very long time as to policies that we don’t think are good, where you could cut spending. But I think what no one has a window into is the really deep mechanics of how a lot of these programs work. And so, because of that, it’s actually been very hard in a really robust fashion to even know what programs you could cut spending from or how you would do it or what the ramifications would be,’ he explained.

‘So, DOGE, by being in the administration, has been in and continues to be in a position to actually make that public, to actually put a spotlight on that in a way that really almost nobody else was in a position to do,’ Stern went on. ‘That can feed rescission bills and congressional cuts down the road. But some admin needed to actually do that. And DOGE is finally doing that.’ 

Fox News Digital’s Greg Norman contributed to this report.

Emotions are running high on both sides of the aisle on Capitol Hill as Elon Musk makes his way for the exit.

Musk is stepping back from the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), which President Donald Trump appointed the tech billionaire to run for the first 130 days of his new administration.

He’s been a polarizing figure in Washington, and that has extended to his announcement earlier this week that he’s returning to the private sector. Republicans cheered Musk’s work, while Democrats celebrated the end of it.

‘Exposing reckless, wasteful government spending isn’t about one individual — it’s about a lasting overhaul of Crazy Town,’ House DOGE Caucus Chair Aaron Bean, R-Fla., told Fox News Digital. ‘That’s why we’re working closely with the White House to ensure recession packages reflect DOGE’s critical findings.’

And the White House has begun that work already, preparing a $9.4 billion package of spending cuts that’s expected to hit Congress on Tuesday. But Bean’s comments imply Republicans are going to seek more.

It was a sentiment that appeared to be shared by Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., who said that Musk ‘did a lot of what he came to do.’

‘A lot of the savings that he identified are things hopefully that we’ll be able to incorporate into bills that Congress passes. The work that he did was really important. It’s long overdue,’ Thune said.

Senate DOGE Caucus Chair Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, said she was ‘honored’ to work with Musk but signaled he should not be needed for lawmakers to cut government waste.

‘It has been wonderful having a willing partner in my decade-long work to make Washington squeal, but I was DOGE before DOGE was cool, and I’m not slowing down,’ Ernst told Fox News Digital in a statement.

Other Republicans were more lavish in their praise, like Rep. Mike Haridopolos, R-Fla., who hailed Musk as an ‘American hero.’

‘I’m absolutely sad to see him go,’ Haridopolos told Fox News Digital. ‘He has given up a lot of time and wealth in order to bring the fiscal house of the United States in order, and he has done a great service to our country by bringing a heck of a lot more transparency of how we’re spending money.’

And Sen. Roger Marshall, R-Kan., compared the billionaire to the nation’s revered first leaders.

‘He’s kind of half Benjamin Franklin and half Thomas Jefferson. He had the inventiveness of Benjamin Franklin and the vision of a Thomas Jefferson, and I just remember all of our founding fathers were patriots, and they left their regular jobs. They gave up everything to come help found this country. And that’s what Elon’s [done],’ Marshall told Fox News Digital.

On the other side of the aisle, Rep. Tom Suozzi, D-N.Y., pointed out that as much as Republicans lauded Musk, he also dealt a blow to the House GOP earlier this week by criticizing their ‘big, beautiful’ tax and spending bill.

‘They brought Musk to DC to fight the deficit, and he left DC calling out how the reconciliation bill will blow the biggest hole in the deficit ever — adding more than $3 trillion in debt,’ Suozzi told Fox News Digital.

Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., told Fox News Digital he believed DOGE’s efforts were misplaced in the end.

‘Initially, I said we should work with Musk to find common ground where there is real waste — like defense contractors, Medicare Advantage overpayments, and prescription drugs. It is sad that DOGE faced opposition in focusing on those issues, and that agencies like USAID and NIH are being dismantled,’ Khanna said.

Others on the left unleashed on Musk directly. 

Democrats have held up the Tesla CEO as a boogeyman since he began campaigning for Trump, using him as a living example of the wealthy, out-of-touch people they believed the Republican White House was benefitting.

‘Elon came to Washington thinking he could run the government like one of his companies—firing people left and right, gutting essential services, and tearing this s— up from the ground up,’ Rep. Jasmine Crockett, D-Texas, wrote on X, calling for an investigation into Musk’s work.

House Progressive Caucus Chairman Greg Casar, D-Texas, meanwhile, took credit for Musk leaving despite his fixed tenure.

‘Musk’s exit is an enormous victory for Democrats and working people. This is a sign of how powerful the anti-corruption, anti-billionaire movement in American politics can be,’ Casar said in a statement. ‘Musk did not choose to leave because Elon Musk likes to follow the rules. Musk will leave because the American people built enough political pressure that he had no choice.’

And Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J. considered a potential 2028 presidential candidate, wrote on X, ‘Musk failed others and served himself.’

‘But there’s an irony in his failure: in his quest to destroy government, he reminded us why it matters. To look out for hungry kids, to keep planes safe, to deliver Social Security checks, and to do the quiet work to serve the common good,’ Booker said.

When reached for comment on this story, White House spokesman Harrison Fields told Fox News Digital, ‘DOGE is integral to the federal government’s operations, and its mission, as established by the President’s executive order, will continue under the direction of agency and department heads in the Trump administration. DOGE has delivered remarkable results at an unprecedented pace, and its work is far from complete.’ Fox News Digital also reached out to Tesla for comment from Musk.

Trump, for his part, heaped praise on Musk at a joint press conference on Friday.

‘Elon’sservice to America has been without comparison in modern history. He’s already running one of the most innovative car companies in the world, if you look at his factories and compare them with some of the old factories we have, and it’s a big difference. And the most successful space company, I guess in history, you would have to say. The largest free speech platform on the internet,’ Trump said.

‘Yet, Elon, willingly, with all of the success, he willingly accepted the outrageous abuse and slander and lies and attacks because he does love our country.’

It was nearly 10 p.m. on a Sunday night when House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., surprised reporters in the hallway of the Cannon House Office Building.

The top House Republican was making a low-key — but high-stakes — visit to the House Budget Committee before the panel’s second meeting on President Donald Trump’s ‘big, beautiful bill.’ The first meeting on May 16 had blown up without resolution when four fiscal hawks balked at the legislation and voted against advancing it to the full House.

‘The real debate was, is when [we] voted not to approve the budget. And the reason I did that, along with the others, was we needed to make the provisions better,’ Rep. Ralph Norman, R-S.C., told Fox News Digital.

‘It was our opportunity to make a bill that overall was good, better. And that was the impetus to stop the budget, and then get some concessions. And then when it reached Rules Committee, there really wasn’t that much dissension.’

The committee meeting continued with little fanfare, save for Democratic objections to the bill, before one more visit from Johnson, when he signaled the deal was sealed.

‘I think what is about to happen here is that every member, every Republican member, will give a vote that allows us to proceed forward, and we count that as a big win tonight,’ Johnson said. 

He was right, with the legislation advancing exactly along party lines.

Fox News Digital was told that conservatives were anticipating what is called a manager’s amendment, a vehicle with wide flexibility to change legislation, before the House Rules Committee’s vote to advance the bill to the full chamber. 

The House Rules Committee acts as the final gatekeeper to most bills before a House-wide vote. Trump himself made a rare visit to Capitol Hill the morning of May 20 to urge Republicans to vote for the bill.

House leaders again signaled confidence late on May 21, informing Republicans that they would likely vote soon after the House Rules Committee’s meeting was over. However, that meeting alone had already dragged on for hours, from just after 1 a.m. on May 21 to finally voting on Trump’s tax bill just after 2:30 a.m. on May 22. Lawmakers and reporters alike struggled to stay awake as Democratic lawmakers forced votes on over 500 amendments, largely symbolic, in a bid to drag out the process.

Meanwhile, at some point overnight, talks with GOP holdouts went south.

The House Freedom Caucus held an impromptu press conference directly after Chair Andy Harris, R-Md., met with Johnson.

‘The leadership’s going to have to figure out where to go from here,’ Harris said. ‘I think there is a pathway forward that we can see…I’m not sure this can be done this week. I’m pretty confident it could be done in 10 days. But that’s up to leadership to decide.’

Harris also said the Freedom Caucus had struck a ‘deal’ with the White House, something a White House official denied. ‘The White House presented HFC with policy options that the administration can live with, provided they can get the votes,’ the official said.

However, the manager’s amendment, which finally came out just after 11 p.m. on May 21, eased the concerns of at least several of the fiscal hawks.

It bolstered funding to states that did not expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act (ACA), included additional tax relief for gun owners, and quickened the implementation of Medicaid work requirements, among other measures.

Meanwhile, a small group of those House Freedom Caucus members had also been meeting with a small group of conservative senators who assured them they would seek deep spending cuts in the bill when it landed in the upper chamber, Norman said.

‘It was our hope that the Senate would come back and even make the cuts deeper, so that the deficit could be cut,’ Norman said.

The moves were not enough to ease everyone’s concerns, however. Roughly three hours after the amendment’s release, Freedom Caucus Policy Chair Chip Roy, R-Texas, was the only Republican member of the House Rules Committee to miss the key vote.

Fox News Digital inquired via text message why Roy missed the vote and was told he was ‘actually reading the bill…’

Nevertheless, it passed by an 8 to 4 vote — prompting House leaders to warn their members to return for what would be an all-night series of voting and debates. Democratic leaders, recognizing they would be sidelined completely if Republicans had enough support on their side, again moved to delay the proceedings.

A whip notice sent to House Democrats, obtained by Fox News Digital, warned left-wing lawmakers that ‘House Republicans are planning to finish debate and vote on final passage of H.R. 1 late tonight.’

The notice advised that House Democratic Caucus Chair Pete Aguilar, D-Calif., would force a vote on adjourning the House and that ‘additional procedural votes are expected.’

In a bid to keep Republicans close to the House floor for what was an hourslong night, the speaker set up a side room with snacks and coffee for lawmakers to wait out proceedings. In the House Appropriations Committee room just down the hall, more Republicans were huddled over cigars and other refreshments. The smell of tobacco smoke wafted out as increasingly haggard lawmakers shuffled between the two rooms.

Fox News Digital even heard from several lawmakers inquiring when the final vote was expected to be — and wondering whether they had time for a nap themselves. Meanwhile, Fox News Digital spotted Harris and Roy walking the opposite way from the hullabaloo of the House floor, toward the much quieter Longworth House Office Building.

Both said they were leaving for more conversations with White House staff before the final vote.

‘The manager’s amendment gets us a little closer, but we’re still in discussions with the executive branch to see whether we can achieve the objectives that we seek, which is support the president’s goals on waste fraud and abuse in Medicare and Medicaid and, you know, making sure that we’ve got all we can out of the Inflation Reduction Act,’ Harris said.

Roy said he hoped Republicans would go further against states that drastically expanded their Medicaid populations under the ACA. He also signaled that leaders suggested at the time some further Medicaid reform could come from the White House.

‘The speaker alluded to this afternoon…that there are things in the executive space, executive actions, that we think could take care of some of the concerns that we were having about — again, it’s not what we want, but it does ameliorate some of our concerns on the Medicaid expansion front,’ Roy said.

Fox News Digital reached out to the White House and the speaker’s office for comment.

When it came time for the final vote, it appeared enough was done to get Roy on board. Harris, however, voted ‘present.’

Neither made themselves available for an interview for this story.

The final vote saw just two Republican defections — Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., long a critic of Johnson, and Rep. Warren Davidson, R-Ohio.

‘While I love many things in the bill, promising someone else will cut spending in the future does not cut spending. Deficits do matter and this bill grows them now. The only Congress we can control is the one we’re in. Consequently, I cannot support this big deficit plan. NO,’ Davidson posted on X just before the vote began.

Two other Republicans, Reps. David Schweikert, R-Ariz., and Andrew Garbarino, R-N.Y., both fell asleep before the final vote — but both said they would have voted to pass the bill.

In the end, it advanced by a 215-214 vote — with Republicans erupting in cheers when they realized the victory was locked.

‘The media, the Democrats have consistently dismissed any possibility that House Republicans could get this done. They did not believe that we could succeed in our mission to enact President Trump’s America First agenda. But this is a big one. And once again, they’ve been proven wrong,’ Johnson said during a press conference after the vote.

Now, the bill is expected to be considered by the Senate next week — when senators are already signaling they are gearing up to make changes.

‘I encourage our Senate colleagues to think of this as a one-team effort as we have, and to modify this as little as possible, because it will make it easier for us to get it over the line ultimately, and finish and get it to the president’s desk by July fourth,’ Johnson said.

Federal authorities are probing a scheme to impersonate White House chief of staff Susie Wiles, according to individuals familiar with the issue, the Wall Street Journal reported.

‘The White House takes the cybersecurity of all staff very seriously, and this matter continues to be investigated,’ a White House official noted.

Senators, governors, American business executives and other people have gotten texts and calls from an individual claiming to be Wiles, individuals familiar with the messages noted, according to the outlet.

FBI officials informed the White House that they do not think another country is involved, some of the people noted, according to the report.

Fox News Digital reached out to the FBI for comment on Friday morning, but did not receive a response by the time of publication.

‘The FBI takes all threats against the president, his staff, and our cybersecurity with the utmost seriousness,’ FBI Director Kash Patel declared in a statement, according to the Journal. ‘Safeguarding our administration officials’ ability to securely communicate to accomplish the president’s mission is a top priority.’

The chief of staff informed associates that her phone contacts had been hacked, according to some of the people, the Journal reported. The phone is her personal device, not a government phone, the individuals noted, according to the outlet.

Some calls involved a voice which sounded like the chief of staff, individuals who heard them noted, according to the report. Government officials believe the impostor utilized artificial intelligence to mimic her voice, some of the individuals noted.

In some cases involving texts, individuals got requests which they at first thought were official, according to the outlet, which noted that one legislator received a request to develop a list of people who could be pardoned by Trump.

But it became evident to some legislators that the asks were suspect when the impostor started posing questions about the president, for which Wiles should have been privy to the answers — and in one instance, when the impostor requested a cash transfer, some of the people noted, according to the outlet. 

In many instances, the impostor used broken grammar and the messages were too formal compared to how Wiles normally communicates, individuals who received the messages noted, according to the outlet. The calls and texts did not emanate from Wiles’s phone number, according to the report.