Elon Musk is using D.O.G.E to divert federal funds into his companies via govt contracts

Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (D.O.G.E) is running government money straight into his business empire. No official paper trail confirms it, but the numbers tell their own story. Billions of dollars in government contracts are shifting toward SpaceX, Starlink, and Tesla, while Elon sits at the center of it all—both as a White House adviser and the man behind the companies cashing in.

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has already locked in a deal with Starlink to upgrade the agency’s IT networks. Meanwhile, Starlink is also poised to grab a $2 billion contract for the nation’s air traffic communications system, a deal currently held by Verizon.

That’s not all—Tesla has been linked to a $400 million contract for armored electric vehicles, a number that’s far beyond the previous administration’s $483,000 budget for similar projects.

D.O.G.E scrubs billions in claims from its records

Elon’s D.O.G.E claims it’s saving taxpayers money, but the numbers on its “wall of receipts” keep changing. In just one week, the department erased $4 billion worth of savings it previously claimed, wiping or altering over 1,000 contracts from its public records. These weren’t small numbers—five of the seven biggest savings listed just vanished overnight.

Since February 19, the total amount D.O.G.E has claimed in government contract cuts has gone from $16 billion to less than $9 billion, according to an investigation from the NY Times. The DOGE.gov website is the only place where these cuts are publicly accounted for, yet it’s been littered with errors, duplicate claims, and numbers that don’t add up.

A $1.9 billion claim for canceling an IRS tech contract disappeared after reports confirmed it was already canceled months earlier, under the previous administration. A $149 million contract for hiring three administrative assistants at the Department of Health and Human Services was removed after it was revealed that the linked document wasn’t even the right contract. The same happened with a $133 million claim about a canceled US Agency for International Development project in Libya, which had actually ended last year.

Even after these corrections, bad data remains. As of Monday morning, D.O.G.E still lists $106 million in cuts from Coast Guard contracts that ended in 2005 and 2006—long before Elon was anywhere near federal decision-making.

Starlink and Tesla benefit while Elon runs the show

While D.O.G.E plays with the numbers, Elon’s companies keep winning big. The FAA is now officially using Starlink to modernize its network, and Elon’s satellites are already installed in FAA facilities, an agency that Elon is currently “auditing,” according to claims on D.O.G.E’s own official X account.

On the Tesla side, a document obtained by NPR shows that the State Department was considering a $400 million contract for armored Teslas. That number is a massive leap from the Biden administration’s $483,000 budget for electric vehicles just months earlier. A former White House official told NPR, “I don’t think this is a clerical error. Someone new at State likely decided, ‘OK, we’re gonna do this with Tesla.’”

This contract was never publicly announced, and after media reports came out about it, the State Department denied any official plans to go forward, claiming the $400 million figure was just “an estimate,” and Elon himself posted on X that: “I’m pretty sure Tesla isn’t getting $400M. No one mentioned it to me, at least.”

But the original procurement document showed that the Trump administration quietly revised the wording from “armored Tesla” to the more generic “armored electric vehicles” without explanation. The entire item then vanished from the document altogether.

Experts say Elon’s dual role as both a White House official and a business mogul creates a massive conflict of interest. D.O.G.E is supposed to cut government waste, yet its biggest financial moves seem to benefit Elon’s own companies.

Elon’s critics say the lack of transparency makes it impossible to tell how much influence he has over government contracts. D.O.G.E has tried to deflect criticism by saying that contract figures “originate directly from agency contracting officials.” But that explanation doesn’t fix the basic errors or the billions in discrepancies.

Meanwhile, Starlink keeps expanding into federal infrastructure, Tesla keeps getting linked to huge vehicle contracts, and Elon remains at the center of it all—cutting costs while his companies take in billions.