What has Elon Musk’s DOGE actually achieved?

Tech billionaire Elon Musk is leaving his job as the US government's advisor on efficiency four months after promising to take a chainsaw to bureaucracy. Donald Trump praised Musk for his cost-cutting efforts during a farewell briefing in the Oval Office. During his time in Washington, Musk's Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, fired thousands of government workers prompting protests across America. Now the world's richest man says he's going back to Musk was asked by reporters if he might return to Washington at any point. This was his reply. Well, I expect to continue to provide advice whenever the president would like advice. I mean, yeah, it's I expect to remain a friend and an advisor. And certainly, if there's anything the president wants me to do, I'm at the president's service. Let's cross over to Washington where our correspondent Janelle Dumoulin is standing by. Janelle, you followed Elon Musk's farewell press conference. What stood out to you? Well, it was hard to ignore that Elon Musk walked into the Oval Office with a black eye. Now he said that came from playing with his son. His little son apparently punched him in the face. So I guess that tells us that that black eye did not come from a federal worker or from anyone in the Trump administration. And yes, the reason I say that is because what stood out to me in that press conference is how willing they were. They were to paper over this growing impression that there is a rift between Elon Musk and the Trump administration. So Musk has these famously well-documented fights with cabinet officials like Treasury Secretary Scott Besant, his rivalry with his fellow AI tech CEO Sam Altman has apparently hindered some of Trump's dealmaking efforts in the Middle East around tech. But I guess the most contentious and most recent source of conflict between the Trump administration and Musk is, of course, Musk's criticism of Trump's big, beautiful bill. So what is that? Just a reminder, viewers, this is the spending bill that will see massive tax cuts and increased spending on the border and defense. So Elon Musk has criticized it as detrimental to his efforts to cut down the deficit. Now, this bill did come up in the Oval Office today, but Trump saying that he wanted to see even more massive tax cuts in the bill that's proposed. But Musk, he didn't really get to say anything about it. We didn't hear from him on that subject today in the Oval Office, as the two really did seem to be determined to telegraph a picture of friendship and continued cooperation. That the bromance lives on. Now, Musk promised Doge would cut a trillion U.S. dollars from the federal budget. How far did he get? Yeah, if you remember during the campaign, that number was the number they were touting was two trillion dollars. Right. And when Musk started his tenure at the White House, that number was scaled back to one trillion dollars. Now, Doge, the Doge team has said that they have managed 170 billion in savings. So doing some quick math, that's around 17 percent. So not quite close to that goal at all. And there are also outside estimates that say that the number is probably closer to 16 billion dollars. But now it has to be said, however, that the accounting on this is kind of complicated. This wasn't easy to follow or particularly transparent. There were miscounts. Some items were counted twice. They were also cancelling contracts that turned out to be cancelled even before Doge. Some of the federal contracts that they listed on their website did not seem to generate any savings at all. Now, Musk did say that he was confident that in time this one trillion dollar figure will be achieved. But for now, the record shows that he did not come close to the goal that he set out to accomplish. Janelle Dumoulin there with the analysis in Washington.