WASTELAND: INSIDE DOGE’S SHOCKING DISCOVERIES OF GOVERNMENT WASTE AND FRAUD

By Lucas Novak, Investigative Correspondent
May 5, 2025

The $382 Million Smoking Gun: Unemployment Fraud in Blue States

The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) has uncovered a staggering $382 million in fraudulent unemployment claims since 2020, with California, New York, and Massachusetts—all Democrat-controlled states—accounting for more than $305 million of the improper payments. The findings, released last week, represent another major discovery by the cost-cutting agency established by President Donald Trump and led by billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk.

According to DOGE officials, California alone was responsible for 68% of unemployment benefits provided during the Biden administration to parolees identified by federal authorities as being on the government’s terrorism watchlist or with criminal records. The discovery has drawn sharp criticism from Republican lawmakers and praise from government waste watchdogs.

“This is another incredible discovery by the DOGE team, finding nearly $400 million in fraudulent unemployment payments,” said Labor Department Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer. “The Labor Department is committed to recovering Americans’ stolen tax dollars. We will catch these thieves and keep working to root out egregious fraud.”

The three states identified as the primary sources of the improper payments—California, New York, and Massachusetts—share certain political characteristics: all have what political analysts call a Democratic “trifecta,” with Democrats controlling the state House, Senate, and governorship. They also have what’s known as a Democratic “triplex,” with party control extending to the offices of Attorney General, Secretary of State, and governor.

White House spokesperson Harrison Fields didn’t mince words when commenting on the findings: “There’s a reason for the mass exodus from Democrat-run states that have mismanaged their economies and driven residents to the nearest Republican-led state. High taxes, poor stewardship of taxpayer dollars and progressive policies continue to yield negative results, which is why Americans overwhelmingly support the work of DOGE.”

Fraud That Defies Logic: Centenarians, Toddlers, and People from the Future

The unemployment fraud discovered by DOGE included scenarios that would be comical if they weren’t so alarming. The agency found that since 2020, approximately 24,500 people over 115 years old claimed $59 million in benefits, while 28,000 people between the ages of 1 and 5 supposedly collected $254 million. Perhaps most bizarrely, 9,700 people with birthdates more than 15 years in the future managed to claim $69 million from government coffers.

“In one case, someone with a birthday in 2154 claimed $41,000,” DOGE reported, highlighting the absurdity of the fraud and the apparent lack of basic verification processes in the unemployment insurance system.

Critics, however, have noted that much of this unemployment fraud was previously identified by federal authorities during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, when unemployment systems nationwide were overwhelmed with claims. In 2022, the Labor Department estimated that COVID-era unemployment fraud totaled more than $45 billion, with the Government Accountability Office later suggesting the figure could be as high as $100 billion to $135 billion.

Nevertheless, the DOGE findings bring renewed attention to the issue and highlight the particular concentration of fraudulent claims in specific states. The agency’s focus on identifying which states were responsible for the majority of improper payments represents a new angle on a problem that has plagued unemployment insurance systems for years.

The Five Most Outrageous Findings: Musk’s Departing Shot

As Musk prepares to step down from his special assignment as head of DOGE at the end of May (due to Office of Government Ethics rules limiting “special government employees” to 130 days of service per year), he took time this week to reveal what he considers the five most outrageous examples of government waste uncovered by his team in an interview with Fox News’ Jesse Watters.

The revelations provide a window into the types of spending that DOGE has targeted during its brief but impactful existence, ranging from questionable international contracts to seemingly frivolous domestic expenditures. Together, they paint a picture of a federal bureaucracy that, in Musk’s view, has operated with insufficient oversight and accountability.

Funding a Former Taliban Member

Among the most controversial discoveries was that the United States Institute of Peace (USIP) had paid $132,000 to Mohammad Qasem Halimi, identified by DOGE as a former Taliban member who once served as Afghanistan’s Chief of Protocol. The contract was canceled on March 31 after DOGE’s investigation.

According to reports, Halimi was detained by U.S. forces at Bagram Air Base for a year starting in January 2002. After his release, he held various positions in the Afghan government and was appointed Minister of Hajj and Religious Affairs in 2020. Critics of the DOGE finding note that Halimi had worked with post-Taliban Afghan governments for years after his release, but the agency maintained that the payment was inappropriate regardless of his subsequent career.

“A small agency called the United States Institute of Peace is definitely the agency we’ve had the most fight at,” a DOGE staffer told Fox News. “We actually went into the agency and found they had loaded guns inside their headquarters—Institute for Peace. So, by far, the least peaceful agency that we’ve worked with, ironically.”

The USIP incident became particularly contentious, with Musk claiming that institute officials attempted to delete a terabyte of financial data to “cover their crimes” when DOGE investigators arrived. According to Musk, DOGE engineers were able to recover the deleted information.

COVID Relief Funds Spent on Las Vegas Parties

DOGE audits revealed that schools spent $200 billion in COVID-relief funds on items “with little oversight or impact on students,” including Las Vegas hotel rooms and even an ice cream truck.

Among the more eyebrow-raising expenditures: Utah’s Granite School District used $86,000 of its COVID-relief funds on hotel rooms at Caesars Palace for an educational conference, while California’s Santa Ana Unified spent $393,000 to rent a Major League Baseball stadium. The Department of Government Efficiency also found that schools spent $60,000 on swimming-pool passes, and that one California district used relief funds to purchase an ice cream truck.

Granite School District officials have since denied any impropriety in sending educators to the Las Vegas event, maintaining that the professional development conference was a legitimate use of the funds. Critics of DOGE’s approach argue that the agency has sometimes conflated fraud with legitimate expenditures that simply appear questionable when taken out of context.

“They were basically partying on the taxpayers’ dollars,” Musk told Watters, characterizing the COVID relief spending as wasteful regardless of technical compliance with spending rules.

‘Sesame Street’ in Iraq

Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa), chair of the Senate DOGE Caucus who has worked closely with Musk on identifying waste, revealed that the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) “authorized a whopping $20 million to create a ‘Sesame Street’ in Iraq.”

According to Ernst, during the Biden administration, USAID awarded $20 million to a nonprofit called Sesame Workshop to produce a show called “Ahlan Simsim Iraq” in an effort to “promote inclusion, mutual respect and understanding across ethnic, religious and sectarian groups.”

Fact-checkers have noted that the situation is somewhat more complex than initially portrayed. The USAID-funded “Ahlan Simsim Iraq” was primarily an early childhood development program that included some localized media content, while the actual “Ahlan Simsim” TV show that airs across the Middle East was funded separately through philanthropic sources. Nevertheless, the expenditure has become a symbol of what DOGE and its supporters see as misplaced priorities in foreign aid spending.

Billions in ‘Improper Payments’

DOGE’s work received additional validation from a March Government Accountability Office (GAO) report showing federal agencies made $162 billion in improper payments in the most recent fiscal year—a figure that, while staggering, was actually $74 billion lower than the prior fiscal year.

The GAO analysis revealed that of the 16 government agencies reporting improper payments, 75% of the waste found was concentrated in five programs at the Department of Health and Human Services, Medicare/Medicaid, the Treasury Department, the Department of Agriculture, and the Small Business Administration.

These findings align with DOGE’s broader mission of identifying and eliminating wasteful government spending across the federal bureaucracy. While the GAO report predates DOGE’s creation, it has been cited by Musk and his team as evidence of the scale of the problem they are tackling.

DEI Funding Cuts

In recent months, DOGE has announced cuts totaling hundreds of millions of dollars from diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) contracts. These cuts have been among the most politically contentious aspects of DOGE’s work, with supporters viewing them as eliminating unnecessary ideological programs and critics seeing them as targeting valuable initiatives that promote workplace diversity and inclusion.

The exact amount saved through these cuts has not been fully quantified in DOGE’s public statements, but the agency has highlighted them as part of its broader effort to eliminate what it considers non-essential government spending. The DEI cuts align with the Trump administration’s broader skepticism toward such programs, which the president has frequently criticized throughout his political career.

The DOGE Mission: Ambitious Targets and Political Controversy

When President Trump signed an executive order creating DOGE on Inauguration Day, the agency set an ambitious target of trimming $2 trillion from the federal budget. That target has since been revised downward, with more recent projections suggesting savings of around $150 billion in the coming fiscal year.

Despite the reduced expectations, DOGE’s influence on federal spending priorities has been significant. The agency has canceled numerous contracts, identified areas of potential waste, and brought attention to spending practices that had previously received little public scrutiny.

Critics argue that some of DOGE’s claims about waste and fraud represent repackaging of previously identified issues or mischaracterize legitimate spending as wasteful. They also contend that the agency’s approach sometimes prioritizes headline-grabbing examples over substantive fiscal reform. Defenders counter that DOGE has brought unprecedented transparency to government spending and has successfully eliminated numerous examples of genuine waste.

As Musk prepares to transition out of his role leading DOGE, questions remain about the agency’s future direction and impact. The billionaire has begun scaling back his hours at the agency, though he is expected to continue providing informal advice and support to its mission after his official term ends on May 30.

The Legacy Question: Will DOGE’s Work Endure?

The discoveries highlighted by Musk and his team raise fundamental questions about oversight, accountability, and priorities in government spending. While some of the examples may seem relatively small in the context of the overall federal budget, supporters argue they represent symptoms of a broader cultural problem in government agencies that DOGE was created to address.

The unemployment fraud findings, in particular, point to significant vulnerabilities in state-administered benefit programs that receive federal funding. The concentration of fraud in specific states suggests that some jurisdictions may have implemented less effective controls than others, potentially due to policy choices or administrative practices.

As DOGE continues its work under new leadership, the agency’s legacy will depend on whether the issues it has identified lead to lasting reforms in government spending practices. The high-profile nature of its discoveries has certainly drawn public and political attention to questions of waste and fraud, but translating that attention into systemic change remains a challenge.

For now, the $382 million in unemployment fraud and the other examples highlighted by Musk stand as testaments to the agency’s ability to identify specific instances of problematic spending. Whether these discoveries ultimately lead to a more efficient and accountable government, as President Trump and Musk have promised, remains to be seen.

Lucas Novak is an investigative correspondent specializing in government oversight, federal spending, and public policy. The views expressed in this article are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial position of this publication.