The Pentagon, in initial work with Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), has found some $80 million in what it’s deemed wasteful spending, according to the building’s top spokesperson.
In a video posted to X Monday evening, Press Secretary Sean Parnell read from an unreleased list detailing funding devoted largely to diversity, equity and inclusion programs and climate change research.
“This stuff is not a core function of our military. . . . This is a distraction,” he said. “We believe that these initial findings will probably save $80 million in wasteful spending.”
Among the targeted initiatives was $1.9 million for DEI training in the Air Force, $6 million to the University of Montana to “strengthen American democracy by bridging divides,” $3.5 million at the Defense Human Resources Activity for support to DEI groups, and $1.6 million to the University of Florida “to study social and institutional detriments of vulnerability and resilience to climate hazards” in the African Sahel, Parnell said.
He added that Monday’s actions are “just the start,” with more to come this week.
Since its formation, DOGE has aimed to reduce expenditures within federal government agencies and slash the civil servant workforce. But critics have said the alleged savings have been grossly overblown, with inaccurate data on its digital “wall of receipts.”
DOGE officials first visited the Pentagon on Feb. 14, with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth welcoming the agency with open arms. Last month he said that “there is waste, redundancies, and headcounts at headquarters that need to be addressed.”
The Pentagon declined to provide the list Parnell read off of to The Hill, and would not say how many programs, initiative or contracts it had identified that made up the $80 million.
“We have nothing to provide beyond the video at this time,” a spokesperson said.
An initially claimed $80 million in savings also seems paltry compared to the total Pentagon budget of $850 billion, making up less than 0.001 percent of that.
