In its first job with Elon Musk's Government Efficiency (DOGE), the Pentagon discovered around $80 million in what is considered wasteful spending, according to the building's top spokesman.
inVideos posted on x On Monday evening, reporter Sean Parnell read from an unpublished list detailing his funding, which is primarily dedicated to diversity, equity, inclusion programs and climate change research.
“This is not a central function of our military. …It's a distraction,” he said. “These initial findings believe we can save $80 million on perhaps wasted spending.”
Among the initiatives covered were $1.9 million in DEI training in the Air Force, $6 million in 'strengthening American democracy by bridging divisions', $3.5 million in defense personnel efforts to support the DEI group, and $1.6 million to the University of Florida's' study of Africa's courage and vulnerability to the vulnerability of revival and social and institutional recklessness of revival.
He added that Monday's action was “just a start” and that more should come this week.
Since its formation, Doge has aimed to reduce spending within federal agencies and reduce the civil servant workforce. However, critics say the suspicions of savings have been severely exaggerated and there is inaccurate data about its digital “receipt wall.”
Doge officials first visited the Pentagon on February 14th, when Defense Secretary Pete Hegses welcomed the agency with open arms. Last month, he said “there are the waste, redundancy and personnel that need to be addressed at headquarters.”
The Pentagon refused to provide a list that reads Parnell's list into the hill and did not say about the number of programs, initiatives or contracts that made up for the $80 million.
“At this point there's nothing to offer beyond the video,” the spokesman said.
Initially, only a small amount of claims for $80 million in savings compared to the $850 billion total pentagonal budget, accounting for less than 0.001% of that.
