Tech billionaire Elon Musk made headlines earlier this year when he helped to establish the Trump's administration's Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).

While Musk's time in Washington has come to an end, DOGE is continuing to cancel wasteful spending, with the latest example coming last week. 

Move to save taxpayers $5 million annually

According to Fox News, DOGE has saved taxpayers approximately $5 million annually by terminated contracts for unneeded software.

In one example, the IRS was found to be paying for 3,000 software licenses despite using just 23 of them. Similar waste was discovered at the Department of Labor as well as the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Agencies often have more software licenses than employees, and the licenses are often idle (i.e. paid for, but not installed on any computer). These audits have been continuously run since first posted in February. Most recently:

-IRS had 3000 Visio licenses, using only 25. The… https://t.co/xnY8TkLmM3

— Department of Government Efficiency (@DOGE) May 30, 2025

"Agencies often have more software licenses than employees, and the licenses are often idle (i.e. paid for, but not installed on any computer)," a post on DOGE's X account explained.

Musk is confident that DOGE will continue to save money

Meanwhile, Musk announced in a social media post of his own this past Wednesday that he is returning to the private sector.

"As my scheduled time as a Special Government Employee comes to an end, I would like to thank President [Donald Trump] for the opportunity to reduce wasteful spending," he wrote.

Fox News noted that Musk expressed support for DOGE's mission while speaking to reporters at the White House on Friday, predicting that the department's "influence will only grow stronger."

"I liken it to a sort of person of Buddhism. It's like a way of life, so it is permeating throughout the government," Musk stated.

"And I'm confident that, over time, we'll see $1 trillion of savings, and a reduction in $1 trillion of waste, fraud reduction," he stressed.

Ted Cruz hails Musk for having "rooted out massive waste, fraud, and abuse"

Breitbart observed that Musk was praised by Texas Republican Sen. Ted Cruz during an interview with Fox News Sean Hannity.

Cruz heralded Musk for having "rooted out massive waste, fraud, and abuse" in government while operating "at enormous cost to himself."

"You look at his stockholdings, his stockholdings dropped tens of billions of dollars," Cruz pointed out. "It was a personal sacrifice and the death threats that were directed against him were massive."