Trump created a Lot of the Waste and Fraud he says he is now ending, and He is Setting Up a Situation for More of both, which can lead to increased government spending
American Eclectic posts articles twice a month, on the 1st and 15th. This is the third year of publication; previously published articles can be found on my site.
April 15, 2025
Donald Trump issued one of his many executive orders on March 20th (Fact Sheet: Donald J. Trump Eliminates Information Silos to Stop Waste, Fraud, and Abuse). Within this executive order, it states:
• The Biden Administration’s lack of transparency allowed waste to flourish, with billions lost annually to improper payments and fraudulent claims.
• In fiscal year 2023, the Biden Administration reported an estimated $236 billion in improper payments as the result of overpayments, inaccurate recordkeeping, and fraud.
o 74% of these errors were overpayments, including payments to deceased individuals.
• The Biden Administration lost more than $925 billion total over four years to improper payments.
• Over the last 20 years, the Federal Government has made an estimated $2.7 trillion in such improper payments.
• This Executive Order dismantles unnecessary barriers, promotes inter-agency collaboration, and ensure the Federal Government operates responsibly and efficiently to safeguard public funds.
The reference to $236 billion in “improper payments,” comes from a report by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) which stated:
The federal government reported an estimated $236 billion in “improper payments” during the most recently completed fiscal year (FY 2023). Such payments are essentially payment errors that can be the result of many things—including overpayments, inaccurate recordkeeping, or even fraud.
Payment errors are a long-standing issue for the federal government. Over the last 20 fiscal years, it has made an estimated $2.7 trillion in such improper payments.
The GAO report itself is interesting and raises questions about where Trump or Musk’s government cost-cutting will be once the dust has settled. Trump’s first term as president does not appear to have been particularly successful in addressing waste, fraud, and abuse. We can discount 2017, his first year as president, since that would have been a carryover from Barack Obama’s last year as President (Obama’s last year was 2016). But in 2018, the GAO estimated $150.7 billion in waste, fraud, and abuse. In 2019, the total was $174.8 billion, and in 2020, it increased to $206.4 billion. The significant increase occurred in 2021, when the amount rose to $281.4 billion. That 2021 figure would be attributed to Trump, just as 2017 was attributed to Obama. In 2022, the figure went down to $247 billion, and in 2023, it was $235.8 billion.
Another way to look at these figures is in terms of increases or decreases year after year: 2017 was $3.5 billion lower than 2016, 2018 was $9.8 billion higher than the year before, 2019 was $24.1 billion higher than the year before, 2020 was $31.6 billion higher than the year before, but 2021 showed a significant increase with $75 billion higher than the year before. During his first term, Trump saw increases in waste, fraud, and abuse each year of his term. Developments in 2020, Trump’s last year of his first term, had a substantial effect on the increase in waste, fraud, and abuse in 2021, and that increase then carried over to the rest of Biden’s term as President. Unlike Trump’s years, where waste, fraud, and abuse increased year after year, the two years covered in the GAO report for the Biden Presidency (2022-2023) showed a decrease in waste, fraud, and abuse: 2022 was $34.4 billion less than the previous year, and 2023 was $11.2 billion lower than the year before. Like many of his pronouncements about himself, his accomplishments, and the alleged misdeeds of those presidents before him, Trump's executive order must be taken with more than a grain of salt. Since Biden saw wasteful government spending decrease for each of the years noted in the GAO report, unlike Trump’s first term, where wasteful spending increased for each year, I am sure Trump is grateful for Biden’s effort to reduce waste and that he did so without the chaos and destruction that Musk has caused. The $925 billion in wasteful government spending that Trump refers to in his executive order would have been much lower if Trump had not contributed to that waste and abuse.
In examining how the GAO report categorized waste, fraud, and abuse, the Paycheck Protection Program accounted for 8 percent of the total. In contrast, the Federal Pandemic Unemployment Assistance Program accounted for 18 percent. Medicare and Medicaid, combined, accounted for 43 percent.
The year 2020 offers insight into how to view Musk’s actions now, as he has been slashing government spending and programs, all done on Trump’s behalf. Just an aside, because I was thinking about it: I wish this material were covered well on television news, but that will not happen. The public needs to have news shows that take the time to show and explain this type of detailed financial information carefully, it can help viewers begin to understand how to grasp the rapid pace of developments that are occurring within the Trump administration and how to think ahead to where we might be in a few years because of all this haphazard and not well-thought-out slash and burn approach to something that bears no resemblance to effective government reform. Instead, people wake up in the morning, watch Good Morning America, get a lot of very white teeth, something that looks like a quick pass-through about the news, and GMA moves on to something more substantial, like competing against the Home Shopping Network. It takes time to understand and assess the many actions of the Trump administration, and I see very little of that being done well on television news.
As I mentioned earlier, the year 2020 is significant; it is the reason for the $75 billion increase in waste, fraud, and abuse in 2021. In two months during the Spring of 2020, Trump fired the inspector generals of five cabinet-level departments (Intelligence, Defense, Health and Human Services, Transportation, and the State Department). In a pattern observed during Trump’s second term, firing people in retaliation for the actions they were hired to perform is becoming the new norm. Trump responded to these firings, saying, “It is vital that I have the fullest confidence in the appointees serving as Inspectors General. That is no longer the case with regard to…Inspector General[s].” Well, that is fine, but he did not replace them. One of the fired inspector generals paraphrased what happened in Trump’s first term:
The law [that created federal funding for addressing the COVID pandemic] also required one inspector general to be named the chair of [the Pandemic Response Accountability] committee. I drew the short straw. My fellow IGs selected me as the chair of the Pandemic Response Accountability Committee. It was announced on a Monday. Within a week, President Trump, who had famously said, we don't need the oversight [from the inspector generals]; I will be the oversight - he replaced me as the acting inspector general of the Department of Defense, meaning that I could not be on the committee or chair the committee. It wasn't illegal what he did. It was also part of a series of firings around that time where he replaced or tried to replace five inspectors general.
The COVID-19 relief aid has been defined as “the greatest grift in U.S. history, with thieves plundering billions.” It was estimated that the amount of fraud associated with the COVID-19 Economic Injury Disaster Loan program totaled $86 billion, and the Paycheck Protection Program resulted in $20 billion in losses.
The Paycheck Protection Program spent $793 billion between April 2020 and May 2021. This is the end of Trump’s first term and the beginning of the Biden administration. Some of the reasons for the fraud are understandable: A significant amount of money was distributed quickly into the economy. One study examined fraud and stated:
Proponents of the PPP often point to the urgency of getting money out quickly as a potential rationale for tolerating a high level of fraud. However, this urgency mainly applies to the initial rollout of the program, and potential misreporting increased over time with particularly high rates in the last month of round 3 (25.0%), even after the Office of the Inspector General for the Small Business Administration (SBA) flagged PPP fraud as a concern in October 2020.
A 60 Minutes episode addressed the firing of government officials, defined as “watchdogs,” whose role was to identify and resolve issues of waste and fraud that Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) is supposedly addressing. Trump fired the head of the Office of Special Counsel, the director of the Office of Government Ethics, and 17 inspectors general during his first two months in office in 2025, a number that far exceeds the five he fired in 2020. As the former head of the Office of Special Counsel stated:
I don't think we have watchdog agencies anymore. The inspector generals are gone. The head of the Office of Government Ethics is gone. I'm gone. The independent watchdogs who are working on behalf of the American taxpayers, on behalf of military veterans, they've been pushed out.
It is safe to say that a significant portion of the American public will not fully understand the ramifications of what is happening and how it will impact them over the next several years. In a few years, many will look for someone to blame; I wonder how many will blame Trump, or more specifically, Republicans in Congress, who have become nothing more than enablers for Trump and his policies?
Head Start is a good example of how to anticipate the consequences of eliminating this program, which will likely lead to the need for increased funding to address the education problems that Head Start has focused on. Head Start was established in 1965 as part of then-President Lyndon B. Johnson’s War on Poverty program, which was a component of his comprehensive Great Society agenda. Head Start aims to prepare children from birth to age 5 for academic success in school. Over 40 million children have participated in Head Start, with approximately 1 million currently enrolled. In Fiscal Year 2023, this program allocated $12 million, with funding distributed to all fifty states. With decades of existence and participation by numerous children, substantial research has demonstrated the effectiveness of this program. One study concluded, “those who participated in these early childhood educational interventions persist in education, have higher earnings, and commit fewer crimes.” Another detailed study concluded:
[W]e find that Head Start generated large increases in adult human capital and economic self-sufficiency, including a 0.65-year increase in schooling, a 2.7 percent increase in high school completion, an 8.5 percent increase in college enrollment, and a 39 percent increase in college completion. These estimates imply sizable, long-term returns to investments in means-tested, public preschool programs.
Yet, as part of the Trump administration's activity, federal funds supporting Head Start were frozen, and some two dozen Head Start centers have been closed. Since this is a recent development, only in the last two weeks, it is difficult to say where this will lead. One report stated:
Scores of government employees who help administer Head Start, which is federally funded but run by schools and nonprofits, have been put on leave. Preschool operators say they have received no communication from the Office of Head Start and don’t know who to turn to if they have questions about grants or need the office to sign off on equipment expenditures.
I thought this assault on Head Start was telling. Here is a federal government program that has garnered broad bipartisan support over the years. Republicans in Congress, however, have remained as quiet as church mice, as they sit back and watch the Trump administration apply his unitary theory of government to everything he touches.
It will take several years to see the adverse effects of Head Start severely impacted by government spending cuts. Musk proudly highlights the money he is saving in government spending. I cannot yet predict whether this program will be severely cut or entirely eliminated. However, what I expect will happen is the opposite effect, forcing a need to increase education spending at the local, state, or federal levels.
Trump’s threat to the future of Head Start raises the issue of what standards Musk uses to eliminate government programs and people. As far as I can tell, Musk seems to have few clearly defined standards or guidelines: Fly by the seat of your pants and randomly remove whatever has been proposed by Project 2025 from the Heritage Foundation, seems to be Musk’s criteria.
A chapter in the Project 2025 book states, “Eliminate the Head Start program.” The reason given is:
[A]pproximately 1 in 4 grant recipients had incidents in which children were abused, left unsupervised, or released to an unauthorized person between October 2015 and May 2020.
This was based on a report issued by the Office of the Inspector General (OIG) for the Department of Health and Human Services, released in 2022, and addressed the period from October 2015 to May 2020. The report noted that a quarter of Head Start grant recipients had child abuse incidents. An HHS official pointed out, “Our data show that Head Start programs are extraordinarily safe for children with 99.99 percent of children served not impacted by a safety incident.”
While the issue of child safety was uncovered and, I assume, addressed, as I could not find any follow-up indicating that these findings were ignored, Project 2025 made a statement about the program’s lack of success, which contradicts numerous studies that state otherwise. The Project 2025 conclusion about Head Start included, “Research has demonstrated that federal Head Start centers, which provide preschool care to children from low-income families, have little or no long-term academic value for children.” No documentation supports this statement; it is merely an ideologically loaded assertion. In contrast, review the notes I have on studies that have examined the effectiveness of Head Start. Interesting, however, is that this chapter refers to a program titled “Healthy Marriage and Responsible Fatherhood Program.” No doubt the author was not thinking of Musk when he referenced this program, who, if I am counting correctly, has thirteen children born out of wedlock.
Eliminating Head Start will likely lead to increased government spending several years from now, possibly associated with the need for more remedial education. Any increases in government spending to address the need for more remedial education at the K-12 level will likely first be discussed in school district meetings. Since school districts heavily rely on property tax funds, homeowners will likely see their local taxes increase, possibly in their mortgage payments, to address a problem that could have been alleviated by fully funding Head Start. Head Start has not been the panacea for addressing all issues associated with pre-school-age children and their readiness to enter K-12 grades. Still, it has helped prepare many preschool-age children to enter school, and the money spent on this program greatly offsets the funds needed to address the problems its elimination will cause.
The key consideration is that it will take time to observe the ripple effects on American communities from severely decimating Head Start, and the same will be valid for understanding the broader issues of waste, fraud, and abuse. Again, little attention has been focused on the significant increase in wasted government spending between 2020 and 2021, which is attributed to Trump’s firing of the inspectors general. I expect that this pattern will repeat itself, with a significant increase in waste, fraud, and abuse, as documented by a future Government Accountability Office report. But it will take several years. This is part of what I mean when I say that a significant portion of the American public is not prepared to understand the ramifications of what Musk is doing on behalf of Trump. Additionally, when examining a program like Head Start, the pressure to increase government spending will not necessarily be felt at the federal level, but at the state and local levels.
I have to wonder about cuts to federal programs that address food inspection or monitoring the spread of infectious diseases: Will we see some states respond to issues such as these more quickly than others? While political and policy analysis often distinguishes between red and blue states, having some states address food inspection or confront the spread of infectious diseases, but not others, can create more significant gaps in the safety and health of citizens across different states. Microbiologists in the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) developed tests to identify pathogens in food, such as those found in Blue Bell ice cream and Jack-in-the-Box fast food. The people in these labs have lost their jobs, and whether the labs they worked in exist is open to question. Where will we be regarding food safety in a few years, and what will the federal government do? If it does nothing, will certain states but not others try to address the issue? It is challenging to look ahead and understand the problems that are being unnecessarily created now, which will become apparent in several years to come.
Add child vaccinations to food safety and infectious diseases as another cost-saving measure, and only view it as Musk views it. Robert Kennedy, Jr, as head of the Department of Health and Human Services, has cut funds that support state and community health. The federal grant cuts are already being felt in Dallas County, Texas. The director of the county’s health and human service agency said:
These cuts are forcing us to cancel 50 vaccine events that were scheduled for the next year. For the measles situation, we had contacted a lot of schools that had lower vaccination rates. They had contacted us to set up clinics to go to those schools. Well, that's some of what we're having to cancel.
If vaccination rates decline, as is expected, due to these cuts, it is only a matter of time before the costs of medical care and treatment increase. Will Texas cover these increased health care costs, or will the federal government? The ripple effect of Trump’s cuts to federal programs, if it starts to become noticeable in, say, three years, whether because of a need for more remedial education, increased food safety inspection, infectious disease prevention, or treating the effects of non-vaccinated children, will become issues in the next Presidential administration. Trump, Musk, and Kennedy will all be heading out the door, all without feeling any blame.
I need to address the impact of not being vaccinated on hospitals; I saw this in Arizona. People who should have been vaccinated showed up at hospitals, and now that they had COVID-19, they wanted to be taken care of. The problem was that patients, such as those with cancer, had to be pushed aside to deal with COVID-19 patients. Try to imagine Kennedy’s impact on hospitals caring for patients who are not vaccinated because he publicizes his foolish notions about vaccinations.
Court cases have halted some of Trump’s cuts. Still, it is difficult to see them restoring much of what was eliminated to its original state, so expect adverse effects from many of Trump’s actions aimed at eliminating various programs.
One disturbing issue that has arisen in association with the measles outbreak is that doctors are noticing liver damage in unvaccinated children. Kennedy has pushed the use of cod liver oil and has discussed this on Fox News several times. There is an issue of toxicity from taking too much cod liver oil, which can lead to liver damage. It is puzzling that there are parents, apparently watching Kennedy push this alternative medicine approach on television to confront measles, and then following his advice rather than consulting their family doctors. This sounds comparable to people taking Ivermectin, a medication used to treat parasites in animals, to treat COVID-19.(*)
Trump has boasted on his site, Truth Social, “Balanced budget is going to happen.” However, one analyst made a valid point, again suggesting that the ripple effects of Musk’s work on behalf of Trump will be felt soon enough. He stated, “They’re talking about balancing the budget on the one hand, where on the other they’re making the problem 25% to 50% worse.”
The adverse effects of Musk’s actions are that he essentially operates autonomously with no oversight. A New York Times report referred to how people within the Trump administration look at Musk and his activity:
[E]ven senior White House officials tell the Times they’re being left in the dark as Musk exercises his unchecked power. Several former and current federal officials even told the outlet they’re feeling a sense of helplessness.
Musk’s ethics are questionable. The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) fined him $40 million, and he was required to step down as chairman of the Tesla board. One article stated, “it can be difficult to keep track of all of Musk’s legal liabilities.” Another report included a discussion with an authority on business ethics, who said:
The trust deficit that Musk’s behavior fosters spreads across his different ventures. Part of his defense in the Tesla trial was even to tell us that we shouldn’t trust him. Musk has now broken a record for personally losing the most money of anyone in history — $182 billion since November of 2021. He doesn’t seem like a star you’d hitch your wagon to.
Yet, this is the person Trump put in charge of the henhouse. Hopefully, we will not see the adage, “the fox guarding the henhouse,” come to pass.
(*) Kennedy visited Texas a week and a half ago and stated, “The most effective way to prevent the spread of measles is the MMR vaccine.” I wonder if his vaccination statement will be taken more seriously than his claims about cod liver oil. Added to any attempt to encourage more vaccinations was Kennedy’s undercutting his statement in support of the measles vaccine by promoting medications from two Texas doctors whom Kennedy called “extraordinary healers.” An American Academy of Pediatrics spokesman said, “There is no evidence to support the use of [the medications] for treatment of children with measles.”
Notes
Dr. Omer Awan, “Robert F. Kennedy’s cure for measles is making infected kids even sicker,” MSNBC (April 5, 2025): https://www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnbc-opinion/measles-children-texas-cod-liver-oil-rcna199761?utm_source=flipboard&utm_content=user/msnbc
Martha J. Bailey, Shugiao Sun, Brenden Timpe, “Prep School for Poor Kids: The Long-Run Impacts of Head Start on Human Capital and Economic Self-Sufficiency,” NIH, National Library of Medicine (April 12, 2022): https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9005064/
Moriah Balingit, “Mass layoffs rattle Head Start leaders already on edge over funding problems,” AP (April 2, 2025): https://apnews.com/article/head-start-office-closures-hhs-trump-00b1a6b33ef918cb66e59b7ffb07ac13#
Lauren Bauer, “Does Head Start work? The debate over the Head Start Impact Study, explained,” Brookings (June 14, 2019): https://www.brookings.edu/articles/does-head-start-work-the-debate-over-the-head-start-impact-study-explained/
aria Bendix, Liz Szabo and Brandy Zadrozny, “Kennedy draws from misinformation playbook by touting an inhaled steroid to treat measles,” NBC News (April 9, 2025): https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/kennedy-draws-misinformation-playbook-touting-inhaled-steroid-treat-me-rcna200085
Joseph Choi, “HHS report finds incidents of abuse, neglect and unauthorized release in Head Start programs,” The Hill (September 28, 2022): https://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/3665072-hhs-report-finds-incidents-of-abuse-neglect-and-unauthorized-release-in-head-start-programs/
Paul Dans and Stephen Groves, Mandate for Leadership: The Conservative Promise, Project 2025, Presidential Transition Project (Washington, D.C., The Heritage Foundation, 2023): https://media.snopes.com/2024/06/2025_mandate_for_leadership_compressed.pdf. Chapter 14 refers briefly to Head Start. On page 482, Head Start is addressed in one paragraph. There are 87 endnotes for this chapter, but no reference to any studies supporting the author’s position that Head Start is ineffective.
Dave Davies, “A former inspector general shares stories of government waste, fraud, and abuse,” npr (October 17, 2024): https://www.npr.org/2024/10/17/g-s1-28713/a-former-inspector-general-shares-stories-of-government-waste-fraud-and-abuse
Fact Sheet: President Donald J. Trump Eliminates Information Silos to Stop Waste, Fraud, and Abuse, The White House (March 20, 2025): https:// www.whitehouse.gov/fact-sheets/2025/03/fact-sheet-president-donald-j-trump-eliminates-information-silos-to-stop-waste-fraud-and-abuse-60f3/
Federal Government Made $236 billion ‘Improper Payments’ Last Fiscal Year, U.S. Government Accountability Office, March 26, 2024): https:// www.gao.gov/blog/federal-government-made-236-billion-improper-payments-last-fiscal-year
Andrew J. Hawkins, “Elon Musk’s securities fraud trial is underway-here’s what you need to know,” Installer (January 17, 2023): https://www.theverge.com/23558736/elon-musk-securities-fraud-trial-funding-secured-tweet
Katie Hawkinson, “Musk has autonomy ‘almost no one can control’ as he oversees unprecedented overhaul of federal workforce,” Independent (February 4, 2025): https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/elon-musk-doge-trump-government-overhaul-b2692074.html
Head Start Program Facts: Fiscal Year 2023, HeadStart.gov, U.S. Department of Health & Human Services: https://headstart.gov/program-data/article/head-start-program-facts-fiscal-year-2023
John Griffin, Samuel Kruger, Prateek Mahajan, “Did FinTech Lenders Facilitate PPP Fraud,” Social Science Research Network (August 15, 2022): https://ssrn-3906395.pdf, OR, ssrn-3906395.pdf
Sahil Kapur, “Despite DOGE, Trump’s agenda calls for trillions of dollars to U.S. debt,” NBC News (February 19, 2025): https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/doge/doge-trumps-agenda-calls-adding-trillions-dollars-us-debt-rcna191665
Richard Lardner, Jennifer McDermott and Aaron Kessler, “The Greatest Grift: How billions in COVID-19 relief aid was stolen or wasted,” AP (June 12, 2023): https://apnews.com/article/pandemic-fraud-waste-billions-small-business-labor-fb1d9a9eb24857efbe4611344311ae78
Meathead “BBQ Hall” @meathead on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=666166532675880&set=a.119489917343547
Scott Pelley, Aliza Chasan, Maria Gavrilovic, Alex Ortz, “Watchdogs fired by Trump raise alarms over future of independent government oversight,” CBS News (March 9, 2025): https://www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-firings-watchdogs-inspectors-general-60-minutes/
Alanna Quillen and Alicia Barrera, “Dallas County cancels 50 community vaccination events as DOGE cuts CDC, FDA jobs,” 5 NBCDFW (April 1, 2025): https://www.nbcdfw.com/news/health/dallas-county-cancels-50-community-vaccination-events-doge-cuts-cdc-fda-jobs/3805663/
Philip Rucker, Karen DeYoung, Lisa Rein, and Hannah Knowles, “Trump ramps up retaliatory purge with firing of State Department inspector general,” Washington Post (May 16, 2020): https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-ramps-up-retaliatory-purge-with-firing-of-state-department-inspector-general/2020/05/16/8f8b55da-979a-11ea-82b4-c8db161ff6e5_story.html
‘You shouldn’t be a jerk to get ahead,’” Harvard Law Today (February 7, 2023): https://hls.harvard.edu/today/the-business-ethics-of-elon-musk-tesla-twitter-and-the-tech-industry/
Aleksandra Wrona, “Yes, Project 2025 Wants to Eliminate Head Start,” Snopes (November 25, 2024): https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/project-2025-head-start/. This can be read as a shorter version that presents Project 2025’s perspective on Head Start. The full chapter 14, where Head Start is mentioned, is referenced above.
Brandy Zadrozny, “How Kennedy is already weakening America’s childhood vaccine system,” NBC News (April 3, 2025): https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/rfk-jr-vaccines-children-weakening-system-hhs-budget-cuts-rcna199188?utm_source=flipboard&utm_content=topic/health
