Is DOGE discovering fraud? Trump claims US debt may be lower than expected

The U.S. debt may not be as high as it seems, as there may be "fraudulent" debt.

On February 10th local time, Global Network reported that Trump detailed his plan to appoint Elon Musk, head of the U.S. "Department of Government Efficiency," to investigate wasteful spending in the Department of Education and the Department of Defense, revealing that the "Department of Government Efficiency" could review military and education spending "within 24 hours."

In addition, Trump stated that the U.S. government is reviewing the payment situation of U.S. Treasury bonds, looking for possible wasteful spending and "fraudulent" debt, and hinted that the U.S. may not have a debt burden as high as $36 trillion. Trump said:

"Perhaps a lot of that (debt) doesn't count, in other words, some of the things we've discovered may involve serious fraud, so maybe our debt is less than we think."

However, it should be noted that it is currently unclear whether Trump's "less than imagined" refers to interest payments on Treasury bonds or other government expenditures conducted by the Treasury Department.

According to data from the U.S. Treasury, the current total public debt of the United States is $36.2 trillion, exceeding 120% of GDP. Moreover, as government spending exceeds revenue, Trump and the Republicans controlling Congress will need to approve further borrowing at some point this year to avoid a debt default.

Unlike Trump's somewhat vague statements, Musk has strongly criticized the Treasury Department for large-scale fraudulent activities.

Recently, the "Department of Government Efficiency" (DOGE) led by Musk gained access to sensitive payroll and financial expenditure records, raising concerns about privacy and security.

Last Saturday, Federal Judge Paul Engelmayer temporarily blocked Musk's team from accessing the government's payment system, which processes trillions of dollars in payments annually, noting that this could lead to the improper disclosure of sensitive information.

In response, Musk posted on social media platform X, strongly criticizing, stating that the DOGE team had already discovered significant vulnerabilities in the Treasury's payment system and that there were large-scale fraudulent activities within the Treasury. Musk wrote:

"I learned that the Treasury pays over $100 billion a year in subsidies to individuals without Social Security Numbers (SSN) or even temporary ID numbers. If this data is accurate, it is extremely suspicious.

When I asked if anyone inside the Treasury had a rough estimate of the proportion that clearly belongs to fraud, the consensus in the room was about 50%, which is $50 billion a year, or $10 billion a week! This is just crazy and must be addressed immediately."