Hegseth says Defense Dept eliminates hundreds of millions in ‘wasteful’ spending after DOGE findings

U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said wasteful spending is over as he signed a memo to cancel over $580 million in Department of Defense (DoD) contracts.

“We’re back with another quick update on our efforts to cut wasteful spending and cut it quickly at the Department of Defense,” Hegseth announced in a post on X.

“Today, I’m signing a memo directing the termination of over $580 million in DoD contracts, in grants that do not match the priorities of this president or this department. In other words, they are not a good use of taxpayer dollars.”

Hegseth said that they owe Americans transparency, sharing details on some of the contracts and grants that have been canceled.

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“There’s an HR software effort that was supposed to take a year and cost $36 million, but instead it’s taken eight years and is currently $280 million over budget, not delivering what it was supposed to. So that’s 780% over budget. We’re not doing that anymore,” Hegseth vowed.

Hegseth added that they uncovered another batch of DoD grants, totaling $360 million worth, that decarbonizing emissions from Navy ships – part of the Obama-Biden Green agenda. 

“That’s 6 million bucks, $5.2 million on something that would diversify and engage the Navy by engaging underrepresented Bipoc students and scholars. Another $9 million at a university to approach equitable AI and machine learning models. I need lethal machine learning model, not equitable machine learning models,” Hegseth explained.

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On this third point, Hegseth said Thursday’s other cuts included wasteful spending on external consulting services. 

“30 million bucks in contracts with Gartner and McKinsey. That’s IT purchasing unused licenses. So when you add it all up, $580 million in DoD contracts and grants DOGE is helping us cut today,” Hegseth said.

When added up all together, Hegseth said that over $800 million in wasteful spending has been canceled over the first few weeks, as DoD partners with DOGE “to make sure that our warfighters have what they need by cutting the waste, fraud, and abuse.”

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“They’re working hard. We’re working hard with them. We appreciate the work that they’re doing, and we have a lot more coming. So stay tuned,” Hegseth said. 

“So, might as well not waste any more time right now, just sign this thing. How about that? So this makes it official. We’re going to keep going for you guys,” Hegseth said while signing the orders. 

“Have we ever seen this level of transparency? Amazing, thank you @SecDef,” Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., commented on Hegseth’s post.

Back in February, Hegseth committed to cooperating with DOGE to cut wasteful spending at the Department of Defense.

“We will partner with them. It’s long overdue. The Defense Department’s got a huge budget, but it needs to be responsible,” Hegseth previously told Fox News. 

As of Thursday afternoon, 239 “wasteful” contracts with a “ceiling value” of $1.7 billion have been terminated over a two-day period, DOGE announced. 

Fox News Digital’s Deirdre Heavey and Louis Casiano contributed to this report.