By Tom Ozimek

The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) said federal agencies terminated or scaled back 14 additional contracts over the past two days, cutting nearly $98 million in spending in a Christmas Eve update that described the cancellations as a purge of “naughty” government deals.

The contracts carried a combined ceiling value of about $190 million and were eliminated or reduced as part of the Trump administration’s campaign to rein in federal spending, DOGE said in a social media post late Dec. 24.

“Over the last 2 days, agencies terminated and descoped 14 NAUGHTY contracts with a ceiling value of $190M and savings of $98M,” DOGE wrote. “Including a $27k Veterans Affairs utilities contract for ‘two 8-passenger golf carts.’ Merry Xmas!”

While the holiday-themed language marked a lighter tone, the announcement reflects an ongoing effort by the administration to continue contract reviews and cut those that it deems wasteful, duplicative, or badly aligned with core government missions.

Contract Review Continues

The Christmas Eve update follows a larger announcement earlier this week in which DOGE said agencies had terminated or reduced 55 contracts with a combined ceiling value of $863 million over a five-day period, eliminating an estimated $261 million in spending tied to what the task force described as “wasteful.”

Among the contracts canceled earlier this week was a $1.6 million Housing and Urban Development agreement for support management services intended to “provide coherent, accurate, comprehensive, timely and current digital news,” DOGE said. Another involved a $4.5 million Health and Human Services consulting contract for the “coordination of quality and public reporting programs and websites.”

The latest cancellations build on a series of similar announcements made in recent weeks. Earlier this month, DOGE said agencies had terminated or reduced 43 contracts with a combined ceiling value of $3.5 billion, yielding savings of $222 million.

Those contracts included a $4.3 million Treasury Department information technology agreement to “develop a comprehensive strategic narrative and management approach aimed at the Human Centered Transformation and Enhanced Partnerships,” as well as a $29 million Commerce Department consulting contract for program management services.

‘Promises Made, Promises Kept’

DOGE estimates that total savings since its creation now exceed $214 billion, an amount the task force says equates to roughly $1,329 per taxpayer. The savings figure includes reductions tied not only to contract cancellations, but also to asset sales, workforce reductions, interest savings, regulatory changes, grant cancellations, and the elimination of fraud and improper payments.

According to DOGE, the Department of Health and Human Services accounts for the largest share of savings to date, followed by the General Services Administration, the Social Security Administration, the Office of Personnel Management, and the Small Business Administration.

The contract terminations come amid broader federal workforce reductions under President Donald Trump, who has pledged to shrink the size of the federal bureaucracy, streamline government operations, and reduce long-term spending obligations.

DOGE recently reposted a Dec. 16 statement from the Trump communications team saying federal employment has fallen to its lowest level since 2014, declining by about 271,000 jobs since Trump returned to office.

“Promises made, promises kept,” the post said.

‘Zombie Payments’

Former DOGE head Elon Musk offered an assessment of the initiative’s performance in a wide-ranging podcast interview earlier this month, saying the task force was “somewhat successful” in curbing wasteful federal spending while acknowledging the effort fell short of its most ambitious goals.

Speaking on The Katie Miller Podcast on Dec. 9, Musk said DOGE succeeded in blocking billions of dollars in improper federal disbursements by tightening payment controls and exposing what he described as entrenched “zombie payments” within government systems.

DOGE initially aimed to identify as much as $2 trillion in waste and fraud, a target Musk later revised to $1 trillion. While that goal was not reached, Musk said the initiative nevertheless halted large volumes of spending that lacked clear justification.

“I mean, we stopped a lot of funding that really just made no sense, that was entirely wasteful,” he said, estimating that improper or unnecessary “zombie payments” totaled between $100 billion and $200 billion annually.

Musk said DOGE focused on enforcing basic accountability measures, including requiring valid payment codes and explanations for federal disbursements—steps he said were often missing.

“Simply by enforcing that there be a payment code and an explanation for the payment, that payment wouldn’t go out,” he said. “It seems insanely obvious, but there are just, call it, 2 or 3 percent of government payments that go out that really should not be going out.”