Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) has unleashed a list of some unexpected programs and products that the US government had been reportedly spending the budget money on, including ‘anal prints’ and experiments injecting puppies with cocaine.
In November, President-elect Donald Trump appointed Musk and billionaire Vivek Ramaswamy to lead DOGE, a panel aimed at reducing federal government waste through audits and reforms. While specific targets remain unclear, Musk has pledged to save taxpayers trillions by curbing inefficient spending.
On Friday, the DOGE issued a post on social media platform X, captioning it ‘What does the US Government use taxpayer dollars for?’
The following list shows that $6.97 million has been spent on studying ‘smart toilets’ that recognize the user’s ‘anal print,’ while $2.3 million went into studies on injecting dogs with cocaine. Some $118,000 was reportedly dedicated to studying whether a metal replica robot of Marvel Comics’ Thanos could snap his fingers, and $75,000 was given in grants on a Harvard study on lizards being blown off trees with leaf blowers.
One of DOGE’s links referenced a 2021 RealClear Policy article on a Stanford study that received $6.97 million in funding. It described smart toilets equipped with AI and cameras to identify users’ unique ‘anal prints,’ analyze urine and stool for health monitoring, and send the data to a secure cloud.
Other studies included the National Science Foundation’s (NSF) $75,000 project simulating hurricanes using leaf blowers to observe lizard survival tactics. Additionally, from 2020-2021, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) spent $2.3 million on experiments injecting beagle dogs with cocaine to study cardiovascular effects, which drew some public criticism.
According to a Treasury Department website, the federal government spends money on a variety of goods, programs, and services to support the American public.
During his campaign, Trump promised that if he won the November election, he would establish a “government efficiency” commission headed by Musk. The tech billionaire has repeatedly sounded the alarm over US debt, warning that the country is spiraling toward bankruptcy and will quickly go bust if Washington doesn’t curb its spending.
At the time, Musk promised to save American taxpayers trillions of dollars if the Republican candidate won, claiming that “taxpayer money is being wasted and the Department of Government Efficiency is going to fix that.”