Despite promises to cut spending during the campaign and first few months in office, President Trump’s federal government has spent approximately $220 billion more in his first 100 days than in the same period last year.
In fact, the government now spends more per day than it did in nine of the previous ten years. The exception was 2021, when the government spent trillions of dollars to combat the coronavirus pandemic and avoid an economic disaster.
CBS News examined the Treasury Department’s daily financial reports to track the money that has flowed out of every government account since Mr. Trump returned to office. Here’s a breakdown of what we discovered.
Some may wonder how that is possible given Mr. Trump’s high-profile announcements of layoffs, canceled contracts, claims of fraud elimination by the Elon Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency, and the administration’s belt-tightening measures.
The answer lies in the fundamentals of the government’s budget, particularly big-ticket expenditures over which the White House has little control, as well as massive changes to how the United States pays for aging Americans’ retirements and medical care.
The remainder of the answer is political. The conservative base that elected Mr. Trump, as well as Republican majorities in Congress, may be unwilling to cut the other largest share of federal spending, which includes military operations and veterans’ care.
Take a look at some of the areas with the highest spending and increases in Mr. Trump’s first 100 days when compared to the same time periods in previous years.
According to our analysis of the Treasury Department’s daily account reports, direct payments to the military and seniors account for a large portion of the most persistently rising costs.
The federal government’s habit of spending more money than it receives means the national debt is increasing. When combined with higher interest rates, the daily cost of paying interest on debt skyrockets. The amount paid out in the last three months is roughly double that of three years ago.
Furthermore, the daily payments on bonds and other securities shown in the Treasury Daily Statement only include cash interest paid to public debt holders. Other aspects of the government’s debt obligations only contribute to the cost.
The civilian workforce is one way the Trump administration can have an impact on the budget, and Musk and DOGE have focused on this through layoffs and buyouts. However, many of these attempts have been thwarted by legal challenges, resulting in delays or reversed firings.
Despite the announced staff reductions, one of the most significant areas of increased spending at the start of Mr. Trump’s second term is federal salaries. Workers received a 2% raise when then-President Biden signed an executive order two days before Christmas, which was made possible by Congress’ failure to pass permanent federal budgets.
The military and veterans, Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and debt payments have collectively accounted for the majority of federal spending over the last decade. In the previous fiscal year, they accounted for nearly two-thirds of federal government spending. That breakdown has remained largely unchanged over the last decade.
The vast majority of DOGE’s attempted cuts thus far have been outside those areas, focusing on smaller targets that may appeal to President Trump’s political base, such as foreign aid, the Education Department, and college and university grants.
“If the savings are small and the pain is high, DOGE will be a liability,” said Nat Malkus, a senior fellow at the conservative-leaning American Enterprise Institute who has been following DOGE’s progress.
“If you truly want to reduce federal spending, you must cut programs that receive the majority of the funds. That includes Medicare and Medicaid, as well as Social Security, and we pay a lot of interest,” Malkus said.
There are some significant one-year spending reductions in some agencies and spending categories.
Here are some of the largest reductions since Mr. Trump took office.
“The fiscal year ends on September 30.” There’s still a lot of the year left, so let’s see where we stand at the end of the year,” said Stephen Miller, White House Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy.
A look at DOGE cuts advertised
Musk’s DOGE team has focused on many smaller federal program spenders.
DOGE’s website claims that the task force has already saved $160 billion by canceling grants, contracts, and leases and reducing the federal workforce. On its “wall of receipts” website, the office reports that the Department of Health and Human Services, General Services Administration, Department of Education, Department of Labor, and Office of Personnel Management have made the most significant reductions thus far.
Only about $60 billion, or less than 40%, of the alleged savings are itemized on the office’s online “wall of receipts,” and even those itemizations contain errors and poor documentation.
However, even the $160 billion advertised as saved thus far would be insignificant in the context of the larger federal budget and national debt.
In just over three months, the administration has spent about $220 billion more than last year, according to CBS News’ analysis of Treasury reports.
The advertised savings amount to less than 2% of a full year’s national budget. That’s equivalent to a family with $10,000 in monthly spending cutting its expenses by $200 per month.
Supporters of the administration’s cost-cutting efforts argue that it is necessary to eliminate fraud and waste while also reducing the national debt. However, the Treasury Department reports that debt is $36 trillion as of this week.
The $160 billion advertised DOGE savings represent approximately 0.5% of the debt, so the reduction from DOGE’s efforts is equivalent to a family with $10,000 in credit card balances paying it down by $50.
An independent analysis by the Partnership for Public Service, a nonpartisan nonprofit that studies the federal workforce, recently reported that the disruptions caused by the DOGE cuts could have cost taxpayers $135 million.
Musk recently announced that his work with DOGE is coming to a close.
Explore the spending details yourself
You can review the government’s daily account ledgers for yourself. We’ve broken down the money spent by category in the first few months of the Trump administration and compared it to the same time period in the previous decade.
You can search for agencies or spending categories below to see how spending has changed over time and how much is being spent during the Trump administration’s first 100 days. Since January 20, 2025, we’ve limited the table to agencies and categories that spend at least $100 million.