In November, President-elect Donald Trump made a surprising move by appointing Elon Musk and billionaire Vivek Ramaswamy to lead a new government panel called the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). Their mission? To find and cut wasteful spending in the U.S. government and save taxpayers billions, or even trillions, of dollars. The goal is to clean up unnecessary expenses and make sure taxpayers aren’t footing the bill for ridiculous or pointless projects.
On Friday, DOGE shared a post on social media that asked a bold question: What does the US Government use taxpayer dollars for? The answer turned out to be quite shocking, revealing some truly bizarre programs and studies that the government has spent millions on.
One of the most jaw-dropping revelations was a $6.97 million project to create “smart toilets” that can recognize a person’s “anal print.” Yes, you read that right. These toilets use cameras and artificial intelligence to identify users by their unique “anal prints” (much like fingerprints). They also analyze urine and stool to monitor a person’s health and send the information to a secure cloud. It sounds more like science fiction than a legitimate government project, but it’s real.
But that’s not all. The government also spent $2.3 million funding a controversial experiment where beagle puppies were injected with cocaine to study its effects on their hearts and blood vessels. This experiment, which took place between 2020 and 2021, sparked public outrage, as many people were disturbed by the idea of testing cocaine on animals.
In another strange project, $118,000 was used to study whether a robot made to look like Marvel’s Thanos could actually snap his fingers, like the character does in the Avengers movies. Yes, scientists spent money trying to figure out if a metal replica of Thanos could create a snapping motion strong enough to replicate the one in the movie.
And in a bizarre case of science meeting nature, $75,000 was spent on a study that used leaf blowers to simulate hurricanes and test how lizards survive being blown off trees. Researchers wanted to know how lizards would react when hit by powerful gusts of wind and used leaf blowers to replicate hurricane-like conditions.
These strange and unexpected projects were revealed by DOGE as part of Musk’s plan to make the government more efficient and reduce wasteful spending. Musk has been vocal about the need to curb the U.S. government’s growing debt, warning that if spending isn’t cut, the country could go bankrupt. He promised to save American taxpayers trillions of dollars, and now, thanks to DOGE, the world is seeing just how strange some of that spending really is.
With these new revelations, many are left wondering: How much more government waste is out there? And more importantly, How much taxpayer money is still being spent on bizarre, useless projects that could be better used elsewhere? Musk and Ramaswamy’s mission is just beginning, and it’s clear they have a lot of work ahead of them to clean up the mess.
