Hegseth Hands DOGE Greater Power Over Pentagon Contracts as Elon Musk Bids Farewell to Government Role

As Elon Musk concludes his official government service, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is making a bold move that ensures the influence of Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, will not only endure but expand.

In a sweeping new directive issued this week, Hegseth has empowered the DOGE team embedded at the Pentagon with enhanced oversight capabilities over unclassified contracting, giving them input on all major spending decisions before deals are finalized.

This is the clearest sign yet that the Trump administration’s anti-waste crusade, spearheaded by Musk and backed by Hegseth, is becoming a permanent structural force inside the Department of Defense.

Musk, who had served as a special government employee since the start of President Donald Trump’s second term, used his limited window of public service to launch an aggressive campaign against what he and others described as decades of bloated federal waste, inefficiency, and inertia.

Now, even as his official tenure ends, the mechanisms he helped create — especially DOGE — are being hardwired into one of the government’s largest and most complex bureaucracies. The implications for federal procurement and defense spending are enormous.

In a May 27 memo addressed to top Pentagon officials, Hegseth laid out a precise and expansive new framework giving the DOGE team the opportunity to review nearly every unclassified contract before it reaches the final procurement stage.

That means the watchdog group will have the chance to examine documents such as performance work statements, cost estimates, descriptions of deliverables, and approval forms, giving them significant influence in shaping — or potentially halting — projects that don’t meet efficiency standards.

This process also extends to modifications or change orders that increase the value of existing contracts. In other words, even after a contract is underway, if there’s a proposed price hike or expansion of scope, DOGE will get another look.

Hegseth made clear that the goal is not to paralyze the procurement system with endless oversight but to inject an intelligent layer of scrutiny focused on eliminating waste.

To that end, his directive includes a critical safeguard: if DOGE fails to respond to a review request within two business days, the contract will move forward as usual.

This clause ensures that DOGE’s expanded authority does not become a bottleneck — a vital balance between reform and responsiveness.

This expanded role is the clearest endorsement yet of DOGE’s work across the federal government, and particularly within the Pentagon. According to Hegseth, the DOGE team has already contributed to more than $10 billion in savings through internal audits and rigorous contract reviews.

These efforts included a granular examination of over 50 contract vehicles, where inefficiencies and duplicative spending were uncovered and slashed.

In a video posted Wednesday to X, the social media platform owned by Musk, Hegseth announced the new directive while praising the impact of the DOGE initiative.

Standing against a backdrop of military precision and economic reform, Hegseth proclaimed that the work with DOGE was only beginning, framing the collaboration as the foundation of a broader cultural shift within government — one that treats taxpayer dollars with reverence and treats inefficiency as a national threat.

Musk echoed those sentiments in his own post, thanking President Trump for the opportunity to serve and declaring that DOGE would remain a powerful engine of reform long after his personal role had concluded.

"The DOGE mission will only strengthen over time as it becomes a way of life throughout the government," Musk wrote, signaling his ongoing support for the project even outside a formal title.

The new Hegseth memo outlines the practicalities of how this oversight process will work. The Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment, or USD(A&S), has been tasked with developing a workflow model in collaboration with DOGE within two weeks.

This process will formalize the review timelines, notification systems, and escalation procedures necessary to keep contracting efficient while respecting DOGE’s watchdog function.

Not every contract will fall under DOGE's purview. Hegseth’s memo provides initial exemptions for certain categories of work, including emergency operations, contracts performed entirely outside the U.S., and those with a total value of under $1 million.

These carveouts appear tailored to maintain the agility of frontline military operations and low-risk logistical efforts, which could be disrupted by new layers of review.

Still, for the vast majority of defense procurements — which often involve massive sums and long-term obligations — DOGE will now serve as a crucial gatekeeper.

This moment marks a broader turning point in the Trump administration’s drive to embed business-minded reforms deep within the government’s core. What began as a Musk-led experiment in fiscal discipline is now transforming into a permanent layer of accountability.

Unlike other reform initiatives that have faded with changing administrations, DOGE is designed to be operationally integrated, not politically symbolic.

For Hegseth, the move underscores a larger philosophy that has defined his tenure as Secretary of Defense — a belief that strength abroad must be matched by discipline at home.

Cutting waste and demanding accountability isn’t just about saving money; it’s about ensuring that America’s warfighters have the resources they need when they need them. Every dollar wasted on a mismanaged contract is a dollar not spent on defense readiness, advanced technology, or troop welfare.

The defense contracting system has long been one of the federal government’s most opaque and complicated structures, plagued by delays, cost overruns, and insufficient oversight.

Reforms have come and gone, often with little lasting impact. But the Hegseth-Musk vision seeks to change that by embedding permanent scrutiny at the point of decision — not after the fact.

By giving DOGE access to requirements packages before contracts are even drafted, the Pentagon is shifting from reactive audits to proactive stewardship.

There are, of course, questions about how DOGE’s influence will be exercised in real-world scenarios. Will the team merely offer recommendations, or could they actively block contracting efforts?

Hegseth’s memo does not specify enforcement powers, but by institutionalizing DOGE’s role in the acquisition chain, it is clear that their assessments will carry substantial weight.

At a minimum, procurement officers will now need to prepare every contract with the understanding that it will be scrutinized not only by financial officers and legal counsel but by a team laser-focused on efficiency and value.

The memo also builds in protections to prevent DOGE’s expansion from becoming a bureaucratic obstacle. The two-day review window ensures speed, and the exemption criteria allow operations to continue unimpeded in urgent scenarios.

These design features suggest that Hegseth’s directive was not rushed or reactionary but was the result of careful planning and real-world understanding of the military procurement landscape.

Perhaps most significantly, this policy shift reflects a deeper alignment between leadership and reform. Hegseth, a former Army officer and longtime advocate for military accountability, has shown through this directive that reform does not have to mean paralysis.

It can mean clarity, discipline, and empowerment — values that resonate deeply within military culture.

As Musk steps back from his formal government role, his impact remains deeply embedded in the systems he helped reform.

The DOGE mission, as both he and Hegseth have made clear, is no longer an experiment. It is now a structural component of the Defense Department’s contracting apparatus, with the potential to reshape how the military spends, operates, and prioritizes.

In the years to come, historians may look back at this memo not just as a bureaucratic shift but as the moment when defense contracting began to match the rigor and innovation of the very missions it supports.

And in that moment, the names Hegseth and Musk will be inseparably linked — not for tweets or titles, but for creating a government that finally made efficiency a first principle, not an afterthought.