State Auditor Shad White is replicating the success of Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) in Mississippi, and just announced an 800-page report Monday detailing a stunning $400 million in government waste uncovered by his office during his tenure.
White told Fox News that his team has recently started calling themselves “MOGE,” the Mississippi Office of Government Efficiency, drawing inspiration from Musk’s DOGE in the Trump administration.
“In the last few weeks, we’ve jokingly started calling ourselves MOGE, the Mississippi Office of Government Efficiency, like Elon Musk’s DOGE,” White said. “We approach our work with the same attention to every penny as DOGE, and I’m happy to be Mississippi’s Musk.”
The comprehensive audit reveals wasteful spending and fraud across numerous state agencies and programs. Among the findings are tens of millions of dollars in Medicaid subsidies going to income-ineligible Mississippians and a state agency spending nearly $6,000 each on televisions – approximately three times what the federal government pays for similar technology.
“So, if you think the federal government is inefficient, I promise you, your state governments around the country are likely even less efficient,” White said.
Even in Mississippi, a traditionally conservative state, White’s team discovered $11 million in taxpayer funding directed to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs at colleges. The auditor expressed particular concern about how many “woke” programs are quietly funded with taxpayer dollars.
“When you dig into what they’re doing with all of this staff time and all of these resources, they were doing things like holding microaggression training sessions for engineers — I don’t know why we need to do that. They were handing out grants for social justice yoga for preschoolers. Just crazy stuff,” White said.
The waste extends to welfare appropriations as well. White’s office found money intended for community gardens that were never built and funds meant to help impoverished residents that instead went toward executive salaries at nonprofits.
“We found dollars supposed to be going to poor folks going to pay for sponsorship of beauty pageants,” White added.
The misuse of funds is particularly troubling in Mississippi, where approximately 20% of residents live below the poverty line, making efficient use of public funds crucial.
White emphasized that his office has been working on this project for the past couple of years, but noted that President Trump and Elon Musk’s DOGE initiative has brought renewed attention to government waste.
“What’s encouraging right now is that President Trump and Elon Musk are doing DOGE, which has raised public awareness about the amount of fraud, waste and abuse in government,” White said. “So, people are starting to look closely at what we’ve uncovered. In our time in the state auditor’s office, my team and I have uncovered about $400 million worth of waste.”
While state auditors can identify wasteful spending, they cannot directly cut these programs. Instead, White’s office alerts state lawmakers to their findings, who then have the authority to address the issues through legislation or budget adjustments.
White believes similar inefficiencies exist across all levels of government and encourages other states to conduct their own waste audits.
“Really, I think the big-picture point here is, this kind of waste happens at every level of government. And now that DOGE is taking the lead and showing the country how much fraud, waste and abuse there is, it’s really incumbent on every single state government to take a look at their own house and make sure that that fraud, waste, and abuse isn’t happening in state government, too.”
White noted that Oklahoma auditor Cindy Byrd is working on a similar initiative, and he’s in conversation with other state auditors about implementing comparable programs.
“Whether it’s your state auditor or a key state legislator or the governor, really, every state needs to be starting a DOGE,” White said.