(NewsNation) — Elon Musk’s new Department of Government Efficiency did not find the Pentagon spent $600 million on sushi and it never claimed to, despite social media posts online.
A Facebook post earlier this week showed a statement wrongly attributed to Musk. It claimed to detail federal spending uncovered by DOGE.
“My experience with DOGE has been totally wild so far. I told you yesterday about the $600 million per year the Pentagon was spending on Sushi,” the text of the statement reads.
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It goes on to say: “Well, I just found another wild one! The Air Force was spending $1,280 per paper coffee cup! Like literally those ones you find at the office. $1280!!! We also found that $230k per month was being spent by the IRS on Starbucks Cinnamon Roast K Cups, but everyone was working from home!”
The claims about the Pentagon and the Air Force were attributed to Musk but they appear to have originated from a parody account on X. The tech billionaire never said them.
An X account named @iamnot_Elon, which is labeled as a parody, posted the statement Jan. 26.
Several days later, a Facebook post Feb. 3 matched the statement essentially word-for-word but attributed it to Musk himself.
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The Facebook post was shared more than 3,000 times in three days, according to USA Today. Similar versions circulated on other social media platforms like Instagram and Threads.
Several users on X appeared to be confused by the satirical post.
One account replied: “This is ridiculous, they just trash taxpayers money.”
Another wrote: “Stop, no way. We really need to out the party that approved those expenses.”
The official DOGE account on X has been sharing the new transparency unit’s work but there are no posts about pricey Pentagon sushi.
PolitiFact has also debunked the claim in the Facebook post.
