U.S. Government: Leak allegedly reveals DOGE list of „wasteful projects“

Henrik Schönemann, a historian from Berlin, has discovered content on newly registered U.S. government websites under the domains dei.gov and waste.gov that apparently was not intended for public access. On February 5, the Reuters news agency reported that the White House had registered the two domains.

According to the report, the domains could be used to promote Donald Trump’s agenda and Elon Musk’s „DOGE“ initiative against what they perceive as wasteful government spending and diversity-related projects. The abbreviation DEI stands for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. The name of the domain likely refers to an executive order issued by Donald Trump on January 20, aimed at curbing government spending in these areas.

Schönemann’s discovery could support the assumptions made in the Reuters report. The historian found the content of dei.gov and waste.gov using software that scans .gov domains for changes. Shortly after Schönemann located the content, access was restricted, and the material is now password-protected.

A list of „wasteful projects“

A long list of alleged government expenditures, presented on the domain waste.gov as „waste,“ briefly appeared on both sites, which displayed identical content.

We have not been able to independently verify the figures and claims in the list. The information could also be part of a targeted disinformation campaign. The Trump administration could use the list to justify its administrative coup, for instance.

Henrik Schönemann speculates that the U.S. government may use the list as part of a wider campaign. „It’s no longer just individuals, TV stations, and social media,“ he says, „but now the rumblings are also coming from official government websites.“

According to the list, the Biden administration allocated $500 million to „environmental justice“ consultants. Other expenditures reportedly include millions for LGBTQ+ programs, a Malaysian dating app, and even an organization allegedly linked to al-Qaeda. The list also claims a $20 million grant was awarded to produce an episode of „Sesame Street“ in Iraq.

Many questions remain

On February 11, the list, which we publish in full, was only accessible online for approximately 30 minutes.

The domains dei.gov and waste.gov were registered on February 4, 2025. Currently, dei.gov redirects to waste.gov. The websites are hosted by the private company Automattic, which is an approved U.S. government contractor. In a recent job posting, Automattic sought applicants specifically for government contracts. The company’s CEO, Matt Mullenweg, is also the founder and lead developer of the WordPress publishing system.

The list of alleged expenditures closely aligns with narratives that Elon Musk has been promoting on his platform X (formerly Twitter) in recent months. Musk has frequently criticized diversity programs, climate change initiatives, and LGBTQ+ funding.

It remains unclear whether Musk is directly involved in the leaked list or whether it is part of a broader campaign. The White House and Elon Musk have not yet responded to requests for comment.

The media house Correctiv provided editorial and investigative support for this research.

The List

Liste von der Webseite dei.gov, abgerufen am 11. Februar 2025

• $78,000 to Palestinian activist group whose chairman was photographed attending an anniversary event celebrating the founding of the Popular Front for the Liberation of the Palestine terrorist group
• $1 Million for foreign DEI programs, including ‘indigenous language technology’ in Guatemala, per non-public funding docs reviewed by WFB
• Nearly $1 million to Hamas-linked charity that hosted terrorist leader’s son, per report from the Middle East Forum’s Focus on Western Islamism
• $3.4 million for Malaysian drug-fueled gay sex app
• $5 million for effort to treat eating disorders by “affirming” LGBTQIA+ patients’ sexual orientation and gender claims
• $1.5 million to address address racial, ethnic and income-based differences in vasectomy knowledge.
• $38.7 million annually for DEI work in addition to the roughly $30 million it spends on its Office of Minority Health
• Over $1 million on video game to help LGBTQ youth stop “binge drinking”
• Up to $3 million to defund the police advocacy group to pursue “climate justice” for convicts
• Nearly $500 million for Biden admin’s “environmental justice” advisors
• $50 million to a coalition that includes an “immigrant justice” group that pushes voter registration for traditionally Democrat-leaning demographics
• FEMA doled out $12 million in May 2023 to push “equity” and prioritize communities with high concentrations of racial and sexual minorities. Then, after Hurricanes Helene and Milton, fmr. DHS Sec. Mayorkas claimed that FEMA did not have the funds to make it through hurricane season
• The Biden administration’s 2022-2026 FEMA strategic plan listed “equity” as one of its top goals, with the agency also emphasizing “racial justice” trainings and funding DEI studies
• June study from Arizona State University found the Pentagon had turned into a “vast DEI bureaucracy” under the Biden administration, requesting a $114.7 million budget for DEI projects in FY 2024
• DoD Education Activity (DoDEA) approved a $2 million consulting contract for “equity”-focused management consulting firm BCT Partners to create an “action plan” for Pentagon-run schools
• $500,000 for research on “indigenous knowledge” – “a pseudoscience that posits native Indians possess unique insights into the workings of the universe”
• Over $100 million between 2021 and 2024 on education programs related to “restorative justice, social-emotional learning and DEI”
• Instituted an “equity action plan” in 2023 to “advanc[e] equity for historically marginalized and underserved communities”
• Funded performances of play “Angels in America: A Gay Fantasia on National Themes,” in which God is bisexual and communists are good, in North Macedonia
• Disbursed $15,000 to “queer” Muslim writers in India
• Shelled out tens of thousands to create army of 2,500 LGBTQI+ allies
• $1.6 million for the “Nancy Pelosi Fellowship Program” to diversify America’s diplomats
• Sponsored a set of $10,000 grants to “uplift transgender” youth in Peru via a ballroom dancing program
• Funded 31 programs across 23 countries to engage in “hip-hop diplomacy,” to promote “democratic values, boost climate activism and promote diversity”
• Provided $70,000 grant to produce a DEI musical in Ireland
• $500,000 to “expand atheism” in Nepal
• $25,000 to transgender opera in Colombia
• $2.5 million to electric vehicles in Vietnam
• Gave $32,000 in funding for a Peruvian “LGBT comic book”
• Provided $1.5 million grant to “advance diversity equity and inclusion in Serbia’s workplaces and business communities, by promoting economic empowerment of and opportunity for LGBTQI+ people in Serbia”
• $2 million for sex changes and “LGBT activism” in Guatemala
• $6 million to fund tourism in Egypt
• Spent $20 million on “Ahlan Simsim” – a new Sesame Street show in Iraq
• Over $4.5 million to “combat disinformation” in Kazakhstan
• Up to $10 million worth of USAID-funded meals went to al Qaeda-linked terrorist group the Nusra Front
• $500,000 to group that “empowers women” in attempt to solve sectarian violence in Israel just ten days before Hamas’ Oct. 7 attacks
• Awarded nearly $25 million to Deloitte to promote green transportation in Georgia (the country)
• $4.67 million to EcoHealth Alliance – one of the key NGOs funding bat virus research at Wuhan Institute of Virology — in late 2021. Later refused to answer key questions about the funding.
• $20 million for the Strengthening Transparency and Accountability through Investigative Reporting program which used the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) as its implementing partner. The OCCRP was cited four times in the whistleblower letter that led to the Russiagate impeachment.
• USAID’s 2022-2030 climate strategy outlined a $150 billion “whole-of-Agency approach” to building an “equitable world with net-zero greenhouse gas emissions”
• $7.9 million to a project that would teach Sri Lankan journalists to avoid “binary-gendered language”
• $1.1 million to an Armenian LGBT group.
• $1.2 million to the African Methodist Episcopal Church Service and Development Agency in Washington, DC to build “a state-of-the-art 440 seat auditorium”
• $1.3 million to Arab and Jewish photographers
• $1.5 million to promote LGBT advocacy in Jamaica.
• $1.5 million to “rebuild” the Cuban media ecosystem.
• $1.5 million for “art for inclusion of people with disabilities”
• $2 million to promote “LGBT equality through entrepreneurship…in developing Latin American countries.”
• $2.1 million so the BBC can strengthen the media ecosystem in Libya, “designed to value the diversity of of Libyan society”
• $2.3 million for “artisanal and small scale gold mining” in the Amazon.
• $2.5 million to promote “inclusion” in Vietnam.
• $3.9 million to LGBT causes in the Western Balkans
• $5.5 million to LGBT in Uganda.
• $6 million to advance LGBT in “priority countries around the world.”
• $6 million to “Transform Digital Spaces to Reflect Feminist Democratic Principles”
• $6.3 million to men who have sex with men in South Africa.
• $8.3 million for “USAID Education: Equity and Inclusion”
• Another $16.8 million to a separate group in Vietnam for “inclusion.”
• $15 million for “oral contraceptives and condoms” in Taliban-controlled Afghanistan, per non-public congressional funding notice reviewed by the Washington Free Beacon (WFB)
• New York Post: “Biden’s Education Department shelled our $1B on DEI since 2021: report”
  + “Researchers unearthed some $490 million on DEI hiring efforts, $343 million on DEI programming and $170 million on DEI-related mental health, according to a study from Parents Defending Education (PDE), a conservative organization that rallies against what it deems ‘harmful agendas’ in the classroom.”
• Foundation for Economic Education: “Biden Administration Prioritizes ‘Wokeism,’ Critical Race Theory In Schools”
• Education Week: “Biden Administration Cites 1619 Project as Inspiration in History Grant Proposal”
  + On the 50th anniversary of Title IX, Harris and Biden’s Department of Education “issued a new rule” that attempts to redefine the word “women.”
  + This move has “opened sex-segregated spaces like bathrooms, locker rooms, dorm rooms and single-sex admissions programs to anyone who identifies as a woman” and removed “commonsense” student protections in “campus sexual assault and harassment proceedings.”
• Hundreds of thousands for LGBT landmarks as US national parks remain billions of dollars behind on maintenance related to roads, buildings, and water systems
• Biden admin offered more than $800 Million in federal grants to use ‘indigenous knowledge’ – Native American pseudoscience – to solve issues ranging from drug abuse to climate change
• VA took at least a dozen actions aimed at bolstering DEI during the Biden-Harris administration while the number of homeless veterans increased and the amount of claims in the VA’s backlog grew from ~211,000 to ~378,000
• NASA has allocated roughly $10 million to grants advancing DEI and “environmental justice” since 2020
• In March 2022, the Department of Interior released a “Strategic Plan to Advance Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility in the Federal Workforce,” that touted Department’s Office of Diversity, Inclusion and Civil Rights, and their “Equity Office Hours.”
• Following President Trump’s executive order on DEI at federal agencies, the ATF “quietly changing the job title of its former diversity officer… to ‘senior executive’ with the ATF.”
• ATF’s Fiscal Year 2024 Congressional Budget Submission: “Currently, the ATF’s newly formed Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (ODEI), in accordance with statute, is committed to diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility (DEIA) by supporting initiatives that sought to remove barriers to equal opportunity and ensuring the ATF’s workforce has meaningful opportunities to develop to their full potential.”
• The Department of Labor requested additional funding in 2023 for “The Chief Evaluation Office for a new rigorous interagency evaluation of actions aimed at improving Diversity, Equity, Inclusivity, and Accessibility across the federal workforce,” more than $6.5 million “to restore employee benefits programs that will advance equity by specifically addressing how opportunities can be expanded for underserved communities and vulnerable populations,” and $5 million “to evaluate actions aimed at improving diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility (DEIA) within the federal workforce.”
• Fox News: “Starting in 2014 the FAA added a biographical questionnaire to the application process. Applicants with a lower aptitude in science got preference over applicants who had scored excellent in science. Applicants who had been unemployed for the previous three years got more points than licensed pilots got. In other words, the FAA actively searched for unqualified air traffic controllers. That is insane and they knew it was insane when they did it but they did it anyway. Today we obtained new information, it is an internal email written by an executive at the firm that devised the FAA’s biographical questionnaire. In that email, the executive admits that the test he devised has nothing to do with finding the best air traffic controllers. If you want good air traffic controllers, find people with experience, that was his advice. The FAA ignored this and used the biographical screen anyway. They didn’t care about finding the best air traffic controllers. Compared to diversity, your safety meant nothing to them.
• Fox Business: “FOX Business’ ‘Trouble in the Skies,’ a six month investigation of the FAA’s new hiring practices, uncovered changes that may put the nation’s flying public at risk as well as allegations that the newest air traffic control recruits had access to answers on a key test that helped them gain jobs with the FAA…Also uncovered was an FAA effort to promote diversity that discarded 3000 qualified college graduates with degrees in air traffic control despite their following FAA procedure and obtaining FAA accredited degrees.”
• Daily Signal: “In 2013, President Barack Obama-appointed FAA Administrator Michael Huerta deemed that these hiring standards had not produced a pleasing mix of air traffic controllers when it came to race and sex. He announced plans to ‘transform the [FAA] into a more diverse and inclusive workplace that reflects, understands, and relates to the diverse customers’ it serves…Among the questions asked are: ‘The number of high school sports I participated in was … ‘ ‘How would you describe your ideal job?’ ‘What has been the major cause of your failures?’ ‘More classmates would remember me as humble or dominant?’”
• Just the News: “‘Recently, the FAA completed a barrier analysis of the ATC occupation pursuant to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s (EEOC) Management Directive 715. As a result of the analysis, recommendations were identified that we are implementing to improve and streamline the selection of ATC candidates,’ an email sent by the FAA to CTI programs in 2013 reads…The barrier analysis found that the AT-SAT cognitive and skills-based test was a so-called ‘barrier’ to African Americans, Women