A $93 billion series of “loans” by the Biden administration and uncovered by the Department of Government Efficiency proves that the former president’s administration “laundered” money to its political allies, Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA) said in announcing the findings.
Between the Nov. 2024 election and President Donald Trump’s swearing in on Jan. 20, 2025, the Biden administration doled out $93 billion to businesses with specious credentials through the Loan Program Office of the Department of Energy.
Kennedy outlined the exhaustive list of transactions at a May 23 hearing of the Senate Appropriations Committee where U.S. Secretary of Energy Chris Wright confirmed that “between the time that President Trump was elected and President Biden left office,” $76 billion of taxpayer dollars “went out the door” at DOE.
That sum was “well over twice as much as in the previous 15 years,” he stated.
How, Kennedy asked, could the agency “vet and do due diligence on a loan in 76 days… much less $93 billion?”
“I think it’s probably pretty clear it wasn’t done in many cases,” Wright responded.
Some of the multi-billion dollar loans were provided to businesses that provided “no business plan, no numbers about their own financial solvency,” the Trump secretary said before Kennedy interjected.
“So, you’re telling me that the Department of Energy, in the 76-day period before your boss was going to leave office, gave our loan money to entities that had no business plan?”
Wright replied, “I’ve come in with great concern about how this institution, this great American institution, has been run, and how American taxpayer money has been handled.”
It is a “reasonable assumption” to believe that business owners had been dishonest with DOE to obtain the funds, Wright stated, though he conceded he had not personally witnessed and evidence of malfeasance. Still, he said, the loans were “distasteful” and “confidence-undermining.”
Wright gave “enormous credit” to President Trump for pushing for the probe.
“Make the changes you need to make to better serve American taxpayers and American consumers,” he told Kennedy.
The findings track with others uncovered at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, where Secretary Lee Zeldin announced earlier this year that Democratic former candidate Stacey Abrams had received a $2 billion federal grant for a nascent company that reported just $100 in revenue on its most recent tax filing.
“President Trump was elected with a mandate from the American people to stop the fraud and abuse by leaders who irresponsibly shoveled boatloads of cash to far-left activist groups in the name of environmental justice and climate equity, instead of serving the American people,” Zeldin said at the time. “Those days are over.”
DOGE, the cost-cutting agency founded by Elon Musk, is alleged to have uncovered millions of Social Security numbers bestowed on illegal immigrants, some of whom voted in the 2024 elections.
Among other “mind-blowing” findings was a staggering $1 billion survey on Americans’ use of the U.S. National Parks, whose department receives approximately $3.3 billion in annual funding, Musk said in March.
“We routinely encounter wastes of a billion dollars or more,” he said. “Casually.”
