Trump Praises Musk’s DOGE For Ending Studies on ‘Making Mice Transgender’ – Which Were Actually Asthma and Cancer Research
President Donald Trump was joined by Elon Musk on Friday in the Oval Office for a farewell presser as Musk exits his role leading DOGE.
Trump began the event with some praise for Musk’s work in the administration and eventually listed off some of the savings DOGE has claimed to have made for the federal government – including one widely debunked claim about “transgender mice.”
“Under Elon’s guidance, they’re helping to detect fraud, slash waste, and modernize broken and outdated systems. So, as you know, we’re talking about various systems and changing systems. And, you know, sadly, it takes a long time to do that,” Trump said as he began his remarks.
Trump continued his lengthy remarks by discussing air traffic control systems and eventually began listing off some numbers related to DOGE’s work.
“More than 75,000 bureaucrats have voluntarily left their taxpayer-funded jobs to come out and really do the job. Countless wasteful and unnecessary contracts have been terminated. And you know that we have terminated many, many contracts. And many contracts, Elon, are right now being looked at. It may be six months, it may be almost a year in some cases. We’re going through procedures, we’re going through courts. And we’ll remember you as we announce billions of dollars of extra waste, fraud, and abuse,” Trump said, adding:
Just as an example, DOGE canceled $101 million for DEI contracts at the Department of Education. $101 million, and that was just a small section of the Department of Education. $59 million for illegal alien hotel rooms in New York City, and the landlord never made the kind of money that he made in the last short period of time. $59 million to a hotel in New York City. $45 million for diversity, equity, and inclusion scholarships in Burma. In Burma. Does anyone know about Burma? $42 million for social and behavioral change in Uganda. $40 million to improve the social and economic inclusion of sedentary migrants.
I can say it’s $2 billion to Stacey Abrams and her environmental movement. There was $100 in the account and all of a sudden they found $2 billion in the account. And I assume that’s being looked at. I don’t know. I’m not sure. I assume it’s being looked at. Think of that. $2 billion. And then he will tell you there’s another one over there for $20 billion being spent on another environmental. $20 billion. Not $20 million, a lot. Not $200,000, which is a lot, so think of it in her case. You have $100, and now all of a sudden, she gets hit with an infusion of $2 billion just before I take office.
$20 million for Arab Sesame Street in the Middle East. Nobody knows what that’s all about, nobody’s been able to find it.
“$8 million for making mice transgender. So they spent $8 million on making mice transgender, and those are better than many of the others. I could sit here all day and read things just like that. We have other things to do,” Trump said, wrapping up the by-the-numbers part of his remarks.
Trump’s claim about the government funding studies on “making mice transgendered” was widely debunked in early March as Trump also made the claim during his address to Congress at the time. Outlets from CBS to PBS to Rolling Stone all ran fact checks that rebutted the claim. “Trump Decried Millions Spent ‘Making Mice Transgender.’ It Was Cancer and Asthma Research,” blared Rolling Stone’s headline at the time.
Local ABC reporter Connor Steffen offered a full breakdown of the $8 million used in studies on mice, which DOGE helped cancel. He wrote in March, “While the studies do examine the effects of hormone therapy on health outcomes, no specific research has targeted “making mice transgender” as a stated goal or outcome. Hormone therapies are used in gender-affirming healthcare. One study, having received a $3.1 million NIH grant, examines whether the estrogen hormone contributes to a greater chance of asthma in women.”
Other studies under the $8 million total included $299,900 for “Gender-Affirming Testosterone Therapy on Breast Cancer Risk and Treatment Outcomes.”
Watch the clip above.
