DOGE was government contracting's biggest story of 2025 — and it's not close

Every year I get asked what was the biggest story of the year and it can often be a challenge just to pick one.

That’s not the case for 2025. The Trump administration blew up the market and its biggest stick of dynamite was the Department of Government Efficiency.

When we look at our website traffic, stories related to DOGE activities dominate. Our annual Top 100 rankings generally land among the top five pages, but this year's Top 100 does not make an appearance until spot no. 11.

This year's most-read stories are DOGE and DOGE-like contract cancellations at agencies such as the Social Security Administration and the departments of Veterans Affairs, Defense and Homeland Security.

Other top stories include the General Services Administration's review of consulting contracts, the cancellation of contracts related to DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion) and the Revolutionary FAR Overhaul.

Beyond just GSA, the Trump administration’s overall scrutiny on consulting contracts drew plenty of eyeballs to our website.

Our story with the highest number of page views illustrates one of the complaints about DOGE — its propensity to exaggerate both the value of the contracts it cancelled and claimed savings.

In February, DOGE posted to its “Wall of Receipts” that it had cancelled a $1 billion SSA contract with Leidos. That was big news. Leidos declined to comment and SSA was unreachable.

We ran a story after that announcement from DOGE, whose claims fell apart within days. I got some calls from folks saying it did not sound right.

After some digging, I found Federal Procurement Data System reports that showed Leidos had already been obligated over $803 million in work under that contract.

DOGE then changed the Wall of Receipts to say the savings were $231 million after cancelling the contract, but that was wrong too.

It turned out that DOGE had cancelled a single task order worth $560,000 for Leidos to redesign a form allowing the choice of X for someone who isn’t male or female.

Remember that DOGE never apologizes or admits mistakes. It just stealth-changes the numbers.

DOGE is not the only example of how the Trump administration stretches the truth.

With GSA's OneGov Strategy, the administration has touted how it is signing direct contracts with brand name commercial tech companies. But that’s not happening either.

All but one of the agreements have been signed with the resellers who hold the tech companies’ GSA schedule contract, not directly with the commercial tech company.

On the other hand, I think we will remember 2025 as a year where procurement and acquisition got much needed attention from the highest levels of the administration. Procurement is a tool for advancing a presidential administration's policy aims more than ever.

The biggest example is the wiping away of DEI practices and requirements in contracts. Not a positive example in my mind, but it shows how powerful a tool procurement can be for policy.

The administration's emphasis on commercial technology and commercial-like buying practices should have a positive impact on the market as well as the streamlining of the FAR.

Business models will be disrupted, but that is not entirely a negative.

We of course covered more traditional stories involving contract awards, CEO changes and corruption cases.

But these were few when compared to how the Trump administration dominated the news.

I expect 2026 will be similar because the administration still has plenty of work to do with the FAR Overhaul, contract consolidation at GSA and the Golden Dome missile defense initiative. I also expect the line to blur between what is a Trump initiative and what is just the business of government.

Happy New Year everyone.

Our Top 15 stories of the year:

1. DOGE cancels Leidos contract
2. GSA expands review of consulting companies
3. DOGE slashes reported value of cancelled Leidos contract
4. Veteran-owned small businesses hit first by VA’s push for $2B in contract cuts
5. Pentagon hits Accenture, Booz Allen and Deloitte with contract cancellations
6. USCIS moves closer to software development recompete
7. Some cancelled VA contracts disappear from Wall of Receipts
8. VA targets 585 non-mission critical contracts for elimination
9. WT 360: Clear themes to note from the emerging structural changes to acquisition (podcast episode)
10. Industry layoffs mount as cancelled contracts and DOGE efforts take hold
11. Virginia governor pressed to support federal workers and contractors
12. 2025 Top 100
13. Former USAID official, three contractors plead guilty in $550M bribery scheme
14. OPM chooses Workday for no-bid contract to overhaul HR system
15. SAIC parts ways with CEO Toni Townes-Whitley