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Facebook posts
Facebook posts
stated on February 8, 2025 in Facebook posts:

Elon Musk spent $40 million to buy five Super Bowl Commercial ads to promote DOGE.

False

Elon Musk didn’t pay $40 million for five DOGE Super Bowl commercials

If your time is short

  • A complete list of 2025 Super Bowl ads by Adweek, a marketing magazine, didn’t include a Department of Government Efficiency ad.

  • A Google search for a DOGE commercial yielded no results.

  • The post’s photo is old and unrelated to Musk purchasing Super Bowl commercials. It shows Musk celebrating buying Twitter in 2022 while drinking bourbon with colleagues, according to the Daily Mail.

See the sources for this fact-check

As Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency has worked to shrink the federal government, some social media users said the entrepreneur would use the Feb. 9 Super Bowl to publicize DOGE’s efforts.

“Elon Musk spent 40 million of his own money to buy 5, 30 second long commercial shots during Super Bowl where hes gonna list all the corruption DOGE has found so far,” a Feb. 8 Facebook post riddled with grammatical errors said. The post features an image of Musk holding a bottle of bourbon.

False claim, Elon Musk paid for Super Bowl, 2/8/25
Figure 1: False claim, Elon Musk paid for Super Bowl, 2/8/25

Screenshot from Facebook

This post was flagged as part of Meta’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Meta, which owns Facebook, Instagram and Threads.)

But no such ad appeared during Super Bowl LIX. Adweek, a marketing magazine, didn’t include a DOGE ad in its 2025 complete list of Super Bowl ads

A Google search for a DOGE commercial yielded no results. T-Mobile aired an ad announcing its partnership with Musk’s Starlink, a satellite network that expands high-speed internet access to areas without traditional cellular towers.

The Facebook post used an old photo that is unrelated to Musk purchasing Super Bowl commercials. It shows Musk celebrating buying Twitter in 2022 while drinking bourbon with colleagues, according to the Daily Mail.

Pro Football Network reported that the claim was amplified by X account @conservativema, which wrote Feb. 7, “Elon Musk is running Super Bowl ads. Reports indicate he’s spending $40 million of his own money on five 30-second commercials that expose government waste, as found by the Department of Government Efficiency.” The post has since been deleted.

Two veteran Republican veteran experts told Reuters that Musk has directed cost-cutting efforts toward agencies that President Donald Trump’s administration disagrees with ideologically rather than toward saving taxpayer dollars.

We rate the claim that Musk spent $40 million to buy five Super Bowl commercial ads to promote DOGE False.

Elon Musk didn’t pay $40 million for five DOGE Super Bowl commercials

Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
stated on January 7, 2026 a press briefing

stated on January 14, 2026 a statement

Social Media
stated on February 14, 2026 social media posts



stated on January 20, 2026 an op-ed


Donald Trump
stated on February 3, 2026 remarks in the Oval Office


Social Media
stated on February 8, 2026 social media posts





Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
stated on stated on November 17, 2025 in remarks at George Washington University:

Donald Trump
stated on February 2, 2026 an interview with Dan Bongino