If all that billions of funding was just stolen, then there should be huge surge in number of billionaries in US.
But "billionaires in US per year" graph just follow inflation, even with some delay.
Corruption is not like "one tiny evil man get the $10M grant and stole it". It never work like that. This tiny man, even if it is completely his own idea, have to pay significant share of stolen money to his boss to not be caught immidiately. Boss have to pay his share to higher level boss. And so on. So, "trillion of stolen taxpayers money" had to create at least a hundred of new billionaries even if it is only "10% to boss". Top billionaires, who receive topping from the scheme, of course just become richier, but many intermediate bosses will break "billionaire threshold".
If there are no hundreds of new billionaires, then this money could be really spent on something. Not on the declared stupid thing, but on something else, that was kept in secret.
So, it could be that some $10М grant for, IDK, "influence of toilet water flush sounds on transgenter feelings", in reality, is something completely different, say, some truly evil thing like "finding brain-damaginng substance to make humans more obedient and dumb permanently". And they even could really create a cover lab with installed toilets and microphones and few mentally ill students hired for the show, using tiny part of $10M grant and spend everything else on the real evil thing.
Such cover will perfectly turn any auditor who see 10M payment for some insane research, into thinking that it is just idiocy or theft. Public will be fed with "look at idiocy they spend your money for!!!" and "we are gloriously cut the funding of stupid things, aren't we so great?!!!" and that's all. May be even project boss will be sentenced. But the real project hidden behind this theatrical idiocy will be kept unharmed and undisclosed. Later, they will find another way to fund it and that's all.
Or, current DOGE thing could be just cover-up operation to rehide all that malicious projects from public, and cut public attention from occasionally popped up weird spendings. "Oh, look, we see that shit you talk about for years too, and we now cut it and punish some tiny bosses, so you could calm down and forget". But none of that spending will be studied to find what really they did for that money.
I've always wondered if there is something to these "beyond top secret" black budget programs with advanced technology development and whatnot that you hear about from the UFO disclosure community, or if they are just stealing the money. The thing is, if they are able to funnel this money into black ops programs in secret, then the people who are ultimately gaining the money (assuming it is being stolen and not actually used for meaningful R&D) would be getting it in a clandestine way, so those people wouldn't necessarily be on public billionaire lists because they wouldn't officially have all that money.
I do tend to be partial to the theory that they do have advanced technology at their disposal, though. That would imply the money is being used for their advantage and they are actively using the technology in ways we don't directly see to maintain their stranglehold over the reigns of power. For example, I wouldn't be surprised if they had better versions of the "AI" we see today 20+ years ago. I always felt like the Covid psyop was guided by an advanced AI, since the propaganda worked so well and it simultaneously achieved so many different goals of theirs. Perhaps the "UFO" sightings and these types of phenomenon are their advanced propulsion technology which explains why congress / the president can't just send the military to these DUMBs to figure out wtf they are doing; they are technologically outmatched.
Some black, secret budget will attract attention just by the fact of secrecy. Of everybody from ordinary people to the foreing intelligence.
Best way to hide something is to put it in the clear sight.
To do evil things you absolutely don't need any advanced tech. All you need is, suddenly, financing. So, it should drip from somwhere. And all that "innocent stupid research" is a perfect way to get it under perfect cover.