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.