Donald Trump and Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) cost-cutting effort has reportedly identified and cut more than $1 billion in federal spending, as it eyes ways to meet a stated goal of cutting as much as $2 trillion from the annual budget.
However, the DOGE group’s slash-and-burn startup style has butted up against scores of lawsuits in federal courts, accusing Musk and his acolytes of trying to illegally access sensitive data, claw back funding that’s already been legally apportioned, and shutter government departments created by Congress.
“We have very smart people going in, so I've instructed him go into education, go into military, go into other things as we go along, and they're finding massive amounts of fraud, abuse, waste, all of these things,” Trump said of Musk.
On Saturday, in a lawsuit from Democratic attorneys general, a federal judge temporarily restricted political appointees and “special government employees” like Musk from accessing sensitive data and payment systems at the Treasury Department, arguing such access could risk “irreparable harm.”.
Musk’s DOGE has already identified $1 billion in savings – bigger cuts are on the horizon Cost-cutting team now working on larger parts of U.S. budget like military and Medicare.
