Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (D.O.G.E) is digging into federal employees whose net worth doesn’t match their salaries. The office, which was created by president Donald Trump, is tracking government workers making a few hundred thousand dollars but somehow sitting on tens of millions.
“We find it sort of rather odd that there are quite a few people in the bureaucracy who have a salary of a few hundred thousand dollars but somehow manage to accrue tens of millions of dollars in net worth,” Elon said from the Oval today. “We’re just curious as to where it came from.”
Federal agencies forced to cooperate with Elon
Trump has ordered federal agencies to cooperate with D.O.G.E to drastically reduce the size of the federal workforce, according to a White House fact sheet released today. The plan limits agencies to hiring one new employee for every four that leave, except in law enforcement, national security, immigration, and public safety.
As you can see in the video above, Elon made a rare appearance in the Oval alongside self-proclaimed best buddy Trump to defend D.O.G.E’s strategy. His approach has of course been to deploy young investigators across federal agencies, comb through payroll systems, track employee assets, and—when necessary—shut down entire offices.
Trump said D.O.G.E had already uncovered “billions and billions of dollars in waste, fraud, and abuse.” No direct evidence was provided, but Elon claimed that Treasury Department systems lacked basic safeguards to stop payments to banned entities.
“It’s like just a massive number of blank checks just flying out of the building,” Elon told reporters. The eccentric billionaire has also been posting cases of fraud on X, exposing major inefficiencies in federal spending. He admitted that some of his claims could be incorrect but said they should just be fact-checked and corrected if that’s the case then. “Trust me, I want to be wrong. I want it proven to me that the scale of corruption I have discovered is, you know, inaccurate,” said Elon.
Federal workers face uncertain future
Trump has vowed to push D.O.G.E’s findings through Congress if necessary. He also blasted federal judges for blocking some of his government overhaul efforts but said he would “abide by the courts.”
Elon Musk with his kid, X, at the Oval with president Trump
Meanwhile, a federal judge in Rhode Island ruled that the White House had not fully complied with an order to release billions in federal grant money.
For employees resisting the buyout plan, the situation is uncertain. Government reduction-in-force regulations allow laid-off federal workers to receive up to one year’s salary in severance, depending on age and years of service. Some workers may be reassigned, while others could face immediate dismissal, Elon told the reporters.
Newly-appointed Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has stuck by Elon’s side, saying he agrees completely with everything he’s doing and is aligning all his missions at the Treasury with those of D.O.G.E. Ken Griffin, founder of Citadel, also praised Elon’s efforts to curb government waste but took a swipe at Trump’s trade policies.
“He will do what it takes to win,” Griffin said about Elon at the UBS Financial Services Conference in Miami today. “Thank you, from the bottom of my heart, for making sure my tax dollars are spent effectively.”
Elon’s aggressive tactics aren’t surprising. He has a long history of cutting jobs fast without warning, and this guy calls himself an “efficiency freak.” At Tesla, Elon laid off 9% of the workforce in 2018, and in 2023, it was around 22%, with termination emails sent out at 2 in the morning. When he took over Twitter (now X) in 2022, Elon fired 80% of the staff—about 6,000 employees.
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