A tech expert with supposed ties to the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) has revealed the staggering amount of cash she thinks is being wasted each year.
DOGE is headed by Elon Musk and was founded by the Trump administration when Donald Trump returned to office last month.
As the head of the newly-created department, Musk has been tasked with drastically slashing federal spending.
In the few weeks it has been up and running, DOGE claims to have saved $65 billion (as of February 24).
Judge halts DOGE’s access to Treasury payment system
Credits: KGW News
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It’s believed that the agency wants to make a whopping $1 trillion in savings.
The sum comes from ‘a combination of fraud detection/deletion, contract/lease cancellations, contract/lease renegotiations, asset sales, grant cancellations, workforce reductions, programmatic changes, and regulatory savings’, its website states.
While this figure suggests that $65 billion worth of taxpayer money was being wasted, a tech expert has claimed the real number could be as much as $100 billion.
The woman, whose identity has not been revealed, goes by ‘DataRepublican’ on social media and has continuous interactions with Musk on Twitter.
It’s been suggested that as much as $100 billion is wasted each year (NewsNation)
She recently sat down with NewsNation to speak about the money supposedly being wasted.
When asked about the alleged amount of ‘wasted’ or potentially ‘stolen’ federal money and an estimated figure, she told journalist Brian Entin: “If I had to guess, I would say it is over $100 billion. But what is more important is what they are doing with that money.”
The data scientist went on: “The numbers don’t lie. And look, they don’t always say what I want to hear. But they do tell me the truth.”
Going on to discuss her alleged ties to DOGE and Musk, ‘DataRepublican’ explained that she does not ‘communicate directly with Elon’, but the Tesla CEO ‘supports [her] work’.Play
“I have communicated with some people who are involved with DOGE,” she continued to share. “And I don’t want to say much more than that, but I have a working relationship.”
Musk is said to have encouraged people to follow ‘DataRepublican’ on Twitter, where she currently boasts over 400,000 followers.
As to how Musk found her online, the woman remains unsure.
“Honestly, I don’t know, you’d have to ask him,” she said when asked.
While she doesn’t know how he came to find out about her work, she’s ‘grateful’ that he did.
Elon Musk and Trump just sent email to all federal employees requesting one thing or they’ll be classed as resigning if they don’t respond
As Elon Musk and President Donald Trump attempt to streamline the US Government, all federal employees should expect an email in their inbox which could result in resignation if not responded to.
Musk and Trump have wasted no time in implementing swift changes to the federal government.
The Tesla CEO has been officially granted the title of ‘special government employee’, as well as leading a task force of people at the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), alongside Vivek Ramaswamy.
According to Trump, DOGE’s primary objective is ‘dismantle Government Bureaucracy, slash excess regulations, cut wasteful expenditures, and restructure Federal Agencies’.
And on Saturday (February 22), Musk revealed an ultimatum for federal employees in the form of an email.
Elon Musk has issued a blanket email to all federal employees ordering them to tell him what they have been up to in the last working week (Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)
The instruction in the email is clear, officials must explain what they have done in the last week – and if they don’t manage to respond by 11.59pm ET on Monday, they’ll be essentially be handing in their resignation.
Taking to Twitter yesterday, Musk tweeted: “Consistent with President @realDonaldTrump’s instructions, all federal employees will shortly receive an email requesting to understand what they got done last week.
“Failure to respond will be taken as a resignation.”
So, how did the email read then? Well, one person who received the notification posted a picture of it online.
“Please reply to this email with approx. 5 bullets of what you accomplished last week and cc your
manager,” it read. “Please do not send any classified information, links, or attachments.
“Deadline is this Monday at 11:59pmEST.”
According to the BBC, the email landed in people’s inboxes following Trump’s appearance at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), with the email’s subject reading: “What did you do last week?”
Responding to this email would take less than 2 minutes for any truly productive person. Why is this in any way controversial?
Meanwhile, emails obtained by CNN also showed they were marked as highly important, with Musk’s mention of resignation as a result of a non response similarly not included.
Given the other drastic changes Trump has enforced on the workplace, this decision hasn’t been received well.
FBI director Kash Patel has advised employees not to immediately respond, saying (via Sky News): “The FBI, through the Office of the Director, is in charge of all of our review processes, and will conduct reviews in accordance with FBI procedures. When and if further information is required, we will coordinate the responses.
“For now, please pause any responses.”
Federal court officials has also urged for non response, adding: “Please be advised that this email did not originate from the judiciary or the administrative office and we suggest that no action be taken.”
Meanwhile, President of the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), Everett Kelley, called the action ‘cruel and disrespectful’ towards federal employees, adding that the AFGE would ‘challenge any unlawful terminations of our members and federal employees across the country’.
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