It’s Uncle Sam’s turn in the barber chair: Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) has been cutting and cutting some more.
Numbers shared to The Epoch Times by the White House on Feb. 10 reflect more than $1.7 billion of the federal apparatus affected by DOGE, including more than a billion in contracts related to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) and an almost $800 million contract to build an embassy in South Sudan.
Elon Musk (L) speaks as President Donald Trump looks on in the Oval Office of the White House on Feb. 11, 2025. Jim Watson/AFP via Getty Images
On Feb. 11, a longer rundown from the White House showed well over $3 billion worth of financial impact. It includes $59,000,000 the Trump administration seeks to claw back from the Federal Emergency Management Agency intended to pay for housing illegal aliens in New York City hotels.
That same day, Musk joined President Donald Trump and Musk in the Oval Office, where Trump was signing an executive order related to DOGE. The two men certainly seemed simpatico.
Trump described Musk as “a high-IQ individual.” Musk told reporters that “the people voted for major government reform”—a callback to the 2024 campaign trail, when he campaigned for Trump amid talk that he would spearhead a new effort to improve the federal government and make it more efficient.
The DOGE has its critics too—and, while the DOGE effort has some support from Democrats, the current dispute has a distinctly partisan flavor.
Democrats in Congress have participated in multiple protests outside departments in its crosshairs, arguing that temporary organization is outside the bounds of the law and a threat to social services used by millions of Americans.
Litigation related to DOGE is also proliferating, with mixed results so far.
Southern District of New York Judge Paul Engelmayer issued a temporary order on Feb. 8 restraining DOGE employees from accessing Treasury Department payment system data ahead of a Feb. 14 hearing.
On Feb. 11, Judge Jeanette Vargas, who will preside over that hearing, upheld the restrictions while clarifying they do not apply to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent.
While some lawmakers have advanced bill packages meant to bolster Musk’s efforts, others have sought to leash the DOGE. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer has advanced legislation to curb DOGE’s Treasury data access and announced a new panel for federal employees to blow the whistle on “corruption, abuses of power, and threats to public safety.”
Economists concerned about the budget have had varied responses.
In a post on X, Jessica Riedl of the Manhattan Institute described the billions in cuts as “gimmicky nonsense” as the United States continues to pass multi-trillion-dollar budgets.
“Don’t brag about your coupon-clipping frugality at the same time you are buying a $250,000 Ferrari,” Riedl wrote.
Ryan Bourne of the Cato Institute was more optimistic. “Some might argue that the only way to get buy-in for entitlement reform in the future is to show the public you’ve made every effort to root out waste, mismanagement, and non-priority spending areas from the budget already,” he told The Epoch Times in an email.
—Nathan Worcester
LAWSUITS TEST TRUMP’S AUTHORITY
Dozens of lawsuits have been filed against President Donald Trump’s administration within the first month of his second term. The cases have resulted in some court orders blocking administration actions and could lead to Supreme Court decisions that clarify the scope of executive authority.
Three preliminary injunctions have already been issued against Trump’s order limiting birthright citizenship, a longstanding government practice that the administration says is out of step with the 14th Amendment. Others have argued that the amendment’s citizenship clause means children of illegal immigrants should be granted U.S. citizenship.
Experts told The Epoch Times that Trump’s birthright citizenship order, his attempt to freeze federal spending, and his firing of the former National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) chair could wind up at the Supreme Court.
Referring to the birthright citizenship order, Pacific Legal Foundation attorney Joe Luppino-Esposito said: “That’s definitely the one that I think will make it to the Supreme Court because ... that’s not a question that’s come up in a long time, and it’s definitely more unique.” That order could prompt the Supreme Court to revisit its 1898 decision in United States v. Wong Kim Ark.
Besides birthright citizenship, other Trump immigration directives have encountered lawsuits. Those included lawsuits targeting his decisions to shut down asylum and expedite deportations.
The NLRB firing could lead the Supreme Court to reconsider its precedent in Humphrey’s Executor v. United States, a 1935 decision wherein the court said that presidents did not have the power to remove certain officials for reasons other than what Congress allowed.
More broadly, a series of lawsuits have challenged Trump’s attempts to alter employment for vast numbers of federal workers. That included his attempt to offer a buyout for federal employees to accept a deferred resignation period, as well as his attempt to create a category of employees who wouldn’t receive the same civil service protections as others.
Judges have blocked Trump’s buyout program, as well as access by the Department of Government Efficiency to certain data. Other orders have blocked Trump’s attempts to freeze massive amounts of government spending, place employees of the U.S. Agency for International Development on leave, and remove special counsel Hampton Dellinger.
FBI employees have also sued over the administration’s survey asking about whether they investigated the events of Jan. 6, 2021. Earlier this month, that dispute led to the administration agreeing not to disseminate the list of employees who partook in those investigations.
—Sam Dorman
BOOKMARKS
The FBI has unearthed around 2,400 new records related to the assassination of John Fitzgerald Kennedy, following an executive order from Trump directing that information around the case be released. The records had been digitized and were not recognized as relating to the case at first, the agency said.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has issued an ultimatum to Hamas: all remaining hostages must be released by Feb. 15. “If Hamas does not return our hostages by noon on Saturday, the cease-fire will end, and the [Israel Defense Forces (IDF)] will resume intense fighting until Hamas is decisively defeated,” he said.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott is seeking $11 billion from the federal government to reimburse his state for money it spent securing the border during President Joe Biden’s administration. Abbott announced he will travel to D.C. this week to speak with members of Congress about the refund.
It appears some universities are attempting to disguise their DEI programs by rebranding them, following an effort by Trump to stamp out those departments. “A faculty diversity action plan could be renamed: critical needs hiring program,” revealed Louis Galarowicz, a research fellow at the National Association of Scholars.
U.S. District Judge John Bates has ordered some web pages for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and other health agencies’ websites to be restored. The pages had been taken down by the Trump administration because they violated rules from new executive orders, like “the policy of the United States to recognize two sexes, male and female.”
—Stacy Robinson
