At Least 4 Lawsuits Filed Against Trump Administration Over DOGE

Elon Musk, CEO and chief engineer of SpaceX, speaks as President-elect Donald Trump looks on at the Make America Great Again Victory Rally at Capital One Arena one day before his inauguration in Washington on Jan. 19, 2025. John Fredricks/The Epoch Times

Multiple lawsuits were filed against the Trump administration regarding the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) as President Donald Trump was sworn into office on Jan. 20.

After his election win in November 2024, Trump announced he would set up DOGE with co-chairs Elon Musk, the owner of social media platform X, and businessman Vivek Ramaswamy.

Trump tapped the two business titans to head DOGE, a nongovernmental task force assigned to find ways to terminate federal workers, cut programs, and slash federal regulations. The three have said they want to cut as much as $2 trillion in government spending.

At least four lawsuits were filed on Jan. 20 by multiple groups in a federal court in Washington. One was filed against DOGE by the American Federation of Teachers, Minority Veterans of America, the American Public Health Association, the Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, and others.

Another was filed by the Center for Biological Diversity, and a separate one was filed by the National Security Counselors. Another was filed by Public Citizen, a left-leaning consumer watchdog group.

The Center for Biological Diversity lawsuit, the group said in a statement, is designed to obtain records showing how individuals affiliated with DOGE “have interacted with the White House since the presidential transition began in November.”

“Whether it’s Trump or Elon Musk who’s really running the government, we’re a nation of laws and the people have a right to know what Musk and his cronies have been up to during the transition,” said Kieran Suckling, executive director of the Center for Biological Diversity. “We’re going to find out and we won’t leave any stone unturned.”

Suckling said that the group believes that DOGE will try to remove federal “protections for our air, water and most imperiled wildlife.”

The National Security Counselors, a group that says it seeks to “lawfully acquire material from the government and distribute it to the public,” also seeks in its suit to obtain records connected to DOGE and flagged “recommendations made by unaccountable outsiders without transparent deliberations which will reduce the size of the federal workforce by whatever means necessary.”

Public Citizen’s legal challenge, meanwhile, against the Musk-led organization is designed to make sure it “complies with the requirements established by the Federal Advisory Committee Act.”

“DOGE’s operations during the transition period were shrouded in secrecy. Media reporting indicates that DOGE took steps outside of public view to begin operating immediately after President Trump’s inauguration, and that DOGE will be embedded within the White House, OMB (Office of Management and Budget), and other federal agencies very soon,” it added.

Musk, Ramaswamy, and the White House have not yet issued public responses to the lawsuits. The Epoch Times contacted the White House press office for comment on Jan. 20.

In his inaugural speech, Trump said he would soon establish DOGE.

“To restore competence and effectiveness to our federal government, my administration will establish the brand new Department of Government Efficiency,” he said.

Earlier in January, Musk said in an interview that DOGE may not be able to cut $2 trillion, describing it as the “best case outcome.” But he said he believes that as much as $1 trillion in federal spending will be cut and would lead to “no inflation.”

“But I do think that you kind of have to have some overage. If you try for 2 trillion, you have a good shot at getting 1 [trillion],“ he said. ”That, I think, would be an epic outcome.”

During a speech on Jan. 20, Musk made a passing statement on DOGE, saying only that he wants to “bring DOGE to Mars” under the Trump administration.

“I’m super fired up for the future,” he said.