President Donald Trump expressed his support for giving some of the savings generated by Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency back to U.S. citizens.
President Trump made his remarks twice on Wednesday, first during an investment conference in Miami and later while aboard Air Force One.
RELATED STORY | Appeals court declines to lift block on Trump's birthright citizenship order
During the Miami conference, President Trump stated that some of the savings produced by the department’s cost-cutting efforts, known as DOGE, would also be used to pay down the country’s debt.
President Trump suggested that Americans could get 20% of whatever cuts DOGE makes.
"I think it's a great idea. It could be a lot," he said. "It could also give taxpayers an incentive to go out and report things."
Musk was asked about the possibility of checks from the government earlier this week, saying he'd check with President Trump.
The Trump administration created DOGE without congressional approval to reduce what it described as wasteful government spending, leading to the termination of thousands of federal employees across multiple agencies. The administration maintains that Musk's efforts are making the government more efficient.
RELATED STORY | President Trump calls Ukraine's Zelenskyy a 'dictator' for not holding elections
It remains to be seen whether DOGE — at the directive of Musk — has actually increased the productivity of the federal government. However, he claims the department's initiatives have saved billions of dollars in taxpayer money.
In the meantime, multiple legal actions have been taken against DOGE and the Trump administration, seeking to stop the layoffs of thousands of federal workers and to prevent Musk and his team from accessing the sensitive private data of millions of Americans — all things that a federal judge ruled against on Monday.
