President Trump on Wednesday said his administration is considering using some of the money saved from Elon Musk and his team slashing government spending to pay down the federal debt and potentially cut checks to Americans.
Trump addressed attendees at the Future Investment Initiative (FII) Institute gathering in Miami, where he touted efforts led by Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) to root out “government waste, fraud and abuse.”
“There’s even under consideration a new concept where we give 20 percent of the DOGE savings to American citizens, and 20 percent goes to paying down debt, because the numbers are incredible,” Trump said.
DOGE, which is not a formal government agency, claimed earlier this week that it had identified spending cuts that amounted to $55 billion in savings. But it’s not clear where all of those savings have come from. DOGE posted on its website a list of federal contracts it said it had canceled, but those contracts total about $8.6 billion in savings, according to ABC News.
Trump and Musk have also exaggerated about some claims of fraud they have highlighted. Musk has previously acknowledged that not all of his statements will be correct and that they “should be corrected.”
The White House has claimed tens of millions of deceased people have received fraudulent Social Security payments. But Social Security Administration data shows there are fewer than 100,000 people over the age of 100 who receive checks.
Trump on Wednesday also repeated a popular claim among conservatives that the government had spent millions to provide condoms in Gaza. That claim has been repeatedly debunked.
The president offered praise for Musk, who has been at the forefront of DOGE’s efforts to slash government spending and dramatically reduce the size of the federal workforce.
“He’s a seriously high IQ individual,” Trump said of Musk, who was seated in the front row at Wednesday’s conference. “Now he’s got his faults also, I will tell you that. But not too many of them.”
