WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump said that he likes the idea of giving some of the savings from Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency back to U.S. citizens as a kind of dividend.
He said at an investment conference in Miami on Wednesday that the administration is considering a concept in which 20% of the savings produced by DOGE’s cost-cutting efforts goes to American citizens and another 20% goes to paying down the national debt.
Trump also said the potential for dividend payments would incentivize people to report wasteful spending.
“They’ll be reporting it themselves,” Trump said. “They participate in the process of saving us money.”
Later, as he flew back to Washington aboard Air Force One, he was asked by a reporter about the plan floated by Musk.
“I love it,” the Republican president told reporters on the plane.
A day earlier, Musk wrote on his social media platform that he “will check with the President” in response to a suggestion that Trump and Musk should announce a ”DOGE Dividend” that would send a refund to taxpayers from part of the savings created by DOGE. Its efforts have already led to thousands of federal government employees being fired or laid off.
This comes as labor unions, Democrats and federal employees have filed several lawsuits against DOGE.
Thursday marks a month since Trump took office
He’s expected to host a reception for Black History Month in the afternoon, and then go to the National Building Museum to give a speech to a meeting of the Republican Governors Association.
Also on tap is a press briefing with the White House press secretary and other administration officials.
Trump will be signing executive orders at a different desk in the White House
The Resolute Desk, an Oval Office mainstay, “is being lightly refinished,” Trump posted on social media. The desk was built from oak used in the British Arctic exploration ship HMS Resolute, and Queen Victoria gave it as a gift to President Rutherford B. Hayes in 1880.
In the meantime, Trump said he would sit at the “C&O” desk previously used by President George H.W. Bush. It was originally built around 1920 for the owners of the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway, hence the name.
“This is a beautiful, but temporary replacement!” Trump said.
President Trump is targeting more organizations as he tries to downsize the federal bureaucracy
He listed four targets in his executive order on Wednesday, including the United States Institute of Peace, which promotes conflict resolution around the world, and the Presidio Trust, which manages a park in San Francisco.
Both organizations were created by Congress. The executive order said they “shall reduce the performance of their statutory functions and associated personnel to the minimum presence and function required by law.”
Trump also directed the elimination of various advisory panels, including the Health Equity Advisory Committee, the Advisory Committee on Long COVID and the Community Bank Advisory Council.
Trump says federal government should ‘take over’ DC, backing congressional GOP push
Trump on Wednesday threw his support behind congressional efforts for a federal takeover of the nation’s capital, saying he approves putting the District of Columbia back under direct federal control.
Speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One, Trump complained about crime and homelessness in the district, saying, “I think we should take over Washington, D.C. — make it safe.” He added, “I think that we should govern District of Columbia.”
Under terms of the city’s Home Rule authority, Congress already vets all D.C. laws and can outright overturn them. Some congressional Republicans have sought to go further, eroding decades of the city’s limited autonomy and putting it back under direct federal control, as it was at its founding.
