A tech expert with supposed ties to the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) has revealed the staggering amount of cash she thinks is being wasted each year.
DOGE is headed by Elon Musk and was founded by the Trump administration when Donald Trump returned to office last month.
As the head of the newly-created department, Musk has been tasked with drastically slashing federal spending.
In the few weeks it has been up and running, DOGE claims to have saved $65 billion (as of February 24).
It’s believed that the agency wants to make a whopping $1 trillion in savings.
The sum comes from ‘a combination of fraud detection/deletion, contract/lease cancellations, contract/lease renegotiations, asset sales, grant cancellations, workforce reductions, programmatic changes, and regulatory savings’, its website states.
While this figure suggests that $65 billion worth of taxpayer money was being wasted, a tech expert has claimed the real number could be as much as $100 billion.
The woman, whose identity has not been revealed, goes by ‘DataRepublican’ on social media and has continuous interactions with Musk on Twitter.
It’s been suggested that as much as $100 billion is wasted each year (NewsNation)
She recently sat down with NewsNation to speak about the money supposedly being wasted.
When asked about the alleged amount of ‘wasted’ or potentially ‘stolen’ federal money and an estimated figure, she told journalist Brian Entin: “If I had to guess, I would say it is over $100 billion. But what is more important is what they are doing with that money.”
The data scientist went on: “The numbers don’t lie. And look, they don’t always say what I want to hear. But they do tell me the truth.”
Going on to discuss her alleged ties to DOGE and Musk, ‘DataRepublican’ explained that she does not ‘communicate directly with Elon’, but the Tesla CEO ‘supports [her] work’.
“I have communicated with some people who are involved with DOGE,” she continued to share. “And I don’t want to say much more than that, but I have a working relationship.”
Musk is said to have encouraged people to follow ‘DataRepublican’ on Twitter, where she currently boasts over 400,000 followers.
As to how Musk found her online, the woman remains unsure.
“Honestly, I don’t know, you’d have to ask him,” she said when asked.
While she doesn’t know how he came to find out about her work, she’s ‘grateful’ that he did.
As Elon Musk and President Donald Trump attempt to streamline the US Government, all federal employees should expect an email in their inbox which could result in resignation if not responded to.
Musk and Trump have wasted no time in implementing swift changes to the federal government.
The Tesla CEO has been officially granted the title of ‘special government employee’, as well as leading a task force of people at the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), alongside Vivek Ramaswamy.
According to Trump, DOGE’s primary objective is ‘dismantle Government Bureaucracy, slash excess regulations, cut wasteful expenditures, and restructure Federal Agencies’.
And on Saturday (February 22), Musk revealed an ultimatum for federal employees in the form of an email.
Elon Musk has issued a blanket email to all federal employees ordering them to tell him what they have been up to in the last working week (Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)
The instruction in the email is clear, officials must explain what they have done in the last week – and if they don’t manage to respond by 11.59pm ET on Monday, they’ll be essentially be handing in their resignation.
Taking to Twitter yesterday, Musk tweeted: “Consistent with President @realDonaldTrump’s instructions, all federal employees will shortly receive an email requesting to understand what they got done last week.
“Failure to respond will be taken as a resignation.”
So, how did the email read then? Well, one person who received the notification posted a picture of it online.
“Please reply to this email with approx. 5 bullets of what you accomplished last week and cc your
manager,” it read. “Please do not send any classified information, links, or attachments.
“Deadline is this Monday at 11:59pmEST.”
Meanwhile, emails obtained by CNN also showed they were marked as highly important, with Musk’s mention of resignation as a result of a non response similarly not included.
Given the other drastic changes Trump has enforced on the workplace, this decision hasn’t been received well.
FBI director Kash Patel has advised employees not to immediately respond, saying (via Sky News): “The FBI, through the Office of the Director, is in charge of all of our review processes, and will conduct reviews in accordance with FBI procedures. When and if further information is required, we will coordinate the responses.
“For now, please pause any responses.”
Federal court officials has also urged for non response, adding: “Please be advised that this email did not originate from the judiciary or the administrative office and we suggest that no action be taken.”
Meanwhile, President of the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), Everett Kelley, called the action ‘cruel and disrespectful’ towards federal employees, adding that the AFGE would ‘challenge any unlawful terminations of our members and federal employees across the country’.
Elon Musk has issued federal employees another ultimatum following the backlash to the email asking staff to provide a progress report or resign.
On Saturday (February 22), Musk sent federal staff for the US government an email that indicated those who’d failed to respond to the email wouldn’t have a job to return to.
The unusual email demanded federal staffers outline five tasks they’d completed in the last week with a deadline of 11.59pm on Monday – or resign.
Elon Musk is leading the DOGE task force to cut costs (Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)
Later on, the billionaire tech mogul said the real reason why he sent the demanding email was to see ‘who had a pulse and two working neurons’ – and to see who in the workforce actually checked their emails.
“This was basically a check to see if the employee had a pulse and was capable of replying to an email,” he continued. “Lot of people in for a rude awakening and strong dose of reality. They don’t get it yet, but they will.”
However, the response wasn’t 100 per cent positive, with a senior Defense Department official telling CNN that it was the ‘silliest’ thing they’d ever seen in their career.
Even FBI has urged employees to not respond to the emails.
Now, Musk has made a fresh ultimatum to those who have apparently disobeyed the email.
Taking to his social media platform, the 53-year-old slammed the ‘incompetence’ of the workers who ignored his request.
The email request was utterly trivial, as the standard for passing the test was to type some words and press send! Yet so many failed even that inane test, urged on in some cases by their managers. Have you ever witnessed such INCOMPETENCE and CONTEMPT for how YOUR TAXES are…
I already had a low opinion of many federal workers but now that I’ve seen them all meltdown and cry because they’re expected to provide the faintest evidence that they’re actually accomplishing anything with the taxpayer funded job we’ve given them, I realize that my opinion of…
He wrote: “The email request was utterly trivial, as the standard for passing the test was to type some words and press send! Yet so many failed even that inane test, urged on in some cases by their managers.
“Have you ever witnessed such INCOMPETENCE and CONTEMPT for how YOUR TAXES are being spent?”
Musk has since indicated he will be extending the deadline to staff, adding in another tweet: “Subject to the discretion of the President, they will be given another chance. Failure to respond a second time will result in termination.”
While it might have it’s detractors, President Donald Trump is seemingly pleased with it, as during a meeting with French president, Emmanuel Macron, he responded to the situation.
President Donald Trump is seemingly happy with it (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)
“What he’s doing is saying, ‘Are you actually working?” he said (via AP). “And then, if you don’t answer, like, you’re sort of semi-fired or you’re fired, because a lot of people aren’t answering because they don’t even exist.”
Over on his social media platform, Truth Social, the president expressed his contentment with Musk’s approach, however, he felt there could be more oil in the tank when it came to how ‘aggressive’ he was.
According to NBC News, Musk’s DOGE, which is on a cost-cutting mission, will take the data from the emails and input them into an AI system to check what employees are doing are ‘mission-critical’, reports TheDailyMail.
Elon Musk has revealed why he sent all federal workers an email with an ultimatum over the weekend in a move critics said was ‘silly’.
Musk, who runs the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) task force that is on a mission to cut government costs, sent federal staff a rather unusual email on Saturday (February 22) with an ultimatum that suggested workers who fail to respond wouldn’t have a job to return to.
Musk’s email demanded federal staffers list five tasks they completed in the last week by 11.59pm on Monday – or resign, which sent the workforce into a panic over the weekend.
Writing on Twitter, he said workers were expected to share ‘what they got done last week’ and failure to respond ‘will be taken as resignation.’
The government‘s HR agency, the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) confirmed the email was legitimate in a statement to CBS.
According to the BBC, employees were asked to list their accomplishments in five bullet points and one Pentagon official reportedly told CNN it was ‘the silliest thing I’ve seen in 40 years and completely usurps the chain of command.’
Some key US departments also reportedly instructed staff not to comply with Musk’s demands, but the Tesla founder and SpaceX CEO said on Twitter he had already received a ‘large number of good responses’ as of Sunday (February 23), adding: “These are the people who should be considered for promotion.”
Musk has revealed the real reason why he sent the email on Saturday (Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)
The action came as president Donald Trump ordered Musk, dubbed his ‘First Buddy’, to ‘get more aggressive’ last week.
Now, the billionaire tech mogul has lifted the lid on the real reason why he sent the controversial demanding email.
Musk said on Twitter he sent the command to ‘see who had a pulse and two working neurons.’
He also claimed government workers don’t even check their emails, implying that the task was more about who was checking in and bothered to reply rather than the contents of their response.
Musk wrote: “This was basically a check to see if the employee had a pulse and was capable of replying to an email.
“Lot of people in for a rude awakening and strong dose of reality. They don’t get it yet, but they will,” Musk concluded.
FBI Director Kash Patel told his team not to reply (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
Yet, several department leaders advised their staff not to obey the order, with newly appointed FBI boss Kash Patel telling his team to hang fire as well as intelligence chief, Tulsi Gabbard, instructing staff to ignore it.
Patel’s message read: “FBI personnel may have received an email from OMP requesting information,. The FBI, through the Office of the Director, is in charge of all our review processes, and will conduct reviews in accordance with FBI procedures.”
“For now, please pause any responses,” his email concluded.
Meanwhile, Gabbard said to staff: “Given the inherently sensitive and classified nature of our work, I.C. employees should not respond to the OPM email.”
Director of National Intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, also advised staff to disregard Musk’s email (Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)
Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and Department of Homeland Security Chief Kristi Noem also told their teams to disregard the email, reports The Daily Mail.
However, Musk said anyone who shares the attitude of the Pentagon insider ‘needs to look for a new job.’
DOGE claims it has spared $55 billion from the budget through cost-cutting initiatives so far, like canceling contracts and leases, selling assets and detecting fraud across governmental departments from education, personnel management and health and human services to agriculture and international development.
Donald Trump has instructed Elon Musk to ‘get more aggressive’ after all federal workers received the same email earlier this week.
In a post on X, Trump wrote: “Elon is doing a great job, but I would like to see him get more aggressive.
“Remember, we have a country to save but ultimately, to make greater than ever before. MAGA!”
In response, Musk said: “Will do, Mr. President!”
People were confused over the tweet, with one person commenting: “Why’d he have to put that out on social media instead of just talking to you, Elon?”
While another said: “MORE AGGRESSIVE!?”
And a third added: “Take it easy. Give people time to process!!!”
On Saturday (February 22), Musk – who is head of the new Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) – announced that federal workers had received an email asking them to account for what they had done in the last week – or resign.
Writing on X, he said that workers would ‘shortly receive an email requesting to understand what they got done last week’.
“Failure to respond will be taken as a resignation,” he added.
Trump told Musk to be ‘more aggressive’ (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
The government‘s HR agency, the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) confirmed the email was legitimate in a statement to CBS.
“As part of the Trump administration’s commitment to an efficient and accountable federal workforce, OPM is asking employees to provide a brief summary of what they did last week by the end of Monday, CC’ing their manager,” it said.
“Agencies will determine any next steps.”
According to the BBC, employees were asked to list their accomplishments in five bullet points.
In response, Everett Kelley, president of the American Federation of Government Employees said: “Once again, Elon Musk and the Trump Administration have shown their utter disdain for federal employees and the critical services they provide to the American people.”
A large number of good responses have been received already. These are the people who should be considered for promotion.
Consistent with President @realDonaldTrump’s instructions, all federal employees will shortly receive an email requesting to understand what they got done last week. Failure to respond will be taken as a resignation.
On Sunday (February 23), Musk said that ‘a large number of responses have been received already’ explaining that ‘these are the people who should be considered for promotion’.
“The reason this matters is that a significant number of people who are supposed to be working for the government are doing so little work that they are not checking their email at all!” He added.
“In some cases, we believe non-existent people or the identities of dead people are being used to collect paychecks. In other words, there is outright fraud.”
Speaking of cuts, Trump told crowds at the Conservative Political Action Conference: “We’re removing all of the unnecessary, incompetent and corrupt bureaucrats from the federal workforce.
“We want to make government smaller, more efficient,” he added. “We want to keep the best people, and we’re not going to keep the worst people.”
