Trump says he is considering returning 20% of Doge savings to Americans
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Mr Trump said he is also considering using another 20 per cent of the savings to pay down the federal government’s debt.
PHOTO: AFP
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MIAMI - US President Donald Trump on Feb 19 said his administration is considering returning 20 per cent of savings identified by Mr Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (Doge) initiative to Americans, echoing a proposal made on social media site X.
Speaking at a meeting of global financiers and tech executives hosted by Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund in Miami, Mr Trump said he is also considering using another 20 per cent of the savings to pay down the federal government’s debt.
“There’s even under consideration a new concept, where we give 20 per cent of the Doge savings to American citizens, and 20 per cent goes to paying down debt,” Mr Trump said.
The proposal originally came from businessman James Fishback, who on Feb 18 posted a four-page memo on X suggesting a “Doge dividend”.
The post caught the attention of Mr Musk, who responded: “Will check with the President.”
Mr Fishback, the chief executive of Azoria Partners investment firm, is now in touch with the Trump administration over his proposal, a source aware of the conversations told Reuters on Feb 19.
Mr Fishback’s memo suggests slicing 20 per cent from Doge’s savings, or what Mr Fishback said would amount to US$400 billion (S$535 billion), in order to send a US$5,000 cheque to all tax-paying households after Doge’s scheduled end in July 2026.
That calculation stems from Doge achieving US$2 trillion in savings, which Mr Musk has described as a “best-case outcome” with US$1 trillion the goal.
Mr Musk’s cost-cutting effort has so far pared hundreds of relatively small contracts that it says have saved US taxpayers US$8.5 billion, according to a Reuters analysis of partial data published by his team, a fraction of what the US government pays contractors each year.
Mr Musk’s own SpaceX, for example, has about US$22 billion in contracts with the US government.
The first phase of Mr Musk’s rapid-fire effort appears driven more by an ideological assault on federal agencies long hated by conservatives than a good-faith effort to save taxpayer dollars, according to two veteran Republican budget experts. REUTERS
