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On Wednesday, U.S. President Donald Trump announced that he is contemplating a plan to allocate 20% of the savings generated by the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) back to American taxpayers. During his speech at the FII Priority Summit in Miami Beach, he stated, “There’s even under consideration a new concept where we give 20% of the DOGE savings to American citizens and 20% goes to paying down debt.”
This discussion followed a statement made by Elon Musk in a post on X, where he indicated his intent to discuss with the President the possibility of using savings from the DOGE initiative to fund tax refund checks for U.S. households. Musk’s comments came in response to a proposal from James Fishback, CEO of the Azoria investment firm, who suggested that Trump could introduce what he calls a DOGE Dividend.
Musk’s overarching objective is to reduce federal spending by $2 trillion from a $6.75 trillion budget for the fiscal year that ended on September 30. Following this line of reasoning, Fishback proposed that if such savings were realized, distributing 20%—amounting to $400 billion—could result in approximately $5,000 per household.
Fishback emphasized in his proposal that when significant breaches occur in the private sector, it is customary for companies to refund customers for unmet promises. He argued that it is time for the federal government to adopt a similar approach and return funds to taxpayers based on the discoveries made by DOGE.
The federal government previously issued stimulus checks during the COVID-19 pandemic, which featured Trump’s signature, marking a historic moment as it was the first instance where a president’s name appeared on IRS payments, as reported by The Associated Press.
DOGE claims to have saved roughly $55 billion through its initiatives, but various recent reports indicate that the actual savings may be significantly lower. Bloomberg revealed that the DOGE website only reports savings of $16.6 billion, far from the $55 billion advertised. Moreover, The New York Times highlighted a mistake in which DOGE claimed an $8 billion saving on a federal contract that was actually for only $8 million.
In addition to these discrepancies, many of DOGE’s initiatives are currently facing legal challenges. Nevertheless, a federal judge recently rejected a request to prevent DOGE from accessing federal agency computer systems or from influencing employment decisions amid ongoing litigation.
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