Musk rips 'fraudulent' Treasury payments as reports mount DOGE has access to federal payment system
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Tech billionaire Elon Musk ripped alleged "fraudulent" Treasury payments on Saturday as reports circulated that the Department of Government Efficiency has gained acces to the federal government's payment system as the second Trump administration continues cutting what they say is government fat and overspending.
"The @DOGE team discovered, among other things, that payment approval officers at Treasury were instructed always to approve payments, even to known fraudulent or terrorist groups. They literally never denied a payment in their entire career. Not even once," Musk, the chair of DOGE, posted early Saturday morning to X.
Musk's post came just ahead of the New York Times reporting Saturday afternoon that Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent granted DOGE personnel access to the payment system. The Treasury spends roughly $6 trillion per year on payments for federal agencies.
The ranking Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee, Oregon Sen. Ron Wyden, posted to social media on Saturday that he has also been informed that DOGE was granted access to the system.
"Sources tell my office that Treasury Secretary Bessent has granted DOGE *full* access to this system. Social Security and Medicare benefits, grants, payments to government contractors, including those that compete directly with Musk's own companies. All of it," Wyden posted to social media site BlueSky on Saturday evening.
DOGE's reported access to the payment system comes after the Washington Post reported on Friday that the former acting director of the Treasury, David A. Lebryk, was planning to exit the finance department of the federal government following a clash over granting DOGE access to its payment system. Lebryk oversaw the Treasury Department in the days between President Donald Trump's inauguration on Jan. 20 and Bessent's confirmation to lead the department on Jan. 27.
On Friday, reports also spread that civil servants within the Office of Personnel Management, which works as the federal government's HR department, were reportedly locked from the office's computer systems by DOGE.
Musk quipped on X on Saturday that working over the weekend is a "superpower," where the "opposing team" disappear for two days.
"Very few in the bureaucracy actually work the weekend, so it's like the opposing team just leaves the field for 2 days! Working the weekend is a superpower," he posted.
Trump officially created DOGE via an executive order signed on his first day in office. The EO outlines that government agency chiefs provide DOGE with access to internal government platforms such as, "software systems, and IT systems."
"Agency Heads shall take all necessary steps, in coordination with the USDS Administrator and to the maximum extent consistent with law, to ensure USDS has full and prompt access to all unclassified agency records, software systems, and IT systems. USDS shall adhere to rigorous data protection standards," the executive order reads.
Trump and Musk had long previewed the creation of DOGE while on the campaign trail, championing that the team would weed out overspending and fraud within the federal government. DOGE is not a government department, but instead operates as a team within the Trump administration.
Before Trump's win in November, Musk hosted the Republican president for an interview on X in August, where Musk railed against government overspending and inflation that has gripped the nation in recent years.
"A lot of people just don't understand where inflation comes from. Inflation comes from government overspending because the checks never bounce when it's written by the government. So if the government spends far more than it brings in, that increases the money supply. If the money supply increases faster than the rate of goods and services, that's inflation," Musk said during their conversation.
"So really we need to reduce our government spending, and we need to re-examine… I think we need a government efficiency commission to say like, 'Hey, where are we spending money that's sensible. Where is it not sensible?'"
Since its official creation last month, DOGE's X account has provided updates on its work to cut government spending, including announcing last week that it has cut more than $1 billion from federal spending through now-defunct diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives and personnel.
Fox News Digital reached out to the White House and Treasury Department on Sunday morning, but did not immediately receive replies.
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The new federal Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) announced Friday that taxpayers will see just over a $1 billion savings through the elimination of 104 diversity, equity and inclusion-related (DEI) contracts.
DOGE announces more than $1B in savings after canceling 104 federal DEI contracts | Fox News
Not a real government department.
Not something they have the legal authority to do.
The self-proclaimed “Party of Law and Order” is now the party of looking the other way while Dictators and Oligarchs trample on the rule of law.
He didn't say they did.
Trump does and he did it through his EOs.
Nothing anyone can do about it.
Even the president does not have unlimited authority to cancel all contracts.
If they are federal, then he probably does.
He has some discretion. It’s not absolute. I actually researched it a little, but that’s what I do. I don’t just assume a loud mouth can do anything he says.