WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump said Wednesday 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 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.
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“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.
