Musk Mulls Sending All Americans $5,000 Checks Using DOGE Savings

Billionaire DOGE head Elon Musk said on X, formerly known as Twitter, he would ask President Donald Trump about a proposal for a “DOGE Dividend” that would give taxpayers a refund check of $5,000 funded by the savings from his Department of Government Efficiency.

Elon Musk listens as President Donald Trump meets with India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the … [+] Oval Office of the White House, Thursday, Feb. 13, 2025, in Washington.

Key Facts

James Fishback, CEO of investment firm Azoria and reportedly an outside adviser to DOGE, pitched the idea of “a tax refund check to be sent after the expiration of DOGE in July 2026 funded exclusively with a portion of the total savings delivered by DOGE” on social media on Friday, and continued posting about it Tuesday, tagging Musk in a tweet about the proposal.

The proposal calls for 20% of DOGE’s targeted $2 trillion in savings to be returned to “the ~79 million tax-paying households,” which Fishback said would result in about a $5,000 return per household.

Musk responded to Fishback’s proposal, saying he “will check with the president.”

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Contra

After Musk’s response to Fishback gained traction, he responded to another tweet about the proposed dividend couching the commitment slightly, saying: “Obviously, the President is the Commander-in-Chief, so this is entirely up to him.”

Crucial Quote

“Honored that @ElonMusk has expressed interest in our DOGE Dividend proposal for President Trump,” Fishback said on X after Musk responded.

Big Number

$55 billion. That’s how much DOGE estimates it has saved the U.S. as of Monday, according to doge.gov. The site says the savings are from a combination of “fraud detection/deletion, contract/lease cancellations, contract/lease renegotiations, asset sales, grant cancellations, workforce reductions, programmatic changes, and regulatory savings.”

Key Background

DOGE has drawn widespread controversy and criticism as Musk—who has been unofficially leading the agency—and his team have been quickly working to reduce costs through cancelling grants and contracts and reducing the federal workforce. DOGE has received blowback for its seemingly unrestricted access to sensitive federal data across departments including the Treasury Department and Education Department. It’s not clear what authority DOGE has to be handling sensitive data, and the agency and Musk are facing a number of lawsuits seeking to answer that and restrict access. DOGE was created by executive order on Trump’s first day back in office last month, and the order declared its purpose was “to implement the President’s DOGE Agenda, by modernizing Federal technology and software to maximize governmental efficiency and productivity.”

Tangent

Fishback, the proposer of the “DOGE Dividend,” has been an outspoken supporter of Trump, Musk and DOGE. His social media features a Fox News appearance in which he refers to USAID employees as “Fred Fraudsters and Stan Swindlers” and a video in which he describes DOGE as “pro-taxpayer and anti-waste.” After Vivek Ramaswamy—who Trump initially said would run DOGE alongside Musk—left the agency, Fishback told NBC News he was “willing to step up” and fill Ramaswamy’s space.

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