Elon Musk considers sending all Americans $5,000 checks from DOGE savings

Elon Musk has said he would consider giving American taxpayers a payout from DOGE savings.

The Tesla CEO responded to a proposal on X (formerly Twitter) suggesting a ‘DOGE Dividend.’

In other words, Musk would give Americans a $5,000 tax refund check using savings from the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).

The idea was pitched by James Fishback, CEO of Azoria and an outside adviser to DOGE. Fishback is also an outspoken supporter of Trump and Musk and posted the idea on X.

He posted on X: “President Trump and @ElonMusk should announce a ‘DOGE Dividend’—a tax refund check sent to every taxpayer, funded exclusively with a portion of the total savings delivered by DOGE.”

The CEO also attached a pretty in-depth PDF that he titled ‘The case for a DOGE Dividend.’

Elon Musk

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Replying to @j_fishback

Will check with the President

4:46 AM · Feb 19, 2025

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Musk replied to the proposal with a short but intriguing message: “will check with the President”.

As the SpaceX founder’s response was gaining reach, he responded to another post, adding: “Obviously, the President is the Commander-in-Chief, so this is entirely up to him”.

Fishback thanked Musk for his response and said that he was ‘honored’ that the world’s richest man expressed interest in ‘our DOGE Dividend proposal for President Trump.’

Fishback also insisted that the ‘DOGE Dividend’ would not ‘be inflationary,’ claiming it would be funded entirely by savings from the agency.

Either way, Trump would need to approve the proposal before anything was to happen.

When Vivek Ramaswamy – who Trump originally planned to have run DOGE alongside Musk – stepped down from the agency, Fishback told NBC News he was ‘willing to step up’ and take his place.

James Fishback/X

According to doge.gov, DOGE has already saved $55 billion by cutting government waste. The savings reportedly come from a combination of ‘fraud detection/deletion, contract/lease cancellations, contract/lease renegotiations, asset sales, grant cancellations, workforce reductions, programmatic changes, and regulatory savings,’ as per their official website.

Since its launch during Trump’s second term, DOGE has been praised for reducing spending through a reduction in the federal workforce, and cancellation of grants and contracts.

But the agency has also been criticised for reportedly getting unrestricted access to sensitive government data across multiple federal agencies, including the Treasury Department.

Elsewhere, the head of DOGE was invited to Fort Knox by Republican Senator Paul of Kentucky to inspect the US gold reserves after it was revealed there’s no yearly audit of the stash.

The Bullion Depository holds around 147 million troy ounces of gold, representing over half (56%) of the US federal gold reserves.