Karoline Leavitt Releases DOGE Receipts

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt defended Elon Musk’s transparency at a press conference – even showing DOGE “receipts.” Many in the media are questioning if Musk and DOGE are truly saving taxpayer money, and Leavitt dove into several of the receipts, explaining what’s been cut. (Read the receipts here.)

Referencing a $57,000 climate change program in Sri Lanka, Leavitt remarked, “What is this doing to continue the interests of the American people? Absolutely nothing. These are the line items across the federal government that DOGE is identifying daily. They’re moving very fast. There’s a lot of paper that we can show you, but we’re happy to do it.” Leavitt didn’t back down from defending DOGE’s actions.

It’s ridiculous to claim that the Trump Administration isn’t being transparent about DOGE. Trump literally just opened the doors of the Oval Office yesterday so Musk could answer questions directly about the department’s actions thus far.

Musk stated: “The people voted for major government reform, and that’s what people are going to get. . . . They’re going to get what they voted for.” In conjunction with Musk’s appearance, Trump signed an Executive order requiring federal agencies to work with DOGE to reduce the number of federal workers.

Trump is offering many federal workers a “buyout” plan where they will be paid for nine months if they quit. A federal judge also ruled yesterday to allow the buyout to proceed after first putting a temporary restraining order in place. So far 77,000 federal workers have taken Trump up on the offer. And though that number sounds high, it’s still only 4% of approximately 2 million federal employees in America.

ACLJ Senior Counsel and Director of Policy Harry Hutchison reacted to the judge’s decision:

The judge was mistaken when he issued the temporary restraining order initially. Basically, we should look at the Constitution. Under the Constitution, the President of the United States is equipped with all Executive branch power pursuant to Article 2, and so what we have seen is the exercise of an unconstitutional amount of power by an Article 3 judge, who essentially has interfered with President Trump’s legitimate power. . . .

[Also,] John Fitzgerald Kennedy, as President, made a mistake by allowing federal employees who were already protected by civil service to unionize. That makes things more cumbersome. And what are labor unions? Labor unions, in essence, are another special interest group. And I’m not saying all special interest groups are wrong, but they basically can interfere with the exercise of the levers of power, particularly if you look at the federal government, which has operated inefficiently for the last 40 to 50 years. . . . More likely than not, we could cut federal employment by about 75%, and many of the jobs currently performed by federal employees could be exercised by artificial intelligence.

Let’s remember what DOGE stands for: the Department of Government Efficiency. Musk’s task is to create more efficiency within our federal government. Let’s not forget that the IRS is still using fax machines, old IBM computers, and dot-matrix printers. Why? You couldn’t even purchase these items for yourself in a regular store – you’d have to go to a thrift shop.

So yes, DOGE is saving taxpayer money from being wasted. Think about how DOGE can modernize the government, which will save taxpayers billions of dollars. It’s immoral to operate our government on the taxpayer dime like we’re still living in the Cold War.

Of course, the far Left is vehemently opposed to DOGE and Trump’s attempt to gut the bureaucratic state. Multiple states are suing the Trump Administration, and the ACLJ just filed three critical briefs nationwide to preserve Trump’s Executive authority.

We filed the briefs because the reckless judicial overreach we’re seeing is a direct assault on the Constitution’s original design. This isn’t just legal overreach; it’s lawfare – an attempt to weaponize the courts to undermine the presidency itself.

We’re fighting back. We’re asking the courts to deny these attempts to undermine presidential authority and maintain the proper constitutional balance of powers established by our Founders. Join us in our fight by signing our petition to defend DOGE.

Today’s Sekulow broadcast included a full analysis of White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt’s press conference defending DOGE. ACLJ Senior Counsel for International and Government Affairs Jeff Ballabon joined to discuss Trump giving Hamas an ultimatum.

Watch the full broadcast below: