President Trump Unleashes Musk on CIA

DOGE is entering the CIA after CIA Director John Ratcliffe invited Elon Musk and his team to the premises. What kind of government waste and fraud will DOGE cut? You might think that DOGE would conduct a raid, but it’s not like that. DOGE has received a cordial welcome “to discuss government efficiency.”

So far, DOGE has cut $800 million at the Pentagon. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth labeled the budgetary items that were slashed as “not a good use of taxpayer dollars.” And DOGE has made major cuts at other government agencies, altogether saving taxpayers $140 billion so far.  So it would behoove the CIA to get a taste of unnecessary spending being removed. I don’t know why this isn’t a bipartisan issue.

As we mentioned in our analysis of Musk’s interview that introduced his DOGE team, waste and fraud are pervasive in our government agencies. For example, DOGE revealed that 40% of the inbound calls to Social Security are scammers trying to defraud other Americans of their Social Security checks. And taxpayers were paying $830 million to create a 10-question survey about our national parks. And even more ridiculous, no one monitored the survey’s answers to improve our parks.

So let’s see what DOGE can find at the CIA. Now it could be a tougher agency in which to identify necessary cuts. Most of the funds are probably not enumerated in plain sight like at other agencies. But it’s still a good move; every agency can make cuts and improve efficiency.

In ACLJ-related news, we have a big development in our fight to defend a public school teacher’s religious liberty. We began representing a teacher in Texas after her school principal ordered her not to pray anywhere on campus where a student could possibly see her.

Of course, the principal’s order was an egregious violation of religious liberty, and we filed a federal lawsuit on behalf of the teacher. The defendants in the case (the school district) tried to have our case dismissed. However, a U.S. district judge denied their motion to dismiss, pointing out how the U.S. Supreme Court landmark decision in Kennedy v. Bremerton School District (2022) protects a teacher’s First Amendment rights. Therefore, our fight to defend the teacher’s religious liberty will continue.

ACLJ Senior Managing Counsel Christina Compagnone joined the broadcast to discuss the case:

Yes, it’s very exciting for us that one line from the judge was very strong in our favor, but that doesn’t mean that we have an automatic win. And so the next steps [are] we’ve got to go through what’s called the summary judgment motion stage. So that’s where we ask the judge to rule based on the evidence that’s been presented – and based on our complaint – without having it go to trial. And if we can win on that, that would mean we win the entire case. So we’ve got one step in, but now we have the big fight ahead of us with these summary judgment motions.

So we’re going to file one. I am sure the school is going to file one. We then have to respond to each other. It’s a significant amount of time and writing, and a whole team of attorneys will be on this.

This case might involve just one teacher in Texas, but we know that teachers all over the country have their religious liberties violated. A victory here will help solidify constitutional rights regarding religious liberty going forward so that we can defend more public schoolteachers nationwide.

We can’t defend religious liberty in public schools without your generous support. Today is the last day of our Life & Liberty Drive. Gifts are doubled to fund our legal fights. Donate today to help preserve religious liberty in public schools.

Today’s Sekulow broadcast included a full analysis of the CIA inviting Elon Musk and DOGE to analyze government efficiency and wasteful spending. We also discussed President Donald Trump inviting comedian Bill Maher to meet with him at the White House.

Watch the full broadcast below: