The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) has already uncovered extreme spending waste, and Trump has only been in office for 13 days. On Friday, Elon Musk posted on X that:
“The @DOGE team discovered, among other things, that payment approval officers at Treasury were instructed always to approve payments, even to known fraudulent or terrorist groups.”
“They literally never denied a payment in their entire career.”
As a result of this discovery, David A. Lebryk, a long-serving Treasury official who was named acting secretary by President Trump upon taking office last week, announced his retirement in an email to colleagues on Friday. According to reports, Lebryk had a dispute with representatives of Elon Musk regarding access to the U.S. government's payment system, which is used to distribute trillions of dollars annually.
Lebryk and the Treasury Department should not have been surprised by the request. Trump signed an executive order instructing all agencies to ensure DOGE has “full and prompt access to all unclassified agency records, software systems, and IT systems,” which includes the Treasury payment systems.
A small group of career bureaucrats at the Bureau of Fiscal Service manages the payment system. This bureau oversees the distribution of more than $6 trillion each year to households, businesses, and various entities nationwide. This includes payments related to Social Security, Medicare, federal salaries, government contractors, tax refunds, grants, and more.
The left reacted in typical fashion. Instead of being either outraged by the revelation or thankful for DOGE uncovering it, the Washington Post reported it this way: