Special government employee Elon Musk announced he’s leaving the Department of Government Efficiency. But, what does that mean for the DOGE savings and possible dividend checks in 2025?
The world’s richest man tweeted on Wednesday night, “As my scheduled time as a Special Government Employee comes to an end, I would like to thank President Trump for the opportunity to reduce wasteful spending. The DOGE mission will only strengthen over time as it becomes a way of life throughout the government.”
While Musk plans to return to focus on his many businesses, including Tesla and SpaceX, the Trump administration told news officials, “Musk left on good terms and is still friends with the president. This isn’t a separation, but just a return to the private sector for Musk. He will continue to be a friend to the president, and we can characterize that as an ‘adviser.'”
Top Musk lieutenant Steve Davis, adviser Katie Miller and DOGE general counsel James Burnham are all reported to be leaving DOGE as well.
The mission of DOGE was to slash federal spending, speed deregulation and “modernize federal technology and software to maximize governmental efficiency and productivity.” At the time it was introduced, DOGE’s effort was to save as much as $2 trillion a year.
Here’s what this all means for DOGE’s future, the savings and status on possible dividend refund stimulus checks for 2025.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Thursday that others in the administration will be left in charge of DOGE, “the DOGE leaders are each and every member of the president’s Cabinet and the president himself, who is wholeheartedly committed to cutting waste, fraud and abuse from our government.”
According to the Department of Government Efficiency website, it cites an estimated $175 billion — approximately $1,087 per individual federal taxpayer — in savings through their cuts and reductions in government spending and proof in their “Wall of Receipts.” Albeit, only $70 billion is itemized thus far, raising doubts about accuracy.
The author of the DOGE dividend check proposal was John Fishback. His four-page proposal of the “DOGE dividend” described it as a refund “sent only to tax-paying householders.” Noting the difference from past stimulus checks, he added that DOGE checks would not be inflationary as they would be “exclusively funded with DOGE-driven savings, unlike COVID stimulus checks which were deficit-financed.”
The idea was originally floated by Fishback on Musk’s social media platform X, suggesting Trump and Musk “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.” Musk replied “Will check with the President.“
Fishback’s proposal would send checks only to households above a certain income level as opposed to pandemic-era checks that were sent “indiscriminately.”
“A lot of low-income households essentially saw transfer payments of 25% to 30% of their annual … income,” Fishback said of the pandemic stimulus checks, adding, “This exclusively goes to households that are net-payers of federal income tax, and what that means is that they have a lower propensity to spend and a higher propensity to save a transfer payment like the DOGE dividend.”
“I’m honored to have the president’s support, but the plan is very simple,” Fishback said. “DOGE is going to save X amount of money over the next couple of years. Let’s take 20 percent of that and send it right back to the hard-working taxpayers who sent it to D.C. in the first place.”
By definition, a dividend is a distribution of profits by a corporation to its shareholders and refund is a payment made back to a user who previously paid for something. A stimulus check on the other hand, is a direct payment to encourage spending and stimulate the economy by putting money directly into the consumers’ hand.
The potential refund would be sent only to households that are net-income taxpayers — people who pay more in taxes than they get back — with lower-income Americans not qualifying for the return, according to news reports. The Pew Research Center cites most Americans who have an adjusted gross income of under $40,000 pay effectively no federal income tax.
The proposed DOGE refund check would be issued per household, rather than to each individual taxpayer, including those receiving Social Security benefits that meet the income tax requirements.
On April 8 in an interview with Chris Cuomo, the author of the DOGE dividend idea — Azoria investment firm CEO James Fishback — was asked “Do you think it is going to happen?” To which he replied “Yes, I really do believe it will happen and I’ve got unique information because I’ve been on the Hill for the last two weeks, meeting with members in the House and Senate.” He claims he has the support of President Donald Trump, adviser Elon Musk and the economist Kevin Hassett, Director of the National Economic Council.
On March 30, during a rally in Wisconsin, Elon Musk said the DOGE dividend check was up to the president and congressional approval to decide if and when his cost saving measures would result in “whether a check is cut or not” to taxpayers. “As government spending is made more efficient and spending is reduced, the tax by inflation is reduced,” said Musk at the rally. “So one way or another, you will effectively be better off if resources in the United States are not wasted.” Adding, “We’ve made a lot of progress but there’s still a tremendous amount of work to do,” Musk continued.
On March 27 during an interview with FOX News Bret Baier, Musk and the DOGE team discussed the timeline to reduce the deficit by $1 trillion through cutting wasteful government spending and eliminating fraud. DOGE claimed to have saved approximately $130 billion at that time, estimating that savings to be over $800 per taxpayer.
On Feb. 19, President Donald Trump said he would consider the plan to pay out $5,000 stimulus checks to taxpayers in the form of a ‘DOGE dividend’ during a summit in Miami. He explained it as using part of the 20% of the savings identified by Musk‘s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) and giving it back to taxpayers. However, he has not shared any further specifics or details about the possible ‘DOGE dividend’ or its certainty since then.
This article originally appeared on Delaware News Journal: With Elon Musk leaving DOGE, what does that mean for dividend checks?
