![\"Trump](\"https:\/\/imageio.forbes.com\/specials-images\/imageserve\/67b51ae7d6b74427c98ce6ef\/Trump-Modi\/0x0.jpg?format=jpg&crop=3403,1914,x0,y103,safe&width=1440\")
<\/div>Elon Musk listens as President Donald Trump meets with India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the\u00a0… [+]<\/span><\/p>\n Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved<\/small><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n James Fishback, CEO of investment firm Azoria and\u00a0reportedly\u00a0an outside adviser to DOGE,\u00a0pitched\u00a0the idea of \u201ca tax refund check to be sent after the expiration of DOGE in July 2026 funded exclusively with a portion of the total savings delivered by DOGE\u201d on social media on Friday, and continued posting about it Tuesday, tagging Musk in a tweet about the proposal.<\/p>\n The\u00a0proposal\u00a0calls for 20% of DOGE\u2019s targeted $2 trillion in savings to be returned to \u201cthe ~79 million tax-paying households,\u201d which Fishback said would result in about a $5,000 return per household.<\/p>\n Musk\u00a0responded\u00a0to Fishback\u2019s proposal, saying he \u201cwill check with the president.\u201d<\/p>\n Get Forbes Breaking News Text Alerts:\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>We\u2019re launching text message alerts so you’ll always know the biggest stories shaping the day\u2019s headlines. Text \u201cAlerts\u201d to\u00a0<\/em>(201) 335-0739<\/em>\u00a0or sign up\u00a0<\/em>here<\/em>.<\/em><\/p>\n After Musk\u2019s response to Fishback gained traction, he\u00a0responded\u00a0to another tweet about the proposed dividend couching the commitment slightly, saying: \u201cObviously, the President is the Commander-in-Chief, so this is entirely up to him.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cHonored that @ElonMusk has expressed interest in our DOGE Dividend proposal for President Trump,\u201d Fishback\u00a0said on X\u00a0after Musk responded.<\/p>\n $55 billion. That\u2019s how much DOGE estimates it has saved the U.S. as of Monday, according to\u00a0doge.gov. The site says the savings are from a combination of \u201cfraud detection\/deletion, contract\/lease cancellations, contract\/lease renegotiations, asset sales, grant cancellations, workforce reductions, programmatic changes, and regulatory savings.\u201d<\/p>\n DOGE has drawn\u00a0widespread controversy\u00a0and criticism as Musk\u2014who has been unofficially leading the agency\u2014and his team have been quickly working to reduce costs through cancelling grants and contracts and reducing the federal workforce. DOGE has received blowback for its seemingly unrestricted access to sensitive federal data across departments including the Treasury Department and Education Department. It\u2019s not clear what authority DOGE has to be handling sensitive data, and the agency and Musk are facing a number of lawsuits seeking to answer that and restrict access. DOGE was created by executive order on Trump\u2019s first day back in office last month, and the order declared its purpose was \u201cto implement the President\u2019s DOGE Agenda, by modernizing Federal technology and software to maximize governmental efficiency and productivity.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Topline Billionaire DOGE head Elon Musk\u00a0said on X, formerly known as Twitter, he would ask President Donald Trump about a proposal for a \u201cDOGE Dividend\u201d that… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":27988,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-27987","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nfl"],"yoast_head":"\nKey Facts<\/h2>\n
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