The Trump administration has only been in existence for two days and has already faced at least four lawsuits regarding Elon Musk’s new profession.
Titled Department of Government Efficiency – or DOGE for short, kind of like that meme of the dog that’s now dead and also turned into cryptocurrency – it’s supposed to help the new Trump administration find ways to cut government spending.
Elon Musk, who on Trump’s inauguration day twice made a very unusual gesture by raising his right arm in the air in front of the crowd, previously said he could cut about $2 trillion of dollars spent in the US government budget.
However, he later revised that projection downward to $1 trillion in budget cuts, suggesting that aiming for two could probably achieve one.
For reference, between October 2023 and September 2024, the US federal government spent approximately $6.75 trillion.
Elon Musk is supposed to lead the Department of Government Effectiveness (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)
Musk was set to lead DOGE alongside Vivek Ramaswamy, who left the department just hours after Trump took office to let the Tesla boss take overall control.
In the meantime, the new department has already been the subject of several lawsuits.
The Washington Post reports that DOGE was sued just minutes after Trump’s inauguration by the law firm National Security Counselors, which claims the department meets the standards to be classified as a “federal advisory committee” and therefore has the legal responsibility to take certain actions which are intended to ensure that it provides the government with balanced and transparent advice.
A second lawsuit filed by the groups Public Citizen, State Democracy Defenders Fund and the American Federation of Government Employees alleges much the same thing, while a third lawsuit filed by the groups Democracy Forward, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington also makes the same argument that DOGE is going to provide advice to the government and therefore must be bound by the rules of the Federal Advisory Committee Act (FACA).
The second Trump administration has only just begun and several trials have already taken place (Shawn Thew-Pool/Getty Images)
All three lawsuits could be complicated by an executive order from Trump declaring that DOGE operates “within” the U.S. government, meaning it would not be a federal advisory committee and therefore would not be subject to FACA.
Meanwhile, a fourth lawsuit from the Center for Biological Diversity also targets DOGE but does not take the group back on its status.
Instead, this fourth lawsuit aims to seek public records on how individuals who claim to represent DOGE “have interacted with the White House since the presidential transition began in November.”
LADbible has reached out to the Trump administration for comment.
All the executive orders Donald Trump has signed so far
Policy recognizing only “two genders”
The president signed an executive order that will make it official policy that there are only “two genders.”
The policy reads: “Agencies will stop pretending that men can be women and women can be men when enforcing laws that protect against sex discrimination.
“These sexes cannot be changed and are anchored in a fundamental and incontestable reality.”
The order will also end “unnecessary” government programs that promote diversity and inclusion, as well as “defending women against ideological gender extremism.”
Freedom of expression
The president accused the previous administration of “trampling on the right to free speech by censoring the speech of Americans” and pledged to restore free speech.
The order states that it will “ensure that no official, employee, or agent of the Federal Government engages in or facilitates any conduct that would unconstitutionally restrict the freedom of expression of any United States citizen” and will “end censorship of protected speech.
Leave the World Health Organization
The president accused the organization of fumbling the COVID-19 pandemic and said the United States would no longer allow itself to be “ripped off” by it.
Signing a document demanding that the United States leave the health agency, Trump said: “Global health has ripped us off, everyone has ripped off the United States.” This won’t happen again. »
Ban on TikTok
As expected, Trump signed an executive order that pauses the U.S. ban on the popular app, allowing time to take an “appropriate path forward.”
“I guess I have a soft spot for TikTok that I didn’t originally have,” he said.
Graces of January 6
Trump’s defeat in the 2020 election led to the insurrection at the Capitol on January 6, 2021, in turn leading to the arrest of a number of Trump supporters.
And as expected, the president wasted no time in granting pardon to the offenders. Trump said he had pardoned about 1,500 people and granted six commutations.
Immigration
Trump issued a series of immigration-related policies during his first day back in the White House by declaring illegal immigration at the U.S.-Mexico border a national emergency.
Trump has already begun rolling back several Biden-era immigration orders and is considering sending U.S. troops to help immigration agents and restrict refugees.
The president also took steps to prevent children of illegal immigrants in the United States from obtaining citizenship.
Speaking at his inauguration, he said: “All illegal entry will be stopped immediately and we will begin the process of returning millions and millions of criminal aliens to the places from which they came.”
Reinstate the death penalty
Calling capital punishment “a critical tool to deter and punish those who commit the most heinous crimes,” Trump signed an order that will ensure states have enough lethal injection drugs for executions.
“The Attorney General shall apply the death penalty for all crimes of a seriousness requiring its use,” the order states.
Renaming the Gulf of Mexico
In keeping with his promise at a press conference earlier this month, Trump has now ordered that the Gulf of Mexico be called the Gulf of America.
“President Trump brings common sense to government and renews the pillars of American civilization,” the executive order said.
Despite the order, this won’t change how it is named overall.
Energy policy
Trump pledged to “unleash American energy,” promising to export American energy around the world as he signed the order amid what he describes as a “national energy emergency “.
“America is fortunate to have an abundance of energy and natural resources that have historically fueled our nation’s economic prosperity. In recent years, burdensome and ideologically driven regulations have hampered the development of these resources, limited the production of reliable and affordable electricity, reduced job creation, and inflicted high energy costs on our citizens,” the order states.
The order will also reverse Biden’s Alaska drilling ban, despite Trump saying America would “be a rich nation again.”
Cost of living
In that order, Trump pledged to provide “emergency price relief” to Americans, aimed at reducing housing prices and availability and creating “job opportunities for American workers.”
Trump will also “eliminate harmful and coercive ‘climate’ policies that increase food and fuel costs.”
Drug cartels
Trump said drug cartels would now be classified as terrorist organizations.
“International cartels pose a threat to national security beyond that posed by traditional organized crime,” the orders state.
Federal workers
Federal employees are now classified as political recruits – a move that, in theory, would make it easier to fire them.
Trump also enacted a federal hiring freeze, which would reduce the size of the federal government.
