President Donald Trump has reacted to the DOGE dividend proposal and said he loved the idea of giving back 20 per cent of the DOGE’s savings money to the taxpayers. “I love it. A 20% dividend for the money that we’re saving by going after fraud, waste, and abuse and all the other things that are happening. I think it’s a great idea. It could give back a lot of money to the taxpayer. It would also give an incentive to the taxpayer to go out and report things to us where we could save money,” Trump said when he was asked about the proposal.
Under the DOGE dividend proposal floated by investor James Fishback, 20 per cent of DOGE savings would go to the taxpayers which would amount to $5,000 per taxpayer. Elon Musk-led DOGE is working to cut down federal expenditure within a year and for that, they have targeted several departments and agencies which they think should cease to exist. Elon Musk acknowledged Fishback’s proposal and said he would check this with the president.
In his Miami Beach speech to a nonprofit funded by Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund, Trump spoke about DOGE dividend making it clear that he is already aware of the proposal. “The numbers are incredible, Elon, so many billions — hundreds of billions — and we’re thinking about giving 20% back to the American citizens.”
Fishback said that $2 trillion in savings over two years would amount to roughly $25,000 per taxpayer. If 20 per cent of it is given to the taxpayer, it would mean $5,000 per taxpayer. The rest would be spent on clearing the national debt.
Elon Musk on DOGE dividend
Elon Musk took to X to clarify that he did not promise any check of any amount to the taxpayers. He only said that he would check the proposal with the president. “Just said that I would see if the President wanted to consider a tax reduction linked to DOGE savings. He may or he may not.”
Musk said the amount would depend on DOGE’s final savings and DOGE’s priority now is to reduce the deficit and to lower people’s interest rates. “The amount would therefore obviously be proportionate to how much savings DOGE actually achieves. More savings would mean a bigger tax reduction! The top DOGE priority remains however reducing the deficit to stop inflation and lower people’s interest rates,” Elon Musk said.
