The new Department of Government Efficiency leader isn’t getting a paycheck and doesn’t need one — Elon Musk’s $418 billion net worth as of Monday rivaled the entire gross domestic product of Denmark at last count.
But what was once thought of as an outside advisory board is now very much inside the federal government and drawing an official salary, so to speak. Nearly $7 million has been “apportioned” over the past week to cover the agency’s expenses, while the administration tries to freeze big chunks of government funding as part of DOGE’s mandate to root out programs deemed wasteful or out of step with the president’s priorities.
“Despite fabricating the United States DOGE Service out of thin air, President Musk has already grown his unelected bureaucracy to lay claim to nearly $7 million of American taxpayer funding,” House Appropriations ranking member Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., said in a statement. She said that amount is “nearly twice the annual salaries and expenses budget of the White House.”
