"Trump Eyes Taxpayer Windfall from Musk's Cost-Cuts"

President Donald Trump is considering a plan to return a portion of the savings generated by Elon Musk's government cost-cutting initiative, the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), to American taxpayers. At a finance and technology summit in Miami hosted by Saudi Arabia's sovereign wealth fund, Trump announced that he is exploring the idea of returning 20% of the savings to taxpayers, while another 20% could be allocated toward paying down the national debt, which is now over $36 trillion.

DOGE claims to have saved approximately $55 billion by canceling government contracts and reducing the federal workforce. However, the accuracy of this figure has been questioned due to inconsistencies in the reported savings. The New York Times recently pointed out that one listed cancellation was originally stated as $8 billion when the actual contract was worth only $8 million. DOGE later clarified that it always used the correct $8 million figure in its internal calculations.

If the reported $55 billion in savings were evenly distributed among the 163.1 million individual taxpayers who filed returns last year, each taxpayer would receive less than $67.50. Additionally, the 20% of DOGE savings allocated to reducing the national debt, which is an estimated $11 billion, would cover just 1.3% of the $839.5 billion budget deficit the government accumulated since the fiscal year began in October.

During the same speech, Trump also addressed cryptocurrency policy and mentioned his recent executive order that he claims effectively ended what he described as "Joe Biden’s war on Bitcoin and crypto." The order established a crypto working group led by White House AI and crypto czar David Sacks, tasked with developing a legal framework for digital assets and stablecoins. It also includes an initiative to explore the potential creation of a national crypto stockpile.

Kevin Hassett, the director of the National Economic Council and a key White House adviser to President Trump, revealed that he is holding regular meetings with Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell. In a recent interview on CBS' Face The Nation, Hassett was asked whether these discussions were aimed at influencing interest rate decisions. He responded by stating that the Federal Reserve is independent, but pointed out that the president's opinions should still be heard.

Hassett stated that long-term interest rates have already declined since the Trump administration took office, and specifically pointed to