In huge news for Americans hoping to see major change out of the federal government, particularly as applied to the wastefulness for which the federal government is known, the Elon Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) slashed half a million credit cards that it contends were being used for waste by federal employees.
For context, DOGE was spurred into acting on the jaw-dropping levels of fraud by an executive order issued by President Donald Trump, the same one in which he empowered DOGE. In that EO, titled IMPLEMENTING THE PRESIDENT’S “DEPARTMENT OF GOVERNMENT EFFICIENCY” COST EFFICIENCY INITIATIVE, which was released on February 26, 2025, the president not only gave DOGE sweeping authority, but singled out federal credit cards as being in special need of cost-cutting attention.
He wrote, ordering DOGE to look into the matter, “To the maximum extent permitted by law, all credit cards held by agency employees shall be treated as frozen for 30 days from the date of this order.” He then, however, carved out an exception “for any credit cards held by employees engaged in, or charges related to employees utilizing such credit cards for, disaster relief or natural disaster response benefits or operations or other critical services.”
DOGE, after exposing the massive scope of the problem, gave an update on March 24, 2025, in which it said the audit was ongoing, but progress was being made. DOGE said, ” Weekly Credit Card Update! Pilot program with 16 agencies to audit unused/unneeded credit cards. After 5 weeks, ~298,000 cards have been deactivated. As a reminder, at the start of the audit, there were ~4.6M active cards/accounts, so still more work to do.”
Following up on that with a huge update on April 15, DOGE then noted that it has slashed half a million credit cards, saying, “Credit Card Update! The program to audit unused/unneeded credit cards has been expanded to 30 agencies. After 7 weeks, ~470k cards have been de-activated. As a reminder, at the start of the audit, there were ~4.6M active cards/accounts, so still more work to do.”
Commenters on DOGE’s post took the opportunity to sound off on the jaw-dropping amount of fraud. One said, for example, “Leftwing activists are desperate to hide their slush funds. The left wing “news” media is now trying to convince everyone that DOGE is illegal and can’t investigate the govt.”
Similarly, another commenter wrote that a whopping amount of spending had been tied to the cards, saying, “ITS NOT A ROBBERY ITS A COMPLETE CLEAN OUT ! The US government currently has ~4.6M active credit cards/accounts, which processed 90M unique transactions for ~$40B of spend in 2024 …”
Still another commented on how absurd it is that the federal employees have credit cards at all, writing, “Any govt employee without Demonstrable Business Need, a should NEVER be given a credit card paid for by the taxpayers. If they need to purchase something, they can buy it themselves, then put in the required paperwork for reimbursement , just like everyone in the private sector.”
Yet another commenter on the DOGE post hammered the federal government for wasting money in such an obscene manner, writing, “This is great fraud detection and prevention and with DOGE it is coming to light. I did not even know there were 30 agencies using credit cards that are essentially funded by our tax dollars. Glad DOGE cares about this, it is a relief.”
Watch DOGE go after corrupt deep state agencies here: