Elon Musk has shockingly revealed in a recent Fox News interview that 'almost no one' has been fired as the result of cuts made by the newly established Department of Government Efficiency, challenging the idea of DOGE as a 'fire-heavy' agency.
Savings made by DOGE so far reportedly exceed $130 billion - although this figure has been challenged by experts - and while a major focus outlined on the agency's website is the cancellation of leases and contracts, many have put significant focus on its apparent mass firing initiatives.
Headlining this push was an albeit unsuccessful government-wide email that threatened the roles of 100,000 federal employees if they seemingly didn't provide an adequate enough response to what they had achieved in the last week.
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However, there have also been major job cuts across countless other departments, including those in USAID for Ebola prevention initiatives, alongside the Department of Energy which reportedly threatened national security.
Musk, through the support of bureaucracy-reducing executive orders from President Trump, has also slashed certain federal agencies to just a single employee - which is the legal minimum.
Many of these firing initiatives have been deemed either 'accidental' or both illegal and unconsitutional by multiple judges, and have had to be walked back with significant rehiring efforts.
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Musk, alongside several key DOGE officials, have now stated though that a very small percentage of government employees have actually been fired in a recent interview with Fox News, as reported by The Guardian.
"You've heard a lot of news about people getting fired," Anthony Armstrong illustrated. "At this moment in time, less than 0.15% of the federal workforce has actually been given an RIF notice."
Musk also quickly supported this claim from Armstrong, adding that "basically almost no one has gotten fired, that's what we are saying."
Numbers from Statista indicate that in 2023 there were around 2.87 million federal government employees currently working, and while these numbers will have likely shifted in the two years since, the 0.15% report from Armstrong would indicate that 0.15% of that would leave around 4,305 without their jobs.
Whether Armstrong's numbers include those that have since been rehired, both through legal orders or after DOGE realized their 'mistakes', is currently unclear, but messaging from President Trump himself also appears to contradict the argument that part of the Department's job isn't to cut through the workforce.
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In revealing the limits of DOGE and Musk's power, Trump detailed in a Truth Social post that he has "instructed the Secretaries and Leadership to work with DOGE on Cost Cutting measures and Staffing," adding that once they've forged a partnership, "they can be very precise as to who will remain, and who will go."
This appears to make it clear that the cutting of employment is a key part of DOGE's operations, although Trump did point out that he favors the 'scalpel' over the 'hatchet' when it comes to cuts, and that "it's also important to keep the best and most productive people."