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Elon Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency, otherwise known as 'DOGE', have cut down one federal agency to a single employee, following on from a new executive order signed by President Trump.
DOGE is a new private advisory board created by US President Donald Trump with Elon Musk at the head, aiming to cut significant spending from the federal budget that is deemed by staff to be 'wasteful' and 'inefficient'.
Reportedly working upwards of 120 hours every single week, the Department has been tearing through key federal areas including Education, Health, and Veterans Aid, and has seemingly saved around $65 billion so far - although experts have cast doubt on this figure.
While Musk and his workers have previously threatened the jobs of over 100,000 government workers through a widespread email request, DOGE's latest actions have cut one federal agency's staff down to a single individual, as per the New York Post.
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The Inter-American Foundation, an agency whose primary action was to issue foreign grants ($60M budget), has been reduced to its statutory minimum (1 active employee). Examples of grants that were cancelled in the process:
— Department of Government Efficiency (@DOGE) March 4, 2025
- $903,811 for alpaca farming in Peru
- $364,500 to…
A recent post from the DOGE account on X outlines this move in an official statement:
"The Inter-American Foundation, an agency whose primary action was to issue foreign grants ($60M budget), has been reduced to its statutory minimum (1 active employee)."
Alongside this, the Department has also announced the cancellation of a number of grants awarded by the Inter-American Foundation, including money for alpaca farming in Peru, vegetable gardens in El Salvador, and beekeeping in Brazil.
These efforts, while in line with DOGE's general mission, fall in line with a recently-signed executive order from President Trump, titled 'Commencing the Reduction of the Federal Bureaucracy'.
This order outlines the necessity to "dramatically reduce the size of the Federal Government, while increasing its accountability to the American people," particularly highlighting the reduction of areas that are "unnecessary' in order to "minimize waste and abuse, reduce inflation and promote American freedom and innovation."
The Inter-American Foundation is one of the four named entities within this particular executive order, alongside the Presidio Trust, the United States African Development Foundation, and the United States Institute of Peace.
It's clear then that it will only be a matter of time before all of the mentioned departments will be reduced to the legal minimum number of workers, which DOGE's recent announcement indicates is just one.
This is far from the first executive order that has increased the power of Elon Musk's private agency, as previous pushes have allowed DOGE to access government spending information through a centralized system, requiring federal departments to 'justify' how they use their money which subsequently makes it easier for Musk's team to cut it off.
