Last week, the man behind the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), Elon Musk, invited Fox News’s Jesse Waters to attend his team’s weekly board meeting. Just as Bret Baier’s previous March interview with Musk and part of the DOGE team had been, this meeting was eye-opening — revealing specific, appalling cases of government agencies’ waste, fraud, and abuse of millions in taxpayer dollars. In addition, this meeting revealed a number of young, college-aged DOGE employees who view their around-the-clock work to be their patriotic duty — helping the United States become financially stable for decades to come.

One Employee Dropped Out of Harvard to Help Save America’s Economy

Yet while they selflessly serve, they receive threats (Musk has also received death threats, and Teslas having been set on fire, smashed, and vandalized). One young DOGE team member told Waters:

“Many of … us have … gotten hate mail threats from reporters and the public alike. I think, you know, speaking for myself — I dropped out of Harvard and came here to serve my country, and it’s been unfortunate to see, you know, lost friendships. … Most of campus hates me now. But I think fundamentally, I hope people realize through conversations like this that reform is genuinely needed. And if … there’s one group of people who really have a shot of success it’s the people here. You know, they’re up until 2:00 a.m. Monday through Sunday. DOGE does not recognize weekends. We’re working all the time.”

When Waters asked him what inspired him to drop out of Harvard, he responded, “There’s a lot of reform that’s needed. I think the value of this and the impact here is so much more vast than anything you could learn in a classroom, doing computer science.”

Waters replied, “And you guys are sleeping here? I’m hearing you guys are up all night? You have this meeting at 10:00 p.m. every Wednesday?”

He replied, “We’ll probably … go back to work right after this, yeah.”

So far, DOGE estimates they have saved the country $165 billion, which is $1,024.84 per taxpayer.

DOE Employees Used $4 Billion COVID Fund for Parties at Caesar’s Palace, Stadiums

At their weekly meetings, Musk asks each team leader to give a report on how their team is doing. The first team member gave an incredible example right off the bat. He explained, “When a payment is made (and the computer of the Treasury pays about $5 trillion per year, crazy amounts), there was formally not a budget code on there. A payment was made, you did not know what it was for. It could have been for anything.”

He went on to explain, “There was a $4 billion COVID fund in the Department of Education. There was no receipt required, so people could just draw down on it. When people looked into it before us, they found that money was being used to rent out Caesar’s Palace for parties, rent out stadiums, etc. So the one change that we made is we had the simple requirement that if you draw down money, you must first upload a receipt. … Upon doing so, nobody drew down money anymore.”

Another Fraud Discovery? ‘Just Another Day at the Office’

Sadly, this is just one of numerous examples of government waste or fraud. Waters asked, “When you find these things, do you guys get mad? Are you like, ‘Yes, I got one!?’ How does it make you feel?”

One of the DOGE team leaders answered, “It’s so common. You get numb to it.”

Musk agreed, saying, “Unfortunately, the hundredth time you’ve heard it, it’s hard not to get a little numb. By the 200th time, you’re like, ‘Well okay, it’s just another day at the office.’”

‘Institute of Peace’ Had Loaded Guns, Spent Taxpayer Money on Private Jets, Had $130,000 Contract with Former Taliban Member

Another DOGE employee gave an example of where they encountered a “battle” with government agency employees. He explained, “We went into the agency and found they had loaded guns inside their headquarters. Kind of the opposite of the title — by far the least peaceful agency we’ve worked with, ironically. Additionally, we found that they were spending money on things like private jets, and they even had a $130,000 contract with a former member of the Taliban.”

He went on to describe:

“Just a few hours after we got into their headquarters, we found their chief accountant had deleted over a terabyte of accounting records. You would have to ask, ‘Why would somebody do that?’ We were able to recover that from a few great employees at the Institute of Peace. And I think the most troubling thing was, they received $55 million a year from Congress, and any money that went unspent — instead of returning it to Congress — they would sweep it into a private bank account which has no Congressional oversight, and that’s what they would use to fund events at their headquarters on the private jets.”

DOGE has referred this case to the Department of Justice and the FBI.

Good, Hardworking Government Employees Are Thankful for DOGE and Helping Them to End Waste, Fraud, and Abuse

Waters asked the DOGE team if there are good people that come up to them and thank them for what they are doing.

An employee enthusiastically responded, saying, “Absolutely! There are people in the State Department that will stop you — or all of the agencies that we’ve been to — that’ll stop you in the hallways or write emails and say, ‘I was scared to write this,’ or ‘I don’t know if you’re interested in this.’ But they usually have great ideas, and … they often have the best ideas because they’ve worked in the places, and they’ve been stifled by the bureaucracy for so many years. So one of the great things, that, at least in my experience … we listen to them and empower them.”

Musk wholeheartedly agreed and added, “So, yes, in fact I’d like to emphasize that because we’d like to just give a big ‘thank you’ to all the government employees who are helping reduce the waste and fraud because … we really couldn’t do it without you. So it’s a group effort.”

Another employee affirmed that DOGE employees are supportive of the agencies that they are working in and that they could not do their work without the help of hardworking government employees. He said:

“We are encountering droves of government employees who are missionaries, not mercenaries, who are actually here serving because they believe in what they’re doing. They want to do things well. We are trying to empower them, and they feel empowered now to ask the question of ‘Why aren’t we doing this? What else can we be doing? How can we fix this?’ And I think agency by agency, it is filled with exceptional government employees, and when we give them the tools, when we give them the systems, and we leave behind systems to help them do their jobs better, that’s the permanent change, and they’re embracing that not because it’s new to them. It’s because it’s something they’ve always wanted to do, but for the first time ever we’re giving them the tools and the collaboration to be able do that.”

Waters responded, “It’s a very important message. That message needs to get out a lot more. I’m so glad you said that.”

The employee added, “We have exceptional people at all of our agencies. Exceptional. I mean, they do a thankless job, and they work incredibly hard.”