White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt blasted Democrats on Monday night on Fox News’ Hannity for their “fake outrage” over Donald Trump’s decision to audit Social Security through Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (D.O.G.E).
Karoline pointed out that Barack Obama, Bill Clinton, and Joe Biden all made similar promises about cracking down on government waste. Yet, they are now attacking Trump for actually doing it.
She said if people closed their eyes and listened to old clips of Obama and Biden, they would think they were hearing Trump and Elon talk about cleaning up fraud. “President Trump is just the first president in our lifetimes to actually do it,” Karoline said.
The Press Secretary accused the mainstream media of fearmongering, claiming journalists in Washington, D.C., were trying to convince Americans that the audit would somehow steal their Social Security checks.
Trump asks Elon to audit Social Security fraud
Trump ordered Elon and the D.O.G.E team to investigate fraudulent payments within the Social Security Administration (SSA) last Thursday. According to Elon, the system is riddled with fake recipients, including millions of deceased people still listed as active beneficiaries.
The billionaire said some of these names belong to people between the ages of 100 and 159, an impossible statistic that suggests billions of taxpayer dollars could be vanishing into fraudulent claims.
Karoline laid out the administration’s objectives for the audit. “The goal is simple,” she said. “Number one: stop duplicate payments. Number two: cut off benefits to dead people. Number three: protect the integrity of the system for hardworking Americans who actually paid into it.”
She assured viewers that honest taxpayers had nothing to worry about. “If you paid into the system fairly, you will continue to receive your Social Security checks,” she said. “Do not believe the lies from the fake news media.”
Meanwhile, Democrats have launched lawsuits to stop D.O.G.E from proceeding, saying that Trump’s new agency violates the US Constitution. The Democrats claim that putting Elon—a private billionaire—in charge of a government audit raises legal and ethical concerns.
Yet, according to Karoline, now that Trump is actually acting on the promises he was voted on, Democrats are suddenly panicking and calling it unconstitutional.
On Monday, D.O.G.E. published a “Wall of Receipts” listing $16 billion in canceled government contracts. The document, meant to highlight savings under Trump’s cost-cutting initiative, included dozens of contracts that had been terminated or reduced under D.O.G.E’s leadership.
But one entry raised immediate red flags—an $8 billion contract from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), which the New York Times reportedly investigated and found that the actual value of the contract was $8 million.
By Wednesday morning, D.O.G.E finally adjusted the savings number, reducing the $8 billion error down to $8 million. But the department never acknowledged the mistake or explained how the error affected its total $55 billion savings claim, which of course the Left is now using against Elon and Trump.
White House says Elon isn’t actually in charge of D.O.G.E
The White House came out swinging Monday, clarifying that Elon isn’t actually part of the Department of Government Efficiency (D.O.G.E), despite being the one running the show on the cost-cutting front.
Elon works under the White House Office, as a senior adviser to President Trump. According to Joshua Fisher, director of the White House Office of Administration, Elon isn’t employed by the US D.O.G.E Service or its temporary offshoots. And, just to make it clear, he’s not the US D.O.G.E Service administrator, a position spelled out in Trump’s recent executive order to set up D.O.G.E.
“Mr. Elon doesn’t have any more power than other senior advisers in the White House,” Fisher stated in a court filing. “His role is to advise the President—that’s it. He can’t make decisions on his own. He just passes along what the President wants.”
Fisher also compared Elon to Anita Dunn, a senior adviser during Biden’s presidency. This is all coming out amid a lawsuit from 14 states that are trying to get Elon’s role declared unconstitutional because he’s never been confirmed by the Senate.
The states argue that giving Elon the ability to cut government jobs and dismantle entire departments with a few clicks would’ve shocked the founding fathers. They claim it goes against the Constitution, which keeps the Executive Branch in the hands of elected and confirmed officials, not some “unconfirmed billionaire.”
Initially, the states asked the court to block Elon and the D.O.G.E team from making any changes to contracts, regulations, personnel decisions, or accessing government data systems. But now they’ve dialed it back, only asking to prevent Elon and D.O.G.E from accessing data or making any moves that could affect the government workforce.
The Department of Justice sided with Elon, insisting he and D.O.G.E aren’t calling the shots. The Trump administration fired back, saying the states are mixing up influence and authority. They made it clear: just because someone listens to advice doesn’t make them the one in charge.
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Source: https://www.cryptopolitan.com/us-press-secretary-karoline-slams-democrats/