‘Billions of dollars with no receipts’: Elon Musk endorses Joe Rogan’s DOGE hot take

“There was money that was going with no receipts—billions and billions of dollars, just flying out with no receipts—they have no idea where it went,” Joe Rogan stated in a recent episode of his hit show The Joe Rogan Experience. Resharing the clip on X, the US Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) chief Elon Musk, stated just one word: “True.”

The clip from the shot, now making rounds on X, TikTok, and other social media platforms has Rogan quoting what Musk said about the government spendings uncovered by DOGE: “If this was a public company, it would be delisted and the people who ran it would go to prison.”

But since it is the government, it is swept under the carpet, Rogan insinuated. When asked by his guest, US standup comic Tom Dillon, whether he thinks fraud charges would be brought to the ones responsible, Rogan simply responded: “That’s the worry about disclosure… I think that’s what is holding it back.”

In recent updates by DOGE, agencies are said to have terminated 57 “wasteful contracts” with a ceiling value of $1.6 billion (savings of $1.5 billion) on April 16 and 180 “wasteful contracts” with a ceiling value of $3.3 billion (savings of $2.6 billion) on April 15, 2025.

Elon Musk recently also posted several videos of former US President Barack Obama announcing his “Campaign to Cut Waste” in 2011, comparing it with his department, even calling them “DOGE-like measures”.

On Thursday, US District Judge Ellen Hollander slapped new restrictions on DOGE to limit their access to Social Security systems in America.

In the preliminary injunction, a group of labour unions and retirees, alleged DOGE’s recent actions violate privacy laws. They also added that it could lead to information security leaks.

However, the restraining order is temporary—DOGE can access redacted data, if the staffers undergo specific training and background checks, adding that all DOGE and DOGE-affiliated staffers need to purge any non-anonymided Social Security data they received since January 20.

However, the judge did not that their issue was not DOGE’s objective to curtain fraud, mismanagement, and wasteful government spending, but how DOGE wants to do it—asking US attorneys why DOGE needs “unfettered access” to “sensitive personal information” to uncover any possible Social Security fraud. All they replied was that the process change could slow down the efforts of DOGE.

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