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SOURCES

Why Do We Need This?

1. Vivek Ramaswamy. Post on X. 14 Nov 2024
2. Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy. “Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy: The DOGE Plan to Reform Government.” Wall Street Journal. 20 Nov 2024

3. United States. Supreme Court. “West Virginia v. Environmental Protection Agency.” 597 US (2022). Decided June 30, 2022.

4. United States. Supreme Court. “Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo.” 603 US (2024). Decided June 28, 2024.

5. Tony Romm. “Musk’s Plan to Cut $2 Trillion in U.S. Spending Could Bring Economic Turmoil.” Washington Post. 29 Oct 2024

6. Elon Musk. Post on X. 18 Dec 2024

7. Steve Holland, Jeff Mason and James Oliphant. “Trump Headlines Madison Square Garden Rally After Vulgar, Racist Remarks from Allies.” Reuters. 28 Oct 2024

8. Wailin Wong, Darian Woods, Nicky Ouellet, and Kate Concannon. “How Elon Bought Twitter with Other People’s Money.” NPR. 30 Nov 2022

9. Kinsey Crowley and Max Hauptman. “Down 80%: Fidelity Says X Has Plummeted in Value Since Elon Musk’s Takeover.” USA Today. 2 Oct 2024

10. Max Zahn. “Tesla Stock Plummeted 12% in a Single Day. Here’s Why.” ABC News. 4 Jan 2023

11. “Musk’s Platform has Lost 2.7 million Active U.S. Users in Two Months, while its Rival has Gained 2.5 million.” Guardian. 11 Dec 2024

12. Elon Musk. Post on X. 29 Oct 2024

13. Kit Norton. “Tesla Stock Heads Toward 400 For First Time Since 2022.” Investor’s Business Daily. 9 Dec 2024

14. David Brooks. “My Unsettling Interview with Steve Bannon.” New York Times. 1 July 2024

15. Alan Rappeport. “Trump and Democrats Agree: U.S. Needs a National Wealth Fund for Investments.” New York Times. 10 Sept 2024

16. Katie Colton, Erez Eizenman, Marcy Jacobs and Sarah Tucker-Ray. “How US Government Leaders Can Deliver a Better Customer Experience.” McKinsey & Co. 9 June 2023

17. Judson Jones. “Weather Service Is Hiring Hundreds After Sweeping Cuts Earlier This Year.” New York Times. 7 Aug 2025

18. Hannah Natanson. “DOGE Vowed to Make Government More ‘Efficient’ - But It’s Doing the Opposite.” Washington Post. 2 June 2025

19. Jessie Blaeser. “Just How Much has DOGE Exaggerated Its Numbers? Now We Have Receipts.” Politico. 12 Aug 2025

20. Will Oremus and Drew Harwell. “Musk Accused Reuters of ‘Social Deception.’ The Deception was His.” Washington Post. 15 Feb 2025

21. Theodore Schleifer and Maggie Haberman. “Musk Seeks to Put $100 Million Directly into Trump Political Operation.” New York Times. 11 Mar 2025

22. Pranshu Verma and Trisha Thadani. “Anger at Elon Musk Turns Violent with Molotov Cocktails and Gunfire at Tesla Lots.”

23. Dan Keating, Andrew Ba Tran, Rachel Lerman and Jon Swaine. “Musk’s DOGE Says it Has Saved $55 Billion. Not So Fast.” Washington Post. 22 Feb 2025

24. Jane C. Timm. “Dozens of DOGE ‘Receipts’ Saved No Money and Killed Contracts Meant to Boost Efficiency.” NBC News. 26 Feb 2025

25. Ryan J. Foley. “Nearly 40% of Contracts Canceled by Musk’s DOGE are Expected to Produce No Savings.” Associated Press. 25 Feb 2025

26. David A. Fahrenthold and Jeremy Singer-Vine. “DOGE Makes Its Latest Errors Harder to Find.” New York Times. 13 Mar 2025

27. Desmond Butler, Trisha Thadani, Emmanuel Martinez, Aaron Gregg. Luis Melgar, Jonathan O'Connell, and Dan Keating. “Elon Musk’s Business Empire is Built on $38 Billion in Government Funding.” Washington Post. 26 Feb 2025

28. Eric Lipton and Kirsten Grind. “Elon Musk’s Business Empire Scores Benefits Under Trump Shake-Up.” New York Times. 11 Feb 2025

29. Micah Maidenberg and Drew FitzGerald. “Musk’s SpaceX Forges Tighter Links with U.S. Spy and Military Agencies.” Wall Street Journal. 20 Feb 2024

30. Joey Roulette and Marisa Taylor. “Exclusive: Musk’s SpaceX is Building Spy Satellite Network for U.S. Intelligence Agency, Sources Say.” Reuters. 16 Mar 2024

31. Ian Duncan, Hannah Natanson, Lori Aratani, and Faiz Siddiqui. “FAA Targeting Verizon Contract in Favor of Musk’s Starlink, Sources Say.” Washington Post. 26 Feb 2025

32. Faiz Siddiqui and Hannah Natanson. “As Musk Polices His Own Conflicts, Some Agencies Hear Sirens Going Off.” Washington Post. 1 Mar 2025

Operation Overhaul

1. “Fortune Global 500.”  Fortune.  10 Jan 2025

2. United States.  Department of the Treasury.  “How Much Revenue Has the U.S. Government Collected This Year.”  10 Jan 2025

3. United States.  Government Accountability Office.  “Payment Integrity:  Federal Agencies’ Estimates of FY 2019 Improper Payments.”  March 2020

4. Unites States. Government Accountability Office. “F-35 Sustainment: Costs Continue to Rise While Planned Use and Availability Have Decreased.” 15 April 2024

5. Adam Twardowski.  “A Conversation with HASC Chairman Adam Smith.”  Brookings.  16 Mar 2021

6. Michelle Singletary.  “The IRS Paid $3 Billion In Interest to Taxpayers Because It Failed to Get Refunds Out on Time.”  Washington Post.  2 Mar 2021

7. United States. “Medicare and Medicaid: Additional Actions Needed to Enhance Program Integrity and Save Billions.” 16 Apr 2024

8. Reed Abelson and Margot Sanger-Katz. “The Cash Monster Was Insatiable’: How Insurers Exploited Medicare for Billions.” New York Times. 8 Oct 2022

9. “Humana to Pay $90 Mln to Settle Claim That It Overcharged Medicare for Drugs.” Reuters. 16 Aug 2024

10. United States. Department of Justice. “False Claims Act Settlements and Judgments Exceed $2.68 Billion in Fiscal Year 2023.” 22 Feb 2024

11. United States.  “The War on Poverty: 50 Years Later.”  House Budget Committee Report.  3 Mar 2014

12. “Transforming DoD’s Core Business Processes for Revolutionary Change.”  Defense Business Board. 22 Jan 2015

13. Craig Whitlock and Bob Woodward. “Pentagon Buries Evidence of $125 Billion in Bureaucratic Waste.” Washington Post. 5 Dec 2016

14. United States.  Government Accountability Office.  “Iraq:  DOD Needs to Improve Visibility and Accountability Over Equipment Provided to Iraq’s Security Forces.”  May 2017

15. United States.  Government Accountability Office.  “DOD Financial Management.” 13 Apr 2021

16. Scot J. Paltrow and Kelly Carr.  “How the Pentagon’s Payroll Quagmire Traps America’s Soldiers.”  Reuters.  2 July 2013

17. Scot J. Paltrow.  “Behind the Pentagon’s Doctored Ledgers, A Running Tally of Epic Waste.”  Reuters.  18 Nov 2013

18. United States. Government Accountability Office. “Financial Management. DOD Needs to Improve System Oversight.” March 2023

19. United States. Government Accountability Office. “Our Priority Recommendations for the Department of Defense - Actions that Can Bring the Best Rewards.” 23 May 2023

20. Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget. “Covid Money Tracker.” 2 Nov 2023

21. United States. Government Accountability Office. “Unemployment Insurance: Estimated Amount of Fraud During Pandemic Likely Between $100 Billion and $135 Billion.” 12 Sept 2023

22. Tony Romm. “U.S. Charges ‘Brazen’ Theft of $250 Million from Pandemic Food Program.” Washington Post. 20 Sept 2022

23. Sacha Pfeiffer. “Some Companies are Paying Back PPP Loans When They Could Be Forgiven.” National Public Radio. 9 Jan 2024

24. United States. Department of the Treasury. “SBA OIG Uses DNP to Evaluate Fraud Concerns for PPP and EIDL Programs.” Bureau of the Fiscal Service.

25. United States. Small Business Administration. “SBA’s Handling of Potentially Fraudulent Paycheck Protection Program Loans.” 26 May 2022

26. Robin Saks Frankel. “Banks Made Billions on PPP Loans. Learn What They’re Doing with The Cash.” Forbes. 15 July 2020

27. “National Restaurant Association.” Open Secrets. 11 Jan 2025

28. “American Hotel & Lodging.” Open Secrets. 11 Jan 2025

29. Jonathan O’Connell, Steven Rich and Peter Whoriskey.  “Public Companies Received $1 Billion in Stimulus Funds Meant for Small Businesses.” Washington Post.  1 May 2020

30. “New Research Brief Finds Banks Have Cashed in $19 Billion in Fees for Processing COVID Relief PPP Loans.”  University of Massachusetts Amherst.  8 Sept 2020

31. Stacy Cowley. “Despite Billions in Fees, Banks Predict Meager Profits on P.P.P. Loans.”  New York Times.  1 Oct 2020

32. Stacy Cowley and Ella Koeze.  “1 Percent of P.P.P. Borrowers Got Over One-Quarter of the Loan Money.”  New York Times.  1 Feb 2021

33. Ryan Tracy.  “Evidence of PPP Fraud Mounts, Officials Say.”  Wall Street Journal.  8 Nov 2020

34. United States. Small Business Administration. Office of the Inspector General. Report 23-09. “Covid-19 Pandemic EIDL and PPP Loan Fraud Landscape.” 27 June 2023

35. United States. U.S. Attorney’s Office, Southern District of Texas. “Leader of $20M Covid-19 Relief Fraud Ring Sent to Prison.” 3 Oct 2023

36. Sacha Pfeiffer and Austin Fast. “How the Paycheck Protection Program Went from Good Intentions to a Huge Free-for-All.” 9 Jan 2023

Corruption

​1. Eliot Brown and Stephen Kalin. “Trump’s Family Is Rapidly Striking Business Deals in the Mideast.” Wall Street Journal. 12 May 2025

2. Max Abelson and Annie Massa. “The Trump Family’s Money-Making Machine.” Bloomberg. 21 May 2025

3. Brenna T. Smith, Peter Grant and Daniel Kiss. “The Trump Organization Has Expanded Globally Since the 2024 Election. See Where.” Wall Street Journal. 2 June 2025

4. Josh Dawsey and Alex Leary. “From Ken Griffin to Robinhood: The Donors Who Funded Trump’s Inauguration Revealed.” Wall Street Journal. 18 Apr 2025

5. Josh Dawsey and Patrick Thomas. “Some of Trump’s Biggest Inaugural Donors Benefit from Early Government Actions.” Wall Street Journal. 3 June 2025

6. Luciana Magalhaes, Samantha Pearson, and Jacob Bunge. “Meat Giant JBS’s Owner Settles U.S. Corruption Charges.” Wall Street Journal. 14 Oct 2020

7. Grace Snelling. “What Trump’s ‘Palace in the Sky’ Plane from Qatar Might Look Like.” Fast Company. 15 May 2025

8. Annie Karni. “Bill Barring Stock Trading for Congress Advances with Trump Carve-Out.” New York Times. 30 July 2025

9. Kate Kelly, Adam Playford and Alicia Parlapiano. “Stock Trades Reported by Nearly a Fifth of Congress Show Possible Conflicts.” New York Times. 13 Sept 2022

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