President Donald Trump has pledged to codify the spending cuts proposed by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), marking a dramatic escalation in his effort to dismantle what he calls Washington’s “bloated and broken” bureaucracy. The late-night promise comes amid mounting legal battles, ballooning debt, and growing conservative frustration with Congress’s failure to rein in federal sprawl, according to new reports.
DOGE, spearheaded by Musk and entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, was tasked with slashing waste and consolidating redundant federal programs. Though originally targeting $2 trillion in cuts, the initiative ultimately settled on a $160 billion reduction and the elimination of 20,000 government jobs. But even this scaled-back version has drawn fierce pushback. Fourteen states have sued to block the effort, and a federal judge recently allowed their challenge against Musk and DOGE to proceed, citing potential constitutional violations under the Appointments Clause.
Trump’s move to lock in the DOGE cuts comes just days after Musk publicly blasted the administration’s so-called “One Big Beautiful Bill”—a catch-all spending package that Musk claims guts DOGE’s reforms and bloats the deficit. Musk, who recently exited his role as a special government employee due to legal time limits, warned that the bill was “DOA” for anyone serious about shrinking government. The timing of Trump’s announcement suggests a break with business as usual—and a renewed push to codify the very reforms now under siege in court.
The president’s fiscal vision, detailed in a May 3 Reuters report, calls for a $163 billion cut to the federal budget—shifting funds away from domestic programs like housing and education and toward defense and border security. Critics have called the plan draconian, noting that non-defense discretionary spending would plummet by 23%, falling to its lowest share of GDP since 2017. But Trump allies argue the cuts are necessary to restore fiscal sanity and halt America’s march toward insolvency.
With the federal debt now exceeding 100% of GDP—uncharted territory since World War II—the stakes couldn’t be higher. Trump’s pledge to enshrine the DOGE reforms in law sets up a defining showdown with Congress ahead of the October 1 budget deadline. Whether the political class is ready to confront the scale of the crisis remains to be seen. But one thing is clear: the era of cosmetic cuts is over.
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