summit hosted by Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund in Miami Beach, Florida, last Wednesday, Trump said he was considering using 20 percent of the savings for payouts to the public and 20 percent to pay down the federal government’s $36 trillion debt. “The numbers are incredible, Elon. So many billions of dollars … hundreds of billions,” Trump told the Future Investment Initiative (FII) Priority Summit, referring to savings identified by Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). “We’re thinking about giving 20 percent back to the American citizens, and 20 percent down to pay back debt.”

Trump’s suggestion came a day after DOGE adviser James Fishback, the CEO of investment firm Azoria, proposed a “DOGE dividend” funded by the cost-cutting initiative. In a four-page memo posted on X, Fishback said every tax-paying household could be sent a $5,000 cheque assuming Musk’s task force saves $2 trillion by the time it finishes up its work in July 2026. In response to Fishback’s memo, Musk, the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, said on X that he would “check with the President”. Guo Xu, an associate professor at UC Berkeley Haas who studies the efficiency of government bureaucracies, expressed scepticism about the proposal.