Fourteen state attorneys general filed a lawsuit this month alleging that President Donald Trump gave Elon Musk unchecked authority without the approval of Congress in hopes of stopping the Department of Government Efficiency.
But after seeing the sensible cuts coming from DOGE, people are calling for accountability at the state level, and the pushback from Democrats is fierce. Democratic state attorneys general seem to want to shut down any further review of waste, fraud, and abuse.
Last week, it was revealed that a $2 billion grant had been awarded to Power Forward Communities in April 2024. Power Forward Communities is a nonprofit organization that was founded mere months before the massive grant was bestowed upon them. The organization, which is associated with the failed Georgia Democrat nominee for governor, Stacey Abrams, had reported just $100 in revenue before the windfall grant.
Environmental Protection Agency director Lee Zeldin told the Washington Free Beacon that it was “extremely concerning that an organization that reported just $100 in revenue in 2023 was chosen to receive $2 billion. That’s 20 million times the organization’s reported revenue.”
Michigan, one of the fourteen states listed in the lawsuit, shares a similar story of potential favors and corruption. One of Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s business development appointees and a donor, Detroit-area businesswoman Fay Beydoun, received a $20 million grant from the Michigan legislature in 2022 for Global Link International, a nonprofit “business accelerator” she founded 11 days after lawmakers approved the funding.
Beydoun was forced to resign from an economic development committee when The Detroit News exposed how she was spending the first $10 million of the grant money, which included a $4,500 luxury coffee maker, an $11,000 first-class plane ticket to Budapest, more than $40,000 in furniture, and $408,000 in salary for two people over three months. Beydoun herself collected a $550,000 annual salary from the nonprofit organization.
CNN’s Anderson Cooper recently verbally attacked former New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu when Sununu asked if Cooper was defending the $59 million the Federal Emergency Management Agency spent on housing illegal aliens in luxury hotels in NYC. Despite the outrage, DOGE is not slowing down. Dismantling the U.S. Agency for International Development may have received backlash from the left, and yet the spending is undeniably suspicious.
USAID spent $1.5 million to advance diversity, equity, and inclusion in Serbia’s workplaces and business communities. Interestingly, former President Joe Biden’s own Department of State accused Serbia of significant human rights problems, including numerous acts of serious government corruption, crimes involving violence or threats of violence targeting persons with disabilities, and crimes, including violence targeting lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and intersex individuals. The Biden administration expected taxpayers to believe that despite this devastating report from the State Department, $1.5 million could create an inclusive work environment in Serbia.
TRUMP IS CUTTING SPENDING THROUGH DOGE. HERE’S HOW TO MAKE THOSE CUTS PERMANENT
DEI was not just a priority in Serbia. The Trump Department of Education terminated 29 federal grants totaling $101 million from the Biden administration. One of these grants sought to train teachers to “help students understand/interrogate the complex histories involved in oppression, and help students recognize areas of privilege and power on an individual and collective basis.” We, the taxpayers, have been paying schools to teach our children they are privileged oppressors. This is what Democrats don’t want you to know and definitely don’t want Musk to stop.
Whether it’s corruption, activist agendas, or general government bloat, out-of-control spending, and institutionalized waste must be addressed at the federal and state levels. What Trump and Musk are doing at the federal level should serve as a model to develop DOGE-like agencies at the state level. I’d suggest starting with the 14 states suing DOGE because their actions suggest they have the most to hide.
Tudor Dixon is a former Republican gubernatorial nominee, executive in Michigan’s steel industry, breast cancer survivor, and working mother of four girls. She is the host of the Tudor Dixon Podcast.