Elon Musk led the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) came into existence after president Donald Trump signed an executive order and gave Musk the power to lead a department with the aim of doing budget cuts for the government. From the moment of its inception, DOGE has been ruthlessly slashing the federal government workforce and has also been making various drastic budget cuts, which have a rather negative impact on the respective departments.
In its latest move to reduce government spending, DOGE announced on April 15, 2025 that almost half a million government credit cards that were used by various federal government employees have been deactivated.
DOGE’s main account on X posted the update, saying, “Credit Card Update! The program to audit unused/unneeded credit cards has been expanded to 30 agencies. After 7 weeks, ~470k cards have been de-activated. As a reminder, at the start of the audit, there were ~4.6M active cards/accounts, so still more work to do.”
Credit Card Update!
The program to audit unused/unneeded credit cards has been expanded to 30 agencies. After 7 weeks, ~470k cards have been de-activated.
As a reminder, at the start of the audit, there were ~4.6M active cards/accounts, so still more work to do. pic.twitter.com/G50NfsKeTm
— Department of Government Efficiency (@DOGE) April 16, 2025
Elon Musk responded to DOGE’s statement, saying, “twice as many credit cards are issued and active than the total number of government employees.” He referred to this number as “crazy.” As reported by Newsweek, “In March, DOGE said it had suspended 200,000 unneeded credit cards across 16 agencies. According to the task force, there are 4.6 million government credit cards, which totaled $40 billion in spending last year.”
The cards that were deactivated were used in various departments, including, Office of Personnel Management, Department of Labor, Treasury Department, General Services Administration, Small Business Association, Commerce Department, Education Department, U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), Department of the Interior, Housing and Urban Development, Holocaust Memorial Museum,Department of Health and Human Services, Department of Defense, State Department etc.
While talking about these credit cards and how important they are, Michael Ryan, founder of MichaelRyanMoney.com, had told Newsweek previously, “These aren’t your typical consumer credit cards. We’re looking at lifelines for federal agencies—cards that keep the lights on, quite literally. Need to book a last-minute flight for a critical meeting? There’s a card for that.”
He further added, “Emergency maintenance part for a military vehicle? Yep, another card. Office supplies for a research lab working on something that could change the world? You guessed it—another card.”
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It is quite clear how immensely important these cards are and such acts of deactivation naturally affects the established way of how things work. For instance, when the Transportation Security Administration suffered this card deactivation, the bomb-sniffing dog units became difficult to maintain temporarily as officials could not access the funds required for it.
However, a TSA spokesperson had told Newsweek, “Credit card purchases have been restricted for 30 days; but Canine operations have not been adversely affected by this effort.”
It now remains to be seen how the affected departments now function with these cuts and if these moves eventually prove to be beneficial or simply keep making things worse for the federal government employees.
