In a recent post to X, the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) announced an update in its investigation into the abuse of government credit cards. In addition to posting data showing the massive scale of the spending, the agency linked to a White House press release on the issue. Online response was largely positive, and many users announced their support for DOGE.
“Credit Card Update! Pilot program across 14 civilian agencies to audit unused/unneeded “P-cards” (~700K accounts with ~$30B of spend in FY24). After 8 days, ~24,000 cards have been de-activated, which will likely double by end of week,” DOGE posted on X. This was an update to a previous post sent over a month ago on the same issue.
“The US government currently has ~4.6M active credit cards/accounts, which processed ~90M unique transactions for ~$40B of spend in FY24,” the department promised in the initial post. “DOGE is working w/ the agencies to simplify the program and reduce admin costs – we will report back in 1 week.” Each of these posts links back to an executive order from President Trump.
“Credit Card Freeze,” the document reads. ” To the maximum extent permitted by law, all credit cards held by agency employees shall be treated as frozen for 30 days from the date of this order, except for any credit cards held by employees engaged in, or charges related to employees utilizing such credit cards for, disaster relief or natural disaster response benefits.”
“Or operations or other critical services as determined by the Agency Head, and subject to such additional individualized or categorical exceptions as the Agency Head, in consultation with the agency’s DOGE Team Lead, deems appropriate,” the section concluded. Social media users were quick to celebrate the news. Elon Musk, who leads the DOGE, announced “$30B/year of credit card spend[ing]!”
“I do appreciate that DOGE posts on X all hours of the night. It’s a good feeling to know we have people actually out there shrinking government and trying to get rid of corruption. Finally!!” one commenter reacted. “Great job by Department of Government Efficiency in cutting waste and inefficiency, deactivating unused credit cards is a step in the right direction to reduce government spending,” another reader said in a lengthy post.
“This kind of audit and simplification of programs is exactly what America needs, less bureaucracy and more efficiency. Trump administration is really making a difference with these kinds of reforms, looking forward to seeing more updates from DOGE,” he concluded. “Assuming they were audited, what were the past purchases made with those credit cards? Will those be published?”
