The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) said it has uncovered that the U.S. government currently has more than 4 million active credit cards on its books.
‘The US government currently has ~4.6M active credit cards/accounts, which processed ~90M unique transactions for ~$40B of spend[ing] in FY24,’ DOGE said in a post on X on Tuesday.
Attached to the post was a breakdown of multiple federal agencies and their credit card use, with the Department of Defense leading the way in both the number of transactions (about 27.2 million), and number of individual accounts (roughly 2.4 million).
DOGE’s activities have come under increasing scrutiny over the last few weeks, with opponents arguing that President Donald Trump has given billionaire Elon Musk, who was tapped to head the department, too much power to shrink the size of the federal government.
The new department has also been at the center of numerous lawsuits, with opponents attempting to block Musk and the Trump administration from carrying out many of DOGE’s recommendations for cuts.
However, Trump has not wavered in his support from the efforts, publicly supporting DOGE’s work while also releasing a memo on Tuesday ordering government agencies to be ‘radically transparent’ with the American people about its spending.
The memo argues that the federal government ‘spends too much money on programs, contracts, and grants that do not promote the interests of the American people.’
‘For too long, taxpayers have subsidized ideological projects overseas and domestic organizations engaged in actions that undermine the national interest,’ the note continues. ‘The American people have seen their tax dollars used to fund the passion projects of unelected bureaucrats rather than to advance the national interest.’
‘The American people have a right to see how the Federal Government has wasted their hard-earned wages.’
Meanwhile, DOGE promised to update its efforts to streamline the government’s credit card usage within a week.
‘DOGE is working w/ the agencies to simplify the program and reduce admin costs – we will report back in 1 week,’ DOGE said on X.