DOGE aides are making ‘blacklist’ of federal employees to fire with input from Trump’s first Cabinet

Donald Trump’s new Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) is seeking input from top officials from the president-elect’s first term on who should make cuts in their efforts to tackle government waste.

According to a report from Puck News, associates of DOGE co-chairs Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy have called former Trump cabinet secretaries.

They are asked to prepare two separate lists of people they have served with, including a list of political appointments and a list of career officials.

The former secretaries are instructed to write “A” next to the names of those they think Trump should return, and “B” next to those they believe should be “blacklisted or fired.” , the report said.

It’s the latest in a series of steps DOGE is taking to get input as it prepares to make good on Trump’s promise to cut government spending.

Last week, DOGE called on the public to provide feedback on “wasteful and burdensome regulations.”

An account created on X after DOGE was announced last month regularly posted about government spending.

That included spending on holograms of dead comedians, a Super Bowl ad about the census, and billions that the Pentagon can’t account for.

Meanwhile, the House Oversight Committee is creating a subcommittee in the upcoming Congress, with MAGA loyalist Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Green (R-GA) as chair, to work with DOGE..

Senator Joni Ernst (R-IA) also established a DOGE caucus in the Senate to work with the Trump administration on its efforts.

Other lawmakers, including Republicans and some Democrats, have proposed areas where they say cuts could be made.

But Musk and Ramaswamy’s efforts to significantly reduce the federal workforce may face obstacles due to federal civil service protections.

DOGE’s new heads have already indicated that one way they can reduce workforces is to end telecommuting for federal employees, which could prompt some to quit voluntarily.

Trump praised DOGE during his press conference on Monday, where he said it ‘found things you wouldn’t believe’

It’s a move supported by both Republican lawmakers on the Hill and Trump.

“If people don’t come back to work — stop coming to the office — they’re going to be fired,” Trump emphasized at a press conference on Monday.

According to an August report from the Office of Management and Budget, 46 percent of civilian employees were eligible for telework, but only 10 percent of positions were fully remote.

The president-elect on Monday also praised Musk and Ramaswamy for their work and claimed to do the same will eliminate hundreds of billions of dollars in wasteful spending.

“I’ll give you a little early report, they’re finding things you wouldn’t even believe,” Trump claimed. “So we might want to save $2 trillion, but it won’t have an impact.”

Trump has given DOGE, technically an outside advisory committee and not a government agency, a July 2026 deadline to complete its work.