Karoline Leavitt Defends DOGE: Transparency and Wasteful Spending in Focus

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt took center stage in defending Elon Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) against accusations of lacking transparency. During Wednesday’s press briefing, Leavitt pushed back against critics, emphasizing the administration’s commitment to openness and accountability.

Leavitt pointed to DOGE’s X account and website as evidence of transparency, explaining that these platforms regularly publish "the receipts of the contracts that they are reviewing and the payments that they have stopped from going out the door."

"Elon Musk is the richest man in the world," Leavitt stated. "He is also now one of the most highly scrutinized men in the world, alongside President Trump, because of what he's doing and the access that he is allowing. Let me be very clear, we are not trying to hide anything. We have been incredibly transparent, and we will continue to be."

She then presented reporters with physical evidence of what she called "fraudulent," "wasteful," and "abusive" government spending. Among the examples were diversity program expenditures by the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services and the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, as well as a climate-related initiative in Sri Lanka.

"What is this doing to continue the interests of the American people? Absolutely nothing," Leavitt asserted. "These are the line items across the federal government that DOGE is identifying daily. They're moving very fast. There's a lot of paper that we can show you, but we're happy to do it."

Leavitt’s remarks reinforced the administration’s stance on government spending reform and its efforts to highlight inefficiencies within federal agencies.