Free Republic

The founders learned this week they aren't getting their business back and their foundation is getting audited. There is a battle under way over the ownership and identity of the iconic ice cream brand Ben and Jerry's — and its radical leftist founders, Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield, appear to be losing badly. Earlier this month, the Wall Street Journal indicated that Cohen was trying to gather investors to buy back the brand that he and Greenfield sold to Unilever 25 years ago. This buyback initiative came just weeks after Unilever removed the company's anti-Trump CEO Dave Stever, allegedly on...

President Donald Trump said he wants Elon Musk to stay on his team "as long as possible" during a conversation with reporters Thursday, adding DOGE had found something "horrible" without divulging details. The president made his remarks during a conversation with reporters on Air Force One after Trump was asked how much longer Musk would stay on as a "special government employee." The questions followed a report from Politico this week claiming Trump had told his inner circle that Musk will be leaving his role as a "special government employee" with DOGE soon. The report cited internal frustrations with Musk's...

Of all the nonvital issues lefty rags like Wired would have me worry about, audits of government spending conducted by Elon Musk's Department of Government not measuring up to Washington's strict standards (cough, cough) is so far down the list that I ran out of witty metaphors. Yet here we are. Before I take you into that Wired report, let me share the latest news about what Musk calls Washington's "Magic Money Computers" because it's a story that the legacy dinosaur media seems to have somehow missed but that plays directly into Wired's story. Appearing on Sen. Ted Cruz's (R-Tex.)...

On March 17, US President Donald Trump’s senior advisor Elon Musk claimed that there are “Magic Money Computers” operational at several government departments that can “make money out of thin air.” Musk made the remark while speaking to Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) during the "Verdict" podcast.Well-known for his dynamic ventures such as Tesla, SpaceX, and X (formerly Twitter), Musk was appointed by Trump as the de-facto head of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). The department has been focused on slashing government expenditure for several programs.In the conversation with Cruz, Musk claimed that the DOGE team has discovered 14 “Magic...

https://x.com/WallStreetApes/status/1901107076526731316Wall Street Apes @WallStreetApesEXPOSED 🚨 Department of Education is laundering money back to the Democrat Party“This is why Democrats are losing their minds over Elon Musk. It's all about money”Rep Harriet Hageman “The Federal Department of Education spends it as a budget of about $280 billion a year. Less than 25% goes to educating our students. So where does the other $220 billion go? It goes to a bureaucracy, it goes to a consultant, and that consultant then donates money BACK TO DEMOCRATS, and then it goes to a different consultant, and then it goes to an NGO. I mean,...

TIM BURCHETT SAYS CONGRESS DOESN'T WANT ELON MUSK TO AUDIT THE BOOKS BECAUSE BOTH SIDES OF THE AISLE (DEMOCRAT & REPUBLICAN) ARE STEALING MONEY FROM THE TAXPAYERS AND THEY WILL DO ANYTHING TO STOP ELON FROM EXPOSING THE CORRUPTION: BURCHETT: “They’re gonna push back because you’ve got Congressmen on both sides of the aisle. If Musk follows the paper trail, it's going to come back to them. [Money is going to] their wife and or girlfriend that works for some agency, quasi-agency (NGO) or some business. This town (DC) is as crooked as a dog's leg. I’ll get primaried for...

Homeless programs funded by the city of Los Angeles are essentially a black hole when it comes to oversight and the tracking of outcomes, a court-ordered, independent audit has found. The report, released on Thursday, was conducted by Alvarez & Marsal, a global consulting firm. It looked at four years of homeless services managed by the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority (LAHSA) from June 1, 2020, through June 30, 2024. A&M said it was stymied by information gaps and incomplete data that hindered its ability to gauge the results of approximately $2.3 billion in homeless spending over that time period....

What is DOGE really doing—and why is it so controversial? The answer lies in an esoteric if straightforward concept that began in the world of budgeting: Zero-basing.As a general rule, most organizations, businesses, agencies, and even households building budgets start by asking themselves a simple question: What did we spend last year? To answer, they compile a list of expense categories and the amounts spent in each one. Next, they look ahead to the coming year to see which categories will require a bump up and where they can cut. Finally, they look at projected revenues to see whether they...

Senate Republicans on Monday criticized Elon Musk’s directive for federal government employees to lose their jobs if they did not send in a bullet-pointed summary of what they did last week at work, describing it as a rash decision that was not handled well. The email asking what they accomplished over the past week had set a deadline of Monday at midnight for responses. However, that was walked back by the Office of Personnel Management when it told departments and agencies that they could ignore that email. Nevertheless, some Senate GOP members took issue with Musk’s request as he continues...

The Trump administration is launching an audit of California’s high-speed rail project, which is a decade late and is expected to run $100 billion over budget without connecting San Francisco and Los Angeles, as originally intended. As Breitbart News has reported, President Donald Trump warned that the federal government could claw back over $4 billion in spending on the project, just as he blocked $1 billion for the ailing project during his first administration. The San Francisco Chronicle reported that Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy drew protesters in an appearance in Los Angeles to announce the audit: U.S. Secretary of...

If you want to seize private data from the people and conduct a political hatchet job, call Elon Musk and his night crew of juvenile computer hackers.

Norm Eisen's ongoing lawsuits against Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) are drawing scrutiny—and not just because of the high-profile figures involved. It turns out, Eisen’s own family ties are raising serious questions about conflict of interest. His daughter, Tamar Eisen, worked as a Program Officer for the National Democratic Institute (NDI)—a non-profit organization that has been on the receiving end of millions in USAID funding. It doesn’t stop there. The NDI has been the recipient of substantial USAID grants, including a hefty $32.3 million for the “Electoral Empowerment of CSO Project.” Now, just as Norm Eisen’s lawsuits against...

Chelsea Clinton receives annually-recurring funding from USAID, allocated by Obama for her Foundation, which provides afternoon meals to children in Africa, India, and Bangladesh. However, as of today, the reported number of meals served stands at 11,886, implying an astonishing cost of $1,410 per meal. Net Worth $70 Million Husband Net Worth $45 Million Inheritance $52 million USAID Earnings $3.9 Million per year Real Estate Assets $25 million Monthly Spends $100,000 Car Collection Eight Has accomplished nothing.

Treasury Department releases monthly reports that detail its gold reserves Musk on Saturday wrote a post on X questioning whether U.S. gold reserves are reviewed each year, to which Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., replied, "Nope. Let's do it." "Who is confirming that gold wasn't stolen from Fort Knox? Maybe it's there, maybe it's not. That gold is owned by the American public! We want to know if it's still there," Musk wrote on Monday. The post came in response to Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, claiming he has been repeatedly denied access to Fort Knox. He later posted about "Looking for...

Joe Biden weaponized the Justice Department against Donald Trump and Trump supporters; it should come as no surprise that on his way out the door, he decided to weaponize the IRS against incoming Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth. Hegseth revealed on Monday afternoon that the Biden administration flagged him for an IRS audit. “Of course the outgoing Biden IRS rushed an ‘audit’ of the incoming SecDef,” he wrote in a post on X. “Total sham. The party of ‘norms’ and ‘decency’ strikes again. We will never back down.” According to the document, the family’s federal income tax return indicated they...

The logic flow diagram for the Social Security system looks INSANE. No one person actually knows how it works. The payment files that move between Social Security and Treasury have significant inconsistencies that are not reconciled. It’s wild. As a friend of mine described it, this is like an amazing puzzle, uncovering the secrets of an ancient civilization that went extinct … except it’s still around 😂 x.com/elonmusk/statu…

The Social Security system just took a massive hit—thanks to DOGE uncovering what could be one of the largest frauds in American history. With over 395 million Social Security numbers on file, you’d think there was some sort of miracle happening. But the U.S. population? Around 334 million. That’s a discrepancy you can’t just ignore. This isn’t a technical glitch—this is fraud. DOGE’s investigation uncovered 3.5 million Social Security recipients listed as being over 140 years old, with some records showing ages as absurd as 360-369 years old. This isn’t a glitch—this is outright fraud. Even more shocking, over 25...

'It would be great if Elon Musk could take a look inside Fort Knox just to make sure the 4,580 tons of US gold is there,' the libertarian Zero Hedge news aggregator account posted to X. 'Last time anyone looked was 50 years ago in 1974.' Musk responded to the post with: 'Surely it's reviewed at least every year?' But Republican Sen. Paul of Kentucky said 'nope' and invited Musk to 'do it' and have his DOGE staffers conduct an audit of the reserves located in the Fort Knox Army base.

A federal judge in Washington on Friday handed Elon Musk's government efficiency team a win by declining a request to temporarily block it from accessing sensitive data from at least three federal agencies. Unions and nonprofits attempted to stop Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) from accessing records at the Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. U.S. District Judge John Bates wrote in an opinion that the government was likely correct in categorizing DOGE as an agency, thereby allowing it to detail its staff to other government departments.

The US gold reserves - last "audited" in 1974 - remain shrouded in secrecy. Elon Musk's recent query sheds light on decades of opacity. Let's delve in. The 1974 “show audit” inspected only 6% of Fort Knox’s gold. Politicians and journalists held bars but none were assayed, tested for purity, or matched to serial numbers. Foreign gold stored there added confusion. Critics call it a “pep rally,” not proof. US gold is valued at $388B unrealized value at Fort Knox alone. The Treasury’s statutory rate—unchanged since 1973—ignores today’s ~$2,633/oz market price, masking trillions in potential national wealth.