Aides for Tesla and Space X CEO Elon Musk and tech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy are starting to interview staffers with the federal government for the newly created Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), according to a new report. 

Representatives for DOGE have had conversations with staffers from more than a dozen federal agencies — including the Treasury Department and the Internal Revenue Service, as well as the Departments of Veterans Affairs, Homeland Security, and Health and Human Services, The Washington Post reported Friday. 

Musk and Ramaswamy are leading DOGE, a blue-ribbon committee separate from the federal government that seeks to address issues concerning government spending, waste, efficiency and operations. They are expected to suggest executive actions for the Trump administration and partner with the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to initiate reforms. 

Altogether, the committee aims to cut $2 trillion from the federal government budget through efforts to slash spending, government programs and the federal workforce. 

However, Musk recently cast doubt on the likelihood of eliminating $2 trillion from the federal budget and said there was a better chance at cutting $1 trillion. 

‘I think we’ll try for $2 trillion. I think that’s like the best-case outcome,’ Musk said during tech trade show CES on Wednesday in Las Vegas, the Post reported. ‘But I do think that you kind of have to have some overage. I think if we try for $2 trillion, we’ve got a good shot at getting $1 [trillion].’

Lawmakers on Capitol Hill have voiced support for working with DOGE, and Reps. Aaron Bean, R-Fla., and Pete Sessions, R-Texas, announced the creation of the Delivering Outstanding Government Efficiency (DOGE) Caucus last year. 

‘Our national debt has surpassed a staggering $36 trillion and should be a wakeup call for all Americans,’ House DOGE Caucus Co-Chair Bean said in a statement in November. ‘We must take action to avoid diving headfirst off the cliff of fiscal ruin. I’m thrilled with President-elect Trump’s appointment of Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy to lead DOGE, but taking on Crazy Town will be no easy task — they will need partners.’

Likewise, Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, is slated to oversee the Senate DOGE Caucus.

‘The tables are finally turning, the knives are out, and waste is on the chopping block,’ Ernst said in a November statement. 

Currently, DOGE boasts a staff of approximately 50 people who are working from SpaceX’s offices in Washington, D.C., and it is aiming to roughly double that number when President-elect Trump is sworn into office on Jan. 20, according to the Post. 

A representative for Ramaswamy declined to provide comment to Fox News Digital.

DOGE appears to be the source of inspiration for other similar initiatives at the state level. For example, Republican Gov. Kelly Ayotte of swing state New Hampshire on Thursday announced the creation of the Commission on Government Efficiency, known as COGE.

‘COGE will make us smarter than ever before when it comes to saving taxpayer dollars and finding better ways to serve the people of our state,’ Ayotte said in her inaugural address. 

Tulsi Gabbard, who is President-elect Donald Trump’s choice to be Director of National Intelligence (DNI) in his next administration, has reversed course on a controversial item after lobbying from Republican senators. 

Gabbard revealed on Friday that she believes section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) ‘is crucial for gathering foreign intelligence on non-U.S. persons abroad.’

She previously opposed FISA section 702 re-authorization while serving as a Democrat in the House of Representatives. 

‘We have a very important responsibility to strike a balance between national security to keep the American people safe, while also protecting our constitutionally protected freedoms,’ she said on the House floor in 2018. ‘Let us make this critical choice. Vote to keep our country safe. Vote to uphold our constitutional rights that so many have fought and died to protect.’

In her statement, provided by a Trump transition spokesperson, Gabbard said, ‘This unique capability cannot be replicated and must be safeguarded to protect our nation while ensuring the civil liberties of Americans.’

‘My prior concerns about FISA were based on insufficient protections for civil liberties, particularly regarding the FBI’s misuse of warrantless search powers on American citizens. Significant FISA reforms have been enacted since my time in Congress to address these issues. If confirmed as DNI, I will uphold Americans’ Fourth Amendment rights while maintaining vital national security tools like Section 702 to ensure the safety and freedom of the American people,’ she said. 

The change in Gabbard’s beliefs on the key national security issue was first reported by Punchbowl News. 

It comes after multiple Republican senators made the case to her of the importance of FISA’s section 702. 

Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., chair of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, told Fox News Digital in a statement: ‘Tulsi Gabbard has assured me in our conversations that she supports Section 702 as recently amended and that she will follow the law and support its reauthorization as DNI.’

One GOP aide shared that during his meeting with Gabbard, Sen. James Lankford, R-Okla., emphasized how important the authority granted by section 702 is, and how important her navigation of it would be. 

In a podcast appearance earlier this week, Lankford told the Wall Street Journal’s Kim Strassel that there were some issues ‘that people aren’t talking about’ as it relates to Trump’s picks. One of them, he said, was Gabbard and her stance on section 702. 

‘She has voted against what’s called 702 authority every time that she was in Congress and voted against it. Well, now she’s going to be the spokesman for 702 authority. It’s a legitimate question just to say, ‘Okay, how are you going to handle this?’’ he asked. 

Lankford suggested that this is something that matters to other Republican senators. ‘I don’t hear anyone really coming up publicly and saying, ‘I’m adamantly opposed” to Trump’s nominees, he explained. 

But, ‘What I hear is a lot of people saying, ‘Hey, I want to give a fair hearing. I want people to be able to answer questions publicly.’’ 

While most GOP senators are supportive of FISA, some have been vocal critics. ‘Voting to reauthorize FISA 702 without a warrant requirement is difficult to defend. So are those casting such votes—especially if they purport to care about the Fourth Amendment,’ Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, wrote on X ahead of the most recent FISA re-authorization. 

Another top critic, Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., said in 2023, ‘Using 702, Americans’ communications content and metadata is inevitably swept up and kept in government databases without a warrant. Law enforcement agencies then access Americans’ communications without a warrant.’ 

These Republicans may not be as happy about Gabbard’s change of heart. However, there isn’t any indication that it would harm their support for her as of yet. 

One Republican senate source cast doubt on Gabbard’s new stance, noting that she has been ‘a life-long skeptic of intelligence gathering.’ They suggested it is unlikely that she has ‘completely changed her mind.’ 

A GOP Senate source confirmed to Fox News Digital that conservative senators are encouraged by Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., and his apparent desire to confirm Trump nominees on the day he is sworn into office. 

The group is eager to have all national security nominees confirmed on Trump’s first day, they added. 

Democratic lawmakers were noticeably silent following the sentencing of President-elect Donald Trump despite previously commenting on the cases against him, as Washington prepares for a Republican trifecta in Congress.

Trump was sentenced on Friday after being found guilty on 34 charges related to falsifying business records in May.

The incoming president was sentenced to unconditional discharge, which means that he will not receive any jail time, fine or probation time. The sentence also preserves Trump’s ability to appeal the conviction. 

After Trump was found guilty in criminal court in May, Democratic members of Congress put out a flurry of reactions on social media but appeared mum after the sentencing on Friday, which comes just days before he will be sworn into office on Jan. 20. 

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., in May, wrote in a post on X, fomerly Twitter, that ‘the jury has spoken and carefully rendered a decision. Responsible leadership requires the verdict to be respected,’ while Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York said that ‘nobody is above the law.’

However, Democrats appeared less reactive to Friday’s sentencing, which left Trump free of any penalty.

One Democratic congresswoman put out a statement following the unconditional discharge sentence, claiming that ‘our system of justice is not just.’

‘There is a two-tiered system of justice in this country, and Donald Trump lives on the tier where he gets to walk into the White House without spending a single day in jail or being put on probation after being convicted of 34 felonies. On the other tier are the clients I represented as a public defender in Texas, like the seventeen-year-old boy who was held on felony probation for taking some candy from his school’s concession stand,’ Rep. Jasmine Crockett, D-Texas, said in a post on X. 

‘The scales are not equal,’ she added.

On the flip side, Republicans were very vocal following the sentencing. 

‘I have no respect for the process being used in New York. I find the judge and prosecutor’s motives to be dripping with politics,’ Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said in a statement. ‘This is a sad day for America.’

Trump, ahead of the sentencing, said that he would appeal the decision.

Trump filed an emergency petition to the Supreme Court on Wednesday in an effort to prevent his Jan. 10 sentencing, but the high court ultimately denied his emergency petition to block his sentencing.

Fox News’ Brooke Singman contributed to this report.