Musk and That Man Plan to Waste Taxpayer Dollars on Unnecessary Property Purchases

The return-to-office mandates for federal workers seem like a cover for a real estate scam, and Americans will foot the bill.

One of the first Executive Orders signed by Donald Trump was an order for federal employees to return to in-person work. That was quickly rebuffed by federal employee unions, and a pissing contest of who has the final say has begun (although considering Trump has a history of being the one pissed on and not being the pisser, the agency unions have a good shot at winning). Trump made it clear that he and Elon Musk, the lead in the White House information technology (IT) office known as DOGE, want to slash the federal workforce. This is part of their insidious plan to prevent citizens from getting the resources they need and kick off an economic recession.

The Failure of the Deal

The scam “Fork in the Road” buyout offer that mirrors the one un-elected African billionaire, Musk, sent to Twitter employees has unfortunately gotten some takers. Approximately 40,000 federal employees have accepted the “buyout” that has no guarantee that any benefit it offers will actually be paid to those who resign. But this total is still a far cry from the 10% total workforce resignations that Trump expected. A federal judge has also extended the deadline to accept the resignation amid the lawsuits brought by unions.

Many organizations and leaders have cautioned employees from accepting this offer that has zero financial backing as it seems to be a scare tactic from the administration. While there have been deep cuts to agencies like the Department of Justice (DOJ) and the US Agency for International Development (USAID), it is clear that Trump and his crooked cronies can’t clean out the federal government like they hoped. Federal employees do have certain job protections in place, and even USAID lay offs have been blocked by a federal judge (who was appointed by Trump in his first term ironically enough). Essentially, this administration is hoping that fear will make employees flee.

A Real Estate Buffoon

The Government Accountability Office (GAO), which is a legislative branch agency that acts as the “watchdog” for executive agencies such as the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and Department of Education (ED), reported in 2022 that significant cut backs would be made on federal building leases to save money. It is no doubt that the increase in telework and remote work capabilities for federal employees made this possible. The government continued to cut millions of square feet of shared office space, and what has occurred is billions of dollars saved. That means billions of taxpayer dollars do not go to wasteful, unnecessary spending.

But with Trump ordering federal employees — including those hired as remote workers — to return to federal offices full time, these savings will disappear. In fact, the federal government would have to spend more money to acquire additional space. Even more confusing, Trump and Musk (who again, is not an elected official) ordered the General Services Administration (GSA) to terminate even more office leases just last week. If they can’t get rid of federal employees like they planned but they also want to force them back into federal office spaces, then how will that work?

Return to Waste

The first hurdle deals with remote workers. Both the Department of Defense (DoD) and Veterans Affairs (VA) said that they have many remote work contracts. Like other agencies, those contracts provide that the government must pay the moving expenses for remote workers who are now being required to come into an office if they live more than 50 miles outside of the duty station. This is potentially millions of dollars that the Trump administration will pay just to move these employees.

The second hurdle is where to even put these workers when they do come into the office. On the return-to-work memos sent out to federal employees, there is a line stating they will return to work “as real estate efforts develop.” If this administration knows that the decrease in federal office buildings has created a space issue, and they also ordered more decreases while at the same time planning for real estate developments, then who stands to benefit from this? Certainly not the American taxpayers or the federal employees. The logical conclusion is that this is a way to funnel tax dollars to someone in Musk and Trump’s circles who would benefit from more federal real estate.

Regardless, nothing about this plan is a good budgetary move. It is costly, it is unnecessary, and it is wasteful government spending.

Call Congress

If we want to stop bloated government spending, the first move is to stop Musk and Trump from unnecessary federal real estate investments. Urge your friends and family to call their representatives, especially if their reps are Republicans. We should only call our own congress members as outlined in this article by Indivisible.

Call (202) 224-3121, say the name of the senator or representative you want to leave a message for, and use the following script if it helps:

Hello, my name is _____, my address is _____, and my zip code is _____. I am calling because Donald Trump and Elon Musk’s order to return federal employees to the offices would cause unnecessary expenses to lease federal office space and pay the relocation fees of remote workers. I do not want my taxpayer dollars being wasted on this when work-from-home policies have saved us citizens billions of dollars. It is your job to make sure that federal appropriations are not frivolous, and this is frivolous spending. I am urging you to block Trump from doing this and stop wasting our hard earned money as taxpayers. If you do not take a stand against this, you will never get my vote or support in any future election.

You can search for your congress members here.

Hopefully, Congress has the good sense to listen. After all, who doesn’t love a frugal government solution?