Headlines have been buzzing ever since Donald Trump began his second term as President of the United States. As soon as he picked up his official duties after his inauguration, he has brought forth several changes in the administration. While some of his decisions have been quite contentious, it was his task force DOGE that grabbed everyone’s attention.
Billionaire Elon Musk was put in charge of this and claimed that the initiative has saved $105 billion with its approach to trimming federal spending. After which famous director Justine Bateman also has a pitch of her own for Trump. This has left everyone wondering if Trump will entertain this idea or not.
Justine Bateman has a million-dollar idea to bring back great movies
After Elon Musk‘s DOGE calculation went public, several notable faces from the industry detailed their thoughts on the matter. While some had opinions, others, such as filmmaker and former Family Ties star Justine Bateman, had a bold pitch for Donald Trump.
She mentioned that he should invest a small fraction of the billions saved by Musk’s DOGE, aka Department of Government Efficiency, in filmmaking. She has herself brought forth a vision and a new initiative called The American Film Fund (TAFF), which is a government-backed effort to finance a handful of original and high-quality movies each year.
Along with the idea, she is also more than ready to take charge of the project. She detailed via The Wrap, “Give me $100 million or $50 million, and I am going to get you five to seven fantastic, ‘Oh my God, America’s back’ kind of films.” In the same conversation, she also added that the movie industry has become afraid to take risks.
She also believes that the industry is stuck in a constant loop of mediocre projects and is heavily affected by social media and the pressures of keeping up with streaming giants. Her vision with TAFF is to return to the bold, unfiltered narratives that once ruled American cinema.
Also, as Trump himself has dabbled in the world of acting with The Apprentice and multiple cameos, he’d be a perfect candidate to launch TAFF. While she has made the pitch, only time will tell if it manages to get Trump’s attention or not.
What are Elon Musk’s plans with DOGE and how did it save $105 billion?
After picking up his official duties, Donald Trump has been making huge waves in the headlines with his approach to the administration. Among this was an order that he signed to cut government costs and improve technology. This ultimately led to the creation of DOGE, a special task force that was focused on reducing spending.
Unlike other government agencies, this special task force was not approved by Congress and mostly operates under Trump’s direction. Not surprisingly, Elon Musk, who strongly campaigned for Trump, was put in charge of the program. Even though he doesn’t take any government salary, his main goal of leading the project is to save up to $1 trillion by cutting down waste and bringing more efficiency to the government.
He heads a team of 40 people, the majority of them being young engineers from his own companies who have very little government experience. Also, as per Reuters, DOGE has claimed that it has saved taxpayers $105 billion by reducing the number of government workers, canceling expensive contracts, and selling assets. However, after these numbers went viral, many people questioned these claims.
One mistake involved an $8 billion contract that was later corrected to $8 million. Even Musk agreed that there have been some issues with the numbers and that DOGE will fix the mistakes as they are found. His team has already made some major cuts across government agencies. At least 75,000 workers have accepted buyout offers, and around 25,000 have been fired.
More such layoffs are planned to happen, and only time will tell us what more Elon Musk has planned.
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