‘Puzzling’: DOGE fired 18 people who saved taxpayers $93B in single year
One of the inspectors general fired by Donald Trump is questioning whether the president is serious about saving money for taxpayers.
Mark Greenblatt was inspector general of the Interior Department from August 2019 until January 2025, when the incoming president fired him and 17 others tasked with auditing and investigating government agencies. He published a piece for NBC News highlighting the $93 billion their work potentially saved Americans for the fiscal year 2023.
“That’s why President Donald Trump’s decision to fire 18 inspectors general in the first week of his term is so puzzling,” Greenblatt wrote. “According to the Council of the Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency, IG oversight has collectively resulted in potential savings of about $93.1 billion in FY 2023. With the OIG community’s aggregate FY 2023 budget of approximately $3.5 billion, these potential savings represent an approximate $26 return on every dollar invested in inspectors general.”
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Greenblatt pointed out that the Council of the Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency (CIGIE), an independent entity established within the executive branch, literally had “efficiency” in its name, well before Elon Musk cooked up his plans for the Department of Government Efficiency.
“IGs ultimately share a mission with the rest of the executive branch, which is to improve the federal government for the American people. And the IGs’ track record makes clear that IG oversight is a good investment for the American taxpayer,” he wrote.
Greenblatt acknowledged that some believe Trump fired the inspectors general because he doesn’t want independent oversight into the executive branch, but he explained why he should want them to remain independent.
“The programs that President Trump cares about most are precisely the ones in which he should want the straight scoop,” Greenblatt wrote.
“To use a business analogy, President Trump would likely avoid investing in a company whose auditors were hopelessly conflicted, and he wouldn’t trust the financial audit of the company’s balance sheet or cash flow statement if the auditor would have gotten fired for anything other than a clean opinion,” he added. “Surely, he wouldn’t trust a bond rating if the rating officials would have been fired or reprimanded for anything other than a AAA rating.”
Greenblatt also recalled an instance from 2022 when his office found the Bureau of Land Management was failing to conduct a necessary step to prevent waste, fraud and abuse in the leasing program, but he doubts that such a report could be issued in Trump’s second presidency.
“There’s reason to believe that a negative report on a sensitive program, regardless of how true it is or how helpful it is to the American taxpayer, would be viewed as disloyal and cause for termination,” he wrote. “President Trump is famously adamant about loyalty. Well, it’s not loyal to bury bad news. To the contrary, allowing decision-makers to waltz down the primrose path, unwittingly blind to the realities on the ground, is the ultimate in disloyalty. Sharing the truth, even if it is not what the principal wants, is the ultimate show of loyalty.”
