Trump Wants YOU to Help Find Government Waste

Summary

Detailed Summary of "Trump Wants YOU to Help Find Government Waste" Episode of The 47 Morning Update with Ben Ferguson

Release Date: February 18, 2025

In this episode of The 47 Morning Update with Ben Ferguson, host Ben Ferguson delves into three significant political stories: former President Donald Trump's initiative to combat government waste, the long-awaited accountability for the chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan, and the media's controversial blaming of Trump and Elon Musk for a plane crash in Canada. The episode is rich with insightful discussions, notable quotes, and Ferguson's characteristic honest commentary, making it a must-listen for those seeking unfiltered political analysis.

---

1. Donald Trump Seeks Public Assistance to Combat Government Waste

Overview: Former President Donald Trump has launched a campaign urging both government employees and the general public to identify and eliminate waste, fraud, and abuse within the federal government. Central to this initiative is the establishment of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), which aims to audit and streamline various government departments.

Key Points:

• Trump's Accusations of Corruption: Trump criticized the current state of government investments, labeling them as "absolutely obscene, dangerous, bad" and accused them of being "con job[s]" reliant on kickback schemes. He emphasized that trillions of dollars are being wasted, potentially illegally.

  Donald Trump [00:00]: "It's absolutely obscene, dangerous, bad. Virtually every investment made is a con job. There's nothing of value to anybody unless there's a kickback scheme going on... trillions of dollars being absolutely wasted and perhaps illegally."

• DOGE's Role and Public Involvement: DOGE has set up over two dozen affiliate accounts targeting specific departments like Education, Defense, and the Treasury. The organization is actively seeking input from the public to identify inefficiencies and misuse of taxpayer funds.

  Ben Ferguson [02:56]: "The president is asking for government employees help and also the public's help. The Department of Government Efficiency is looking for help identifying government waste..."

• Examples of Government Waste: One highlighted case involves the Treasury Department, which processed 116 million paper checks in fiscal year 2024. DOGE revealed that maintaining a physical lockbox network costs approximately $2.40 per check, totaling $750 million annually—funds that could be saved by transitioning to digital methods.

  Ben Ferguson [03:30]: "If we deleted the paper checks, it would have saved at least $750 million for taxpayers per year."

• DOGE's Achievements: Over the weekend, DOGE successfully halted several funding initiatives, redirecting millions of dollars intended for international programs in Mozambique, Serbia, Bangladesh, Mali, and Nepal.

  Ben Ferguson [05:10]: "They stopped $10 million for the Mozambique Voluntary Medical Male Circumcision Program... $29 million to strengthen political landscape in Bangladesh..."

2. Accountability for the Afghanistan Withdrawal

Overview: The episode addresses the controversial withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan in August 2021 under the Biden-Harris administration, which resulted in the deaths of 13 U.S. service members. Despite previous claims of ending America's longest war, there was no accountability for the ensuing chaos—until now.

Key Points:

• Details of the Withdrawal: The withdrawal, particularly the suicide bombing at Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul on August 26, 2021, was the deadliest incident for U.S. troops in Afghanistan in over a decade. The attack killed 13 service members and over 170 Afghan civilians.

• Lack of Initial Accountability: Until recently, no high-ranking officials were held responsible for the mismanagement of the withdrawal. The Biden-Harris administration faced criticism for whitewashing the event to highlight President Biden's narrative of ending the war.

• Initiation of Investigation: Under Trump's leadership, Defense Secretary has appointed investigators to thoroughly examine the withdrawal's failures. The focus is on establishing "real accountability" by analyzing decision-making processes and identifying where leadership failed.

  Defense Secretary [06:30]: "We've already identified the folks that will be in charge of that full investigation inside the Pentagon... accountability will be coming for what happened in Afghanistan."

• Ben Ferguson's Commentary: Ferguson underscores the significance of this investigation in restoring trust within the Defense Department and ensuring that such oversights do not recur.

  Ben Ferguson [10:45]: "Accountability is coming for what happened in Afghanistan. And what's important is to re-establish trust at the Defense Department."

3. Media's Blaming of Trump and Musk for Canadian Plane Crash

Overview: The episode critiques how mainstream media outlets, specifically NBC News, attributed responsibility for a recent plane crash in Canada to Donald Trump and Elon Musk, despite the incident occurring outside U.S. jurisdiction.

Key Points:

• The Incident: A plane crash occurred in Canada, resulting in the aircraft flipping over while landing. Despite the event's location, NBC News aired segments blaming Trump, Musk, and DOGE for the crash, insinuating that FAA staffing cuts influenced aviation safety.

• Ferguson's Rebuttal: Ferguson points out the factual inaccuracies in the media's reporting, emphasizing that Canadian air traffic control was responsible for the flight and that U.S. FAA staffing had no direct impact on the incident.

  Ben Ferguson [12:05]: "NBC News is telling you that this plane was not under the control of FAA. It was under the control of Canada's air traffic control tower... they're blaming Donald Trump and Elon Musk for a plane that flipped over in Canada."

• Misrepresentation of Facts: The media erroneously linked internal FAA staffing issues, allegedly stemming from Trump's federal workforce reduction initiatives, to the Canadian crash, despite no evidence supporting this connection.

• Visual Evidence: Ferguson highlights NBC News's use of imagery showing the crashed plane with "Air Canada" prominently displayed, reinforcing that the incident was unrelated to U.S. officials or policies.

  Ben Ferguson [13:11]: "They are saying this on NBC News, they are taking a picture of the plane as it is flipped upside down and behind them on the hangar, in massive red letters, it says Air Canada."

• Call to Audience: Ferguson urges listeners to critically evaluate media narratives and recognize instances where blame is misplaced or unfounded.

  Ben Ferguson [13:11]: "If you don't hate the media after hearing this, you need to pay more attention to exactly what they're doing."

---

Conclusion:

In this episode of The 47 Morning Update, Ben Ferguson brings to light significant issues ranging from governmental inefficiency and corruption to accountability in military operations and media integrity. By bringing former President Trump's initiatives to the forefront, addressing long-delayed investigations, and scrutinizing media biases, Ferguson ensures that listeners are well-informed about the dynamics shaping America's political landscape. The inclusion of direct quotes and timestamps provides authenticity and allows listeners to reference specific parts of the discussion, enhancing the episode's credibility and usefulness.

---

For those who haven't listened to the episode, this summary encapsulates the critical discussions and insights presented by Ben Ferguson, offering a comprehensive overview of the topics that are currently influencing American politics and governance.

Transcript

[Donald Trump]

It's absolutely obscene, dangerous, bad. Virtually every investment made is a con job. There's nothing of value to anybody unless there's a kickback scheme going on, which is possible in the end. Trillions of dollars being absolutely wasted and perhaps illegally.

[Ben Ferguson]

You're listening to the 47 Morning Update with Ben Ferguson.

Good Tuesday morning, Ben Ferguson with you. It's so nice to have you with us. And these are the big stories we're covering today on the 47 Morning Update. First up, Donald Trump is now asking for your help in finding government waste. He's also asking for government employees to let him know exactly what they can do to cut out waste where they're working. Liberals are angry. I'll have that story for you in just a moment. Also, you may remember the botched withdrawal from Afghanistan in August of 2021 cost the lives of 13 U.S. service members. What was even worse than that is the fact there was zero accountability. No one lost their job under the Biden inheritance Harris administration. Well, we now have been told there is an investigation underway to find out exactly what happened and what the COVID up was. I'll explain who's in charge of it in just a moment. And finally, Donald Trump is calling for major reform at the faa. So what did the media do? They're now blaming Donald Trump and Elon Musk for a plane crash, not in America, but in Canada. It's the 47 Morning Update and it starts right now.

Story number one.

There's a word we're starting to hear come out of the white and the word is called kickbacks. Apparently now many people in our government have been using your tax dollars to, quote, invest in different things. And in reality, they may have just been servicing themselves with kickbacks. The president talking about this at the White House saying it's time that we demand to know who is on the take and why they were making investments in the things that should have never been allowed.

[Donald Trump]

It's absolutely obscene, dangerous, bad, very costly. I mean, virtually every investment is a con job. There's nothing of value to anybody unless there's a kickback scheme going on, which is possible. And we're going to be doing more and more of that. We're going to be looking at Department of Education. We're going to be looking at even our military. We're going to be looking at tremendous amounts of money, Peter, being spent on things that bear no relationship to anything and have no value. We're talking about trillions of dollars. It will be in the end, trillions of dollars being absolutely wasted and perhaps illegally. I would say certainly in many cases illegally, but perhaps illegally overall. And I'm very proud of the job that this group of young people, generally young people, but very smart people, they're doing. They're doing it at my insistence. It would be a lot easier not to do it. But we have to take some of these things apart to find the corruption. And we found tremendous corruption.

[Ben Ferguson]

We found tremendous corruption. Now the president is asking for government employees help and also the public's help. The Department of Government Efficiency is, quote, looking for help identifying government waste, setting up more than two dozen affiliates to help organize the mass effort to audit the federal government after years of unchecked waste, fraud and abuse. Quote DOGE is looking for help from the general public. Please DM Insights for reducing waste, fraud and abuse along with any helpful insights or awesome ideas to the relevant Doge affiliates found on the affiliates tab. It was posted online. For example, they say you can check out Doge USDA or Doge ssa. It announced adding it plans to add more affiliates as time goes on. Indeed, a brief look at Doge's affiliates tablets show more than two dozen Doge accounts designed for various departments across the government. There is a Doge for the Department of State, the U. S. Interior, the Department of Housing and Urban Development, National Parks, the Department of Education, the Federal Aviation Administration, the Department of Transportation, fema, even the IRS and the Treasury Department, among others. The White House saying it's time for the people that work in these agencies that want to expose what's been going on, to have a place, a safe place to do it. Now, the announcement comes on the heels of Doge highlighting waste in relation to the Treasury Department. Now, this is a perfect example of just how egregious government waste is in our government. The treasury processed 116 million paper checks in the fiscal year 2024. Now you may say, what's the big deal? Well, let's go back to the fiscal year 2023 when there was 25 billion in tax refunds that were delayed or lost due to a returned or expired check. DOGE has now uncovered. What's even more shocking than that is, quote, the treasury maintains a physical lockbox network to collect checks for tax, IRS passports, the State Department, and it costs approximately $2 and 40 cents per check to maintain this lockbox network. Now you may say, okay, doesn't seem like a lot of money. Well, here's where Doge came in. If we deleted the paper checks, it would have saved at least $750 million for taxpayers per year. The Department of Government Efficiency says it's long overdue for us to get rid of the paper checks that are costing you $750 million a year. That's not all. Doge's also provide a list of massive wins for American taxpayers over the weekend, listing some of the shocking ways that American taxpayer dollars were posed to be used and they stopped it. It included 10 million for the Mozambique Voluntary Medical Male Circumcision Program. Your tax dollars were going to go to that $14 million for improving public procurement not in America, but in Serbia, 29 million to, quote, strengthen political landscape in Bangladesh and 14 million for social cohesion in Mali. Also another 47 million for improving learning outcomes not in America, in Asia, and 19 million for biodiversity conservation in Nepal. These plans, according to Doge, have all been canceled. The president is now asking, and Doge is asking for you to get involved and tell them where you may have found waste, fraud and abuse as well.

Next story number two.

One of the main promises that Donald Trump said if he was reelected would be accountability. One of the things on his list was clearly Afghanistan and the botched withdrawal on that arbitrary date from the Biden Harris administration. During that U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan in August of 2021, 13 U.S. service members were killed in a suicide bombing at Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul. It happened on August 26. The attack was carried out by ISIS K and also resulted in the deaths of more than 170 Afghan civilians. The 13 U.S. service members that were killed included 11 Marines, one Navy corpsman and one army soldier. Additionally, 18 other U.S. service members were wounded in that attack. And beyond this attack, several other military and civilian casualties occurred throughout the withdrawal. But the bombing was the deadliest single incident for US Troops in Afghanistan in over a decade. Not a single person was held accountable for the decisions that were made on that day or in the days before or after. It was completely whitewashed by the Biden Harris administration because Joe Biden was obsessed at saying he was the president that ended America's longest war and he won the grandstand on the anniversary of 9 11. Well, accountability is coming. The defense secretary, at the behest of the president, has now said in an interview that he has already picked investigators who are going to be looking into the disastrous Afghanistan withdrawal. Quote, we've already identified the folks that will be in charge of that full investigation inside the Pentagon. I don't have a time frame on it. We've already waited two and a half years, three years since what occurred. I don't want to wait longer, but I always want to get it right, he said. Now, In July of 2021, as I mentioned, the Biden administration launched that chaotic withdrawal of the U.S. troops and the embassy officials from Afghanistan that led to those 13 US service members dying. Part of the other untold story is the fact that there are countless people that helped Americans, those that were translators, those that risked their lives to save American lives, who were then hunted down by the Taliban after we withdrew. Now, in addition to that, hundreds of Americans were actually left behind. Despite the Biden administration touting the withdrawal as a success and bragging about conducting the quote, largest withdrawal in American history. On its way out, the U. S Military conducted a strike meant to target the suicide bomber. Made things even worse when it ended up killing an aid worker and his family instead. Then chairman of the Joint Chiefs at the time, Mark Milley touted it as a, quote, righteous strike. No leader was held accountable or fired for any of this. Only Marine Colonel Stuart Scheller, who demanded accountability in a viral video, lost his career. Now the good news is President Trump tried to right that wrong and appointed him as his senior adviser to the Defense Under Secretary for personnel and readiness. Again, thank goodness Donald Trump was re elected. Headset said accountability is coming and that's what he wants the American people to know about. Quote, the way you establish real accountability is by establishing real fact chains, chains of events, information. What happened? Why did it happen? Who made the decisions? What was the reason they made that decision? Why did they give advice or not give advice? Why did they execute an order a certain way? Did they speak up when they were supposed to or did they sit quietly? I don't think there's anybody that feels like there's been an honest accounting of what happened in Afghanistan. That is our job, Pete Hedge, Seth said. So we're going to drive the full investigation and get a full sense of what happened. And as I stated to the workforce on Friday, I guess less than a week ago, accountability will be coming for what happened in Afghanistan. And what's important is to re establish trust at the Defense Department.

And here is story number three.

There's a very good chance you actually don't hate the mainstream media as much as you should. A perfect example of this is what happened on Monday. There was a news story that broke and that was a story that Elon Musk and SpaceX were coming in to help overhaul the FAA. Why? Well, after the deadly plane crash in Washington D.C. just a few weeks ago, it is very clear that our FAA and our system that controls airplanes is archaic and in much need of an upgrade. Well, the media cannot stand what's happening with Donald Trump and Elon Musk. So now they're trying to blame the two of them for a plane crash that happened on Monday outside of the United States of America. NBC News went on live TV blaming Trump, Musk and Doge for an airplane flipping while landing in Canada. Not in America, but in Canada. Take a listen.

[Tom]

I did want to, you know, underscore to pick up on the conversation you were just having, though, in terms of the recent string of aviation incidents. Tom, this is going to, yet again raise the concern about FAA staffing, air traffic control staffing. Now, this is a Canadian air traffic control tower, and this is under Canadian authority once it crosses the border. And yet, as you know, there has been this talk about maybe staff cuts at the FAA as a part of President Trump's effort to trim down the federal workforce. And yet, as you also know, the FAA has been complaining for years that they are understaffed in critical job positions, especially air traffic control. I was having a conversation with somebody today about whether air traffic control in America is being affected by the staff cuts. So far, not to their knowledge. And yet other positions related to maintaining critical equipment appear to have been cut. So this is going to feed into all of these recent incidents, and the safety of the total air traffic system is going to be very much a part of the conversation as we go forward, at least on this side of the country, of the border, I should say.

[Ben Ferguson]

So. Let's be clear about what you just heard. NBC News is telling you that this plane was not under the control of faa. It was under the control of Canada's air traffic control tower, and it was under, quote, Canadian authority once it crossed the border. And yet they are blaming Donald Trump and Elon Musk for fictitious job cuts that had nothing to do with what was happening in Canada. They also are saying that even after they looked into this, no one is saying that the people that were being cut by Doge at the Transportation Administration or the FAA had anything to do with unsafe flying conditions or people not being in the tower to control the airplanes. However, they still wanted you to blame Donald Trump, Elon Musk and Doge for a plane that flipped over in Canada, not in the United States of America. If you don't hate the media after hearing this, you need to pay more attention to exactly what they're doing. One final thought on this story. As they're saying this on NBC News, they are taking a picture of the plane as it is flipped upside down and behind them on the hangar, in massive red letters, it says Air Canada. Hopefully the American people are smart enough to be looking at this crash and realizing this has nothing to do with Donald Trump.

Thank you for listening to the 47 Morning Update with Ben Ferguson. Please make sure you hit subscribe wherever you're listening to this podcast right now. And for more in depth news, also subscribe to the Ben Ferguson Podcast and we will see you back here tomorrow.