Ron DeSantis Credits Elon Musk and DOGE to Return of Nearly $1 Billion in Florida Taxpayer Dollars to Federal Government

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis announced that, following a meeting with DOGE and its head, Elon Musk, the state of Florida would be able to return nearly $1 billion to the federal government.

DeSantis took to social media on Friday to announce the return of the funds, which he had been attempting to accomplish for years under the administration of President Joe Biden.

"For years, Florida has been trying to return federal funds to the federal government due to the ideological strings attached by the Biden Administration—but they couldn't even figure out how to accept it," DeSantis wrote Friday on X.

"Today, I met with @elonmusk and the DOGE team, and we got this done in the same day. Other states should follow Florida in supporting DOGE's efforts!" he continued.

Musk swiftly reposted DeSantis' post.

"Almost a billion dollars of your taxpayer money saved," he wrote.

Even after the return of $878 million in federal funds, DeSantis' office stated that it would look for more funding to return to the government in correspondence sent to the Treasury Department.

"At the direction of Governor DeSantis and following his meeting with Elon Musk today, the State of Florida is formally returning $878,112,000 in taxpayer dollars to the federal government as part of DOGE's efforts," the email said. "We will also continue to identify other unused or surplus federal funding granted to Florida and determine if further refunds can be made. We hope our actions serve as a model for other states to follow."

Last month, Florida created a DOGE task force to operate within the state to "further eliminate waste within state government, save taxpayers money, and ensure accountability in Florida," said Republican Gov. DeSantis.

"Florida has set the standard for fiscally conservative governance, and our new Florida DOGE task force will do even more to serve the people of Florida," DeSantis said at the time. "It will eliminate redundant boards and commissions, review state university and college operations and spending, utilize artificial intelligence to further examine state agencies to uncover hidden waste, and even audit the spending habits of local entities to shine the light on waste and bloat."