Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk and tech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy’s newly created Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) is eying a proposal that would slash federal diversity and inclusion programs, according to a new report.

DOGE is tasked with eliminating government spending, waste and streamlining efficiency and operations, and is expected to influence White House policy on budget matters. 

The proposal circulating among DOGE advisors is a 19-page report from the Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty, a conservative and libertarian nonprofit organization, the Washington Post reports. 

Specifically, the document claims that there is more than $120 billion annually spent on ‘diversity, equity and inclusion’ initiatives like Agriculture Department grants and loans for minority farmers and ranchers – efforts the organization claims are unconstitutional. 

Although it’s unlikely that the entirety of those funds will face complete elimination, sources told the Post that these diversity efforts will likely face cuts to free up spending. DOGE advisors have viewed the document, and it is making its rounds through the committee, the Post reports. 

‘That’s been sent down from on high, that all this DEI stuff has to go,’ someone familiar with DOGE’s early plans told the Post. ‘Once all these guys get confirmed, and he’s the president on Jan. 20, this is going to happen fast and furious.’

Musk is expected to occupy space in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building which is directly beside the West Wing and where the majority of office space for White House staffers exists, the New York Times reported this week. 

While Musk and transition officials have discussed the nature of the billionaire’s access to Trump post-inauguration, solidified plans are pending, according to the Times, which noted that special passes are usually required in order to freely visit the West Wing.

DOGE is not part of the federal government, but the committee is expected to suggest executive orders for the Trump administration and partner with the Office of Management and Budget on new initiatives.

Altogether, DOGE seeks to slash $2 trillion from the federal government budget through cuts to spending, government programs and the federal workforce.

Even so, that plan may be a bit ambitious. Musk recently said that eliminating $2 trillion from the federal budget might not be realistic, and cutting $1 trillion was a more likely outcome. 

‘I think we’ll try for $2 trillion. I think that’s like the best-case outcome,’ Musk said during tech trade show CES this month in Las Vegas. ‘But I do think that you kind of have to have some overage. I think if we try for $2 trillion, we’ve got a good shot at getting $1 [trillion].’

The members of the Republican National Committee, in a vote that was never in doubt, on Friday re-elected chair Michael Whatley to continue steering the national party committee. 

‘This organization has got to be the tip of the spear. And as your chairman, I promise this organization will be the tip of the spear to protect Donald Trump,’ Whatley said, as he spoke after the unanimous voice vote at the RNC’s annual meeting, which was held this year in the nation’s capital ahead of Monday’s inauguration of President-elect Trump. 

Whatley, a longtime Trump ally and a major supporter of Trump’s election integrity efforts, who was serving as RNC general counsel and chair of the North Carolina Republican Party, was named by Trump last March as chair as the former president clinched the 2024 GOP presidential nomination. Whatley succeeded longtime RNC chair Ronna McDaniel, whom Trump no longer supported.

In an exclusive interview with Fox News Digital on the sidelines of the RNC’s winter meeting, Whatley says his job going forward in the 2025 elections and 2026 midterms is straight forward.

‘It’s really critical for us to make sure that the Trump voters become Republican voters,’ Whatley told Fox News Digital on the sidelines of the RNCs’ winter meeting, which is being held in the nation’s capital.

Republicans enjoyed major victories in November’s elections, with President-elect Trump defeating Vice President Kamala Harris to win back the White House, the GOP flipping control of the Senate from the Democrats, and holding on to their razor-thin majority in the House.

Whatley, who was interviewed on Thursday on the eve of the formal RNC chair vote, said the GOP needs ‘to cement those gains’ made in the 2024 elections.

‘We’re going to go right back to the building blocks that we had during this election cycle, which is to get out the vote and protect the ballot,’ Whatley emphasized. 

The RNC chair pointed to ‘the lessons that we learned’ in the 2024 cycle ‘about going after low propensity voters, about making sure that we’re reaching out to every voter and bringing in new communities,’ which he said helped Republicans make ‘historic gains among African American voters, among Asian American voters, among Hispanic voters, young voters and women voters.’

Speaking a couple of days before the president-elect’s inauguration, Whatley emphasized that once Trump’s in the White House, ‘we’re going to go right back to the RNC. We’re going to roll up our sleeves and get to work. We’ve got a couple of governor’s races…that we’re going to be working on in ‘25.’

But Whatley said ‘everything is focused on ‘26,’ when the party will be defending its majorities in the House and Senate, ‘because that is going to determine, from an agenda perspective, whether we have two years to work with or four. And America needs us to have a four-year agenda.’

‘What we’re going to be doing is making sure that we are registering voters,’ Whatley said. ‘We’re going to be…communicating with the folks that we need to turn out.’

Pointing to the 2024 presidential election, he said ‘it’s the same fundamentals.’

But he noted that ‘it’s not just seven battleground states’ and that the 2026 contests are ‘definitely going to be a very intense midterm election cycle.’

While Democrats would disagree, Whatley described today’s GOP as ‘a common sense party…this is a party that’s going to fight for every American family and for every American community.’

Referring to former Democrats Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and former Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, whom Trump has nominated to serve in his second administration’s cabinet, Whatley touted ‘the fact that we have two former Democratic presidential candidates who are going to be serving in the president’s cabinet. That shows you that this is a commonsense agenda, a commonsense team, that we’re going to be moving forward with.’

In December, Trump asked Whatley to continue during the 2026 cycle as RNC chair.

‘I think we will be able to talk when we need to talk,’ Whatley said when asked if his lines of communication with Trump will be limited now that the president-elect is returning to the White House. ‘We’re going to support the president and his agenda. That does not change. What changes is his ability from the White House to actually implement the agenda that he’s been campaigning on.’

The winter meeting included the last appearance at the RNC by co-chair Lara Trump. The president-elect’s daughter-in-law is stepping down from her post.

She stressed that it’s crucial the RNC takes ‘the opportunity the voters have given us’ to ‘continue to expand the Republican brand.’

The elder Trump is term-limited and won’t be able to seek election again in 2028. Vice President-elect Sen. JD Vance will likely be considered the front-runner for the 2028 GOP nomination.

Whatley reiterated what he told Fox News Digital in December, that the RNC will stay neutral in the next race for the GOP nomination and that the party’s ‘got an amazing bench.’

‘You think about the talent on the Republican side of the aisle right now, our governors, our senators, our members of Congress, people that are going to be serving in this administration. I love the fact that the Republican Party is going to be set up to have a fantastic candidate going into ’28,’ he highlighted.

Unlike the DNC, which in the 2024 cycle upended the traditional presidential nominating calendar, the RNC made no major changes to their primary lineup, and kept the Iowa caucuses and the New Hampshire primary as their first two contests.

Asked about the 2028 calendar, Whatley reiterated to Fox News that ‘I have not had any conversations with anybody who wants to change the calendar, so we will wait and see what that looks like as we’re going forward. We’re at the RNC meetings this week and having a number of conversations with folks, but that is not a huge push.’

‘I don’t think that changing the calendar really helped the Democrats at all,’ Whatley argued. ‘And I think that us, making sure that we are working our system the way that we always have, is going to be critical.’

The Biden administration on Friday maintained that it will not actively enforce a federal law set to ban the Chinese-owned social media app TikTok, instead punting any action to the incoming Trump administration.

The Supreme Court issued a ruling earlier in the day upholding the looming ban, which is set to go into effect on Sunday.

‘The Administration, like the rest of the country, has awaited the decision just made by the U.S. Supreme Court on the TikTok matter. President Biden’s position on TikTok has been clear for months, including since Congress sent a bill in overwhelming, bipartisan fashion to the President’s desk: TikTok should remain available to Americans, but simply under American ownership or other ownership that addresses the national security concerns identified by Congress in developing this law,’ White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said in a statement shortly after the decision was handed down. 

She added: ‘Given the sheer fact of timing, this Administration recognizes that actions to implement the law simply must fall to the next Administration, which takes office on Monday.’

A U.S. official told the Associated Press on Thursday that Biden would not enforce the ban that is set to take effect the day before he is to leave office. Such a move inadvertently leaves the social media app’s fate in the hands of President-elect Donald Trump and his incoming administration. 

‘There is no doubt that, for more than 170 million Americans, TikTok offers a distinctive and expansive outlet for expression, means of engagement, and source of community,’ the Supreme Court wrote in its unsigned Friday ruling. ‘But Congress has determined that divestiture is necessary to address its well-supported national security concerns regarding TikTok’s data collection practices and relationship with a foreign adversary.’

The court continued: ‘For the foregoing reasons, we conclude that the challenged provisions do not violate petitioners’ First Amendment rights. The judgment of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit is affirmed.’

Just last year, Congress required that TikTok’s China-based parent company ByteDance divest the company by Jan. 19. The law was subsequently signed by Biden.

When the law was passed, Congress specifically noted concerns over the app’s Chinese ownership, which members said meant the app had the potential to be weaponized or used to amass vast amounts of user data, including from the roughly 170 million Americans who use TikTok.

During oral arguments, Biden administration lawyers argued that the app’s Chinese ownership posed a ‘grave’ national security risk to American users. TikTok’s lawyers, on the other hand, argued that such a ban restricted free speech protections under the First Amendment.

First Amendment challenges must be analyzed under strict scrutiny, which places a higher burden of proof on the government when attempting to justify the constitutionality of a law. In this case, the First Amendment protections in question must be crafted to serve a compelling government interest, narrowly tailored to achieve that interest.

Fox News Digital’s Breanne Deppisch contributed to this report. 

President-elect Donald Trump said on Friday that he needs ‘time to review’ the Supreme Court’s decision to uphold a federal law banning TikTok unless it divests from its Chinese parent company before Jan. 19 – the day before Trump is set to be sworn in.

Trump added that ‘everyone must respect’ the high court’s decision.

‘The Supreme Court decision was expected, and everyone must respect it,’ Trump said in a statement posted to Truth Social. ‘My decision on TikTok will be made in the not too distant future, but I must have time to review the situation. Stay tuned!’

The statement came moments after Trump reportedly told a small group of journalists by phone that the law banning TikTok ‘ultimately goes up to me, so you’re going to see what I’m going to do’ after taking office.

‘Congress has given me the decision, so I’ll be making the decision,’ Trump said, according to CNN, which first reported the remarks.

Trump’s Truth Social post appears to take a more deferential tone towards the nation’s highest court, including its decision to uphold the bipartisan divestiture law passed last April with wide bipartisan support.

‘There is no doubt that, for more than 170 million Americans, TikTok offers a distinctive and expansive outlet for expression, means of engagement, and source of community,’ the court wrote in the unsigned ruling. ‘But Congress has determined that divestiture is necessary to address its well-supported national security concerns regarding TikTok’s data collection practices and relationship with a foreign adversary.

‘For the foregoing reasons, we conclude that the challenged provisions do not violate petitioners’ First Amendment rights. The judgment of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit is affirmed.’

Trump has sought to delay the law from taking force. Attorneys for the president-elect filed a brief with the Supreme Court last month, asking justices to delay any decision until after Trump’s inauguration Jan. 20.

But lawmakers disagreed. 

Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., told the Supreme Court in a filing of his own that Congress explicitly set the Jan. 19 date for the divestiture clause to take force since it ‘very clearly removes any possible political uncertainty in the execution of the law by cabining it to an administration that was deeply supportive of the bill’s goals.’

This is a breaking news story. Check back shortly for updates. 

The Supreme Court on Friday upheld a federal law that would ban the Chinese-owned social media platform TikTok just two days before the bipartisan divestiture law is slated to take effect.

‘There is no doubt that, for more than 170 million Americans, TikTok offers a distinctive and expansive outlet for expression, means of engagement, and source of community,’ the court wrote in the unsigned ruling. ‘But Congress has determined that divestiture is necessary to address its well-supported national security concerns regarding TikTok’s data collection practices and relationship with a foreign adversary. 

‘For the foregoing reasons, we conclude that the challenged provisions do not violate petitioners’ First Amendment rights. The judgment of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit is affirmed.’

There were no noted dissents.

At issue was the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act, a law passed by Congress last April with wide bipartisan support. The law gave TikTok nine months to either divest from its Chinese parent company, ByteDance, or be removed from U.S.-based app stores and hosting services. 

In passing the law, Congress cited concerns over the app’s Chinese ownership, which members said meant the app had the potential to be weaponized or used to amass vast amounts of user data, including from the roughly 170 million Americans who use TikTok.

TikTok, ByteDance and several users of the app swiftly sued to block the ban in May, arguing the legislation would suppress free speech for the millions of Americans who use the platform. After a lower court upheld the ban, the Supreme Court agreed to hear TikTok’s emergency request to either block or pause implementation of the law under a fast-track timeline just nine days before the ban was slated to go into effect.

During oral arguments, lawyers for the Biden administration reiterated the argument that TikTok’s Chinese ownership poses a ‘grave’ national security risk for American users. 

U.S. Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar cited risks that China could weaponize the app, including by manipulating its algorithm to prioritize certain content or by ordering parent company ByteDance to turn over vast amounts of user data compiled by TikTok on U.S. users.

TikTok’s lawyers, meanwhile, sought to frame the case primarily as a restriction on free speech protections under the First Amendment, which the company has argued applies to TikTok’s U.S.-based incorporation.

Noel Francisco, TikTok’s lawyer, argued that the U.S. government has ‘no valid interest in preventing foreign propaganda,’ and reiterated TikTok’s position that the platform and its owners should be entitled to the highest level of free speech protections under the U.S. Constitution. 

Francisco also argued TikTok cannot divest from its Chinese parent company, citing portions of its source code and intellectual property that are housed in China.  

First Amendment protections must be considered under strict scrutiny, which requires the government to sustain a higher burden of proof in justifying a law’s constitutionality. 

More specifically, laws that deal with First Amendment protections must be crafted to serve a compelling government interest, narrowly tailored to achieve that interest.

It’s a difficult legal test to satisfy in court. But the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit used it last month in considering the divestiture law, and still voted to uphold it— outlining a way that the Supreme Court could have theoretically considered the case under strict scrutiny and still opted to uphold the law.

During oral arguments at the Supreme Court, several justices appeared skeptical of the company’s core argument, which is that the law is a restriction of speech.

‘Exactly what is TikTok’s speech here?’ Justice Clarence Thomas asked in the first moments of oral arguments in an early sign of the court’s apparent doubt that the law is in fact a First Amendment violation. 

The Supreme Court and its 6-3 conservative majority have been historically deferential to Congress on matters of national security.

The divestiture law in question passed Congress last year under the guidance of top Justice Department officials, who worked directly with House lawmakers to write the bill and help it withstand possible legal challenges.

But it also comes at a time when President-elect Trump has signaled apparent support for the app in recent months.

In December, Trump hosted TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew at his Mar-a-Lago resort, and later told reporters that his incoming administration will ‘take a look at TikTok’ and the divestiture case. 

Attorneys for the president-elect also filed a brief with the Supreme Court last month, asking justices to delay any decision in the case until after Trump’s inauguration on Jan. 20.

The brief did not signal how Trump might act, but cited his request for the court to pause the ban from taking effect until Trump’s inauguration. 

Fox News’ Bill Mears and Shannon Bream contributed to this report.