Fact check: Is the US government spending millions on transgender monkeys?
Al Jazeera
President-elect Trump is promising more government efficiency – but is money really being wasted on cats on treadmills?
As Elon Musk launches the Department of Government Efficiency to recommend spending cuts, he has highlighted examples of what he considers waste.
Musk, the world’s richest person, amplified posts on his X platform that said the United States government funded research on “transgender” monkeys, cats on treadmills and “alcoholic rats” sprayed with bobcat urine.
“Some of this stuff is not merely a waste of money, but outright evil,” Musk wrote on November 13.
“Your tax dollars at ‘work’,” Musk said on November 12 with a laughing emoji with tears.
Musk said he wants the federal government to cut “at least $2 trillion”, or almost 30 percent of what the US government spent in 2024. Trump didn’t specify a target amount for the group led by Musk and former Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, but he set July 4, 2026, the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, as a deadline for identifying cuts. The department can make recommendations, but Congress has the ultimate power on spending decisions.
Republicans have pushed an effort barring the first federal transgender lawmaker from women’s restrooms in the US Capitol.
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