Ernst Was Set To Lead The Senate’s DOGE Caucus. According to the Hill, “Iowa Sen. Joni Ernst (R) is set to lead the newly created Senate DOGE Caucus — a nod to President-elect Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) which will work outside the government to ‘dismantle Government Bureaucracy, slash excess regulations, cut wasteful expenditures, and restructure Federal Agencies,’ Trump said in a statement.” [Hill, 11/22/24]
Ernst Claimed That The DOGE Caucus Would “Fight Against The Entrenched Bureaucracy” And “Trim The Fat.” According to the Des Moines Register, “Ernst said the new Senate caucus is ready to provide oversight and ‘fight against the entrenched bureaucracy, trim the fat, and get Washington back to work for Americans.’” [Des Moines Register, 11/23/24]
[AUDIO] Ernst Said That The DOGE Caucus Would “Deliver” Due To The Backing Of Trump And The Dedication Of Elon Musk And Vivek Ramaswamy. “‘Before I let you go. Today, you are leading the Doge Caucus in the United States Senate, the Department of Government Efficiency. Is it is it going to deliver? Do you think it's going to deliver?’ ‘I do. And it's because we have a president that is fully behind this effort. We've tried this before through my Squeal Awards, through Senator Lankford of Oklahoma. He has his federal fumbles. All of us try and work on these issues, but we haven't had an administration that would back it. So now that we have Elon Musk and the Vivek Ramaswamy dedicating their time. To government efficiency, ferreting out waste, fraud and abuse. We have a platform. And so I was just texting with with Elon yesterday and today. And we are digging deep. He's already got my outline. He's really grateful for it. And so I'm headed over to the House tomorrow afternoon to visit with their Doge Caucus. And then I will be hosting the three co-founders of the House Doge Caucus in our Senate caucus meeting on Thursday. We have got a lot of work already bouncing back and forth between the House and the Senate, which goes then directly to Vivek and Elon, and we're all working together hand in hand. I love it. I'm glad we have a president that will help us.’” [The Simon Conway Show, 01/14/25]
[VIDEO] Ernst Claimed That Musk Had “Interesting Cats Working Around Him” And That What DOGE Was Doing Was The “Right Thing To Do.” “I met with Elon yesterday and had a conversation and he does really have some interesting cats working around him. You know, these are bright, bright young individuals that do know how to go in and be able to query and scrutinize the government agencies through their systems. But what I will say is that they have, because there's a misconception out there that like they're hacking into these agencies, they are not doing that. They are working with agency officials and gaining access through agency officials and those that are certified to work on these information systems. They will ask to query X, Y, Z, and those officials are working with them because there are so many people that actually do understand this is the right thing to do and they're all on board. And so with these young, brilliant minds, they can figure out, okay, this is what we need to find out and how we need to find it out. And then they can report that information to Elon Musk, to the president, and we can construct different ways of engaging in the federal government.” [The Alex Marlow Show, 2/13/2025]
[VIDEO] Ernst Claimed What DOGE Was Doing Was Not “Illegal.” “Sure enough, they are, but there's nothing illegal about what they are doing when they have access to files. It's read only files. I talked to Elon about this yesterday and he's like, I just can't believe how outrageous these Democrats are being. They are working with the agencies. But yes, they are going to ask hard questions. They are going to say, okay, I want you to pull up the funding that has gone to this particular project. And man, they don't want some of that stuff brought to light. Of course they don't. But is it illegal? No, it's. It's not.” [The Alex Marlow Show, 2/13/2025]
[VIDEO] Ernst Claimed That She Gave Musk And Ramaswamy A List Of Programs For DOGE To Go After. “I did, Steve. I was privileged to meet with Vivek Ramaswamy and Elon Musk right after the fall election and gave them an eight-page memo that outlined squeal initiatives I’ve had and outlined a blueprint to saving two trillion dollars and we’ve seen them act on those initiatives already. You were talking about the penny initiative, one of my acts because of expense to taxpayers.” [Fox News: Fox & Friends, 2/10/2025]
Ernst Claimed That She Was Proud To Coordinate Efforts With Musk. According to Fox News, “‘The Senate DOGE Caucus has hit the ground running to save taxpayer dollars,’ Ernst told Fox News Digital in an exclusive statement. ‘I was proud to bring my colleagues together to coordinate efforts with Elon, so we can continue to streamline our work. We are just getting started to make government more efficient and protect taxpayers to ensure Washington works for the American people.’” [Fox News, 2/27/25]
Ernst Joined Musk On “X Spaces” To Discuss Abolishing USAID. According to Axios, “Musk said during a late-night discussion with former DOGE co-leader Vivek Ramaswamy and Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) on his X Spaces platform he went over USAID issues in detail with Trump and checked with him a few times if he was sure that he wanted to shut it down and he agreed to do it.” [NBC News, 2/3/25]
Ernst Agreed With Musk On USAID And It Need To Be Abolished. According to NBC News, “In a post on X, Musk added that he had ‘spent the weekend feeding USAID into the wood chipper. Could gone to some great parties. Did that instead.’ Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, a longtime critic of federal spending, joined Musk on the call and said she agreed with his assessment. It’s not clear, though, how widespread that view is, even in the Republican-controlled Congress.” [NBC News, 2/3/25]
Ernst Claimed That “Pro-American” Programs Under USAID Should Be Moved To The State Department. According to Axios, “She suggested if there are ‘truly good pro-American programs, let's move them to the State Department,’ to which Musk replied: ‘Exactly.’” [NBC News, 2/3/25]