Federal authorities are probing a scheme to impersonate White House chief of staff Susie Wiles, according to individuals familiar with the issue, the Wall Street Journal reported.

‘The White House takes the cybersecurity of all staff very seriously, and this matter continues to be investigated,’ a White House official noted.

Senators, governors, American business executives and other people have gotten texts and calls from an individual claiming to be Wiles, individuals familiar with the messages noted, according to the outlet.

FBI officials informed the White House that they do not think another country is involved, some of the people noted, according to the report.

Fox News Digital reached out to the FBI for comment on Friday morning, but did not receive a response by the time of publication.

‘The FBI takes all threats against the president, his staff, and our cybersecurity with the utmost seriousness,’ FBI Director Kash Patel declared in a statement, according to the Journal. ‘Safeguarding our administration officials’ ability to securely communicate to accomplish the president’s mission is a top priority.’

The chief of staff informed associates that her phone contacts had been hacked, according to some of the people, the Journal reported. The phone is her personal device, not a government phone, the individuals noted, according to the outlet.

Some calls involved a voice which sounded like the chief of staff, individuals who heard them noted, according to the report. Government officials believe the impostor utilized artificial intelligence to mimic her voice, some of the individuals noted.

In some cases involving texts, individuals got requests which they at first thought were official, according to the outlet, which noted that one legislator received a request to develop a list of people who could be pardoned by Trump.

But it became evident to some legislators that the asks were suspect when the impostor started posing questions about the president, for which Wiles should have been privy to the answers — and in one instance, when the impostor requested a cash transfer, some of the people noted, according to the outlet. 

In many instances, the impostor used broken grammar and the messages were too formal compared to how Wiles normally communicates, individuals who received the messages noted, according to the outlet. The calls and texts did not emanate from Wiles’s phone number, according to the report.

Though Elon Musk leaves behind a legacy of massive cuts to government programs which left many members of the Washington, D.C., establishment enraged, he was not able to accomplish all the lofty goals he set at the beginning of his time as head of the Department of Government Efficiency.

According to a May 26 update on DOGE’s website, the initiative has saved an estimated $175 billion through asset sales, contract cancellations, fraud payment crackdowns and other spending cuts. That translates to about $1,087 in savings per taxpayer.

Though significant, the $175 billion is a far cry from the original $2 trillion–nearly a third of the federal government’s total spending–that Musk originally set out to cut.

So, what went wrong?

Richard Stern, an economics policy expert at the Heritage Foundation, told Fox News Digital that DOGE ‘overestimated what legal flexibility they would have, and the agencies would have, to actually make good on that.’

From the start, DOGE was hit with not only a tsunami of negative press and outraged Democratic lawmakers, but also a series of lawsuits, which bogged it down in protracted legal battles.

This, coupled with the reality of most of the major end cuts requiring congressional approval to carry out, relegated DOGE’s impact on cutting around the edges of the big programs and agencies it likely would have liked to eliminate entirely.

Despite Musk’s efforts, in many cases agencies such as the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau could only be shrunk and limited, while total elimination requires an act of Congress.

Just last week, U.S. District Court Judge Beryl Howell blocked the Trump administration’s dismantling of the U.S. Institute of Peace, writing in a ruling that the removal of its board members and the takeover of its headquarters by members of DOGE are actions that are ‘null and void.’ 

Stern asserted that ‘at the end of the day, they were just a little overzealous about how much legal authority they would ultimately have to be able to make this many cuts themselves,’ 

Where Stern believes DOGE can have the greatest impact is on focusing on the information-gathering and whistleblower aspects of its mission.

‘You can kind of break down DOGE into two very large buckets,’ he posited. ‘The first large bucket, which is the one that’s mostly been not done, is actually making grand spending cuts themselves directly. I think the second one was identifying what cuts could be made.’

‘The original plan was that DOGE could come in and do both these things that they could find specific spending to cut … and then the other part of that was identifying this information and making it public that people didn’t have that would allow for really thought-out spending cuts to come in from Congress,’ he explained.

Though less flashy, Stern believes this is where DOGE, going forward, can have its greatest impact.  

‘There’s a lot of think tanks, including Heritage, that have put together lists for a very long time as to policies that we don’t think are good, where you could cut spending. But I think what no one has a window into is the really deep mechanics of how a lot of these programs work. And so, because of that, it’s actually been very hard in a really robust fashion to even know what programs you could cut spending from or how you would do it or what the ramifications would be,’ he explained.

‘So, DOGE, by being in the administration, has been in and continues to be in a position to actually make that public, to actually put a spotlight on that in a way that really almost nobody else was in a position to do,’ Stern went on. ‘That can feed rescission bills and congressional cuts down the road. But some admin needed to actually do that. And DOGE is finally doing that.’ 

Fox News Digital’s Greg Norman contributed to this report.

Emotions are running high on both sides of the aisle on Capitol Hill as Elon Musk makes his way for the exit.

Musk is stepping back from the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), which President Donald Trump appointed the tech billionaire to run for the first 130 days of his new administration.

He’s been a polarizing figure in Washington, and that has extended to his announcement earlier this week that he’s returning to the private sector. Republicans cheered Musk’s work, while Democrats celebrated the end of it.

‘Exposing reckless, wasteful government spending isn’t about one individual — it’s about a lasting overhaul of Crazy Town,’ House DOGE Caucus Chair Aaron Bean, R-Fla., told Fox News Digital. ‘That’s why we’re working closely with the White House to ensure recession packages reflect DOGE’s critical findings.’

And the White House has begun that work already, preparing a $9.4 billion package of spending cuts that’s expected to hit Congress on Tuesday. But Bean’s comments imply Republicans are going to seek more.

It was a sentiment that appeared to be shared by Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., who said that Musk ‘did a lot of what he came to do.’

‘A lot of the savings that he identified are things hopefully that we’ll be able to incorporate into bills that Congress passes. The work that he did was really important. It’s long overdue,’ Thune said.

Senate DOGE Caucus Chair Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, said she was ‘honored’ to work with Musk but signaled he should not be needed for lawmakers to cut government waste.

‘It has been wonderful having a willing partner in my decade-long work to make Washington squeal, but I was DOGE before DOGE was cool, and I’m not slowing down,’ Ernst told Fox News Digital in a statement.

Other Republicans were more lavish in their praise, like Rep. Mike Haridopolos, R-Fla., who hailed Musk as an ‘American hero.’

‘I’m absolutely sad to see him go,’ Haridopolos told Fox News Digital. ‘He has given up a lot of time and wealth in order to bring the fiscal house of the United States in order, and he has done a great service to our country by bringing a heck of a lot more transparency of how we’re spending money.’

And Sen. Roger Marshall, R-Kan., compared the billionaire to the nation’s revered first leaders.

‘He’s kind of half Benjamin Franklin and half Thomas Jefferson. He had the inventiveness of Benjamin Franklin and the vision of a Thomas Jefferson, and I just remember all of our founding fathers were patriots, and they left their regular jobs. They gave up everything to come help found this country. And that’s what Elon’s [done],’ Marshall told Fox News Digital.

On the other side of the aisle, Rep. Tom Suozzi, D-N.Y., pointed out that as much as Republicans lauded Musk, he also dealt a blow to the House GOP earlier this week by criticizing their ‘big, beautiful’ tax and spending bill.

‘They brought Musk to DC to fight the deficit, and he left DC calling out how the reconciliation bill will blow the biggest hole in the deficit ever — adding more than $3 trillion in debt,’ Suozzi told Fox News Digital.

Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., told Fox News Digital he believed DOGE’s efforts were misplaced in the end.

‘Initially, I said we should work with Musk to find common ground where there is real waste — like defense contractors, Medicare Advantage overpayments, and prescription drugs. It is sad that DOGE faced opposition in focusing on those issues, and that agencies like USAID and NIH are being dismantled,’ Khanna said.

Others on the left unleashed on Musk directly. 

Democrats have held up the Tesla CEO as a boogeyman since he began campaigning for Trump, using him as a living example of the wealthy, out-of-touch people they believed the Republican White House was benefitting.

‘Elon came to Washington thinking he could run the government like one of his companies—firing people left and right, gutting essential services, and tearing this s— up from the ground up,’ Rep. Jasmine Crockett, D-Texas, wrote on X, calling for an investigation into Musk’s work.

House Progressive Caucus Chairman Greg Casar, D-Texas, meanwhile, took credit for Musk leaving despite his fixed tenure.

‘Musk’s exit is an enormous victory for Democrats and working people. This is a sign of how powerful the anti-corruption, anti-billionaire movement in American politics can be,’ Casar said in a statement. ‘Musk did not choose to leave because Elon Musk likes to follow the rules. Musk will leave because the American people built enough political pressure that he had no choice.’

And Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J. considered a potential 2028 presidential candidate, wrote on X, ‘Musk failed others and served himself.’

‘But there’s an irony in his failure: in his quest to destroy government, he reminded us why it matters. To look out for hungry kids, to keep planes safe, to deliver Social Security checks, and to do the quiet work to serve the common good,’ Booker said.

When reached for comment on this story, White House spokesman Harrison Fields told Fox News Digital, ‘DOGE is integral to the federal government’s operations, and its mission, as established by the President’s executive order, will continue under the direction of agency and department heads in the Trump administration. DOGE has delivered remarkable results at an unprecedented pace, and its work is far from complete.’ Fox News Digital also reached out to Tesla for comment from Musk.

Trump, for his part, heaped praise on Musk at a joint press conference on Friday.

‘Elon’sservice to America has been without comparison in modern history. He’s already running one of the most innovative car companies in the world, if you look at his factories and compare them with some of the old factories we have, and it’s a big difference. And the most successful space company, I guess in history, you would have to say. The largest free speech platform on the internet,’ Trump said.

‘Yet, Elon, willingly, with all of the success, he willingly accepted the outrageous abuse and slander and lies and attacks because he does love our country.’

President Donald Trump fired the director of the National Portrait Gallery, Kim Sajet, for being a ‘strong supporter’ of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI).

Trump announced the termination in a post on Truth Social on Friday afternoon.

‘Upon the request and recommendation of many people, I am hereby terminating the employment of Kim Sajet as Director of the National Portrait Gallery,’ the president wrote. ‘She is a highly partisan person, and a strong supporter of DEI, which is totally inappropriate for her position. Her replacement will be named shortly. Thank you for your attention to this matter!’

A White House official told Fox News Digital that Sajet had donated $3,982 to Democrats, including presidential campaigns for former President Joe Biden and Hillary Clinton. Sajet also reportedly donated to other Democrats, including former Vice President Kamala Harris.

The White House also pointed to the gallery’s photo of Trump, which was curated by Sajet. The caption of the photo reads, ‘Impeached twice, on charges of abuse of power and incitement of insurrection after supporters attacked the US Capitol on January 6, 2021, he was acquitted by the Senate in both trials. After losing to Joe Biden in 2020, Trump mounted a historic comeback in the 2024 election. He is the only president aside from Grover Cleveland (1837-1908) to have won a nonconsecutive second term.’

The White House official also said it was ironic that Sajet said, ‘We try very much not to editorialise. I don’t want by reading the label to get a sense of what the curator’s opinion is about that person. I want someone reading the label to understand that it’s based on historical fact.’

The National Portrait Gallery did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment on the matter.

According to the National Portrait Gallery website, Sajet was the first woman to serve as the director of the National Portrait Gallery, and she spent time in the role looking for ways to put her experience and creativity at the center of learning and civic awareness.

Prior to taking the position, Sajet was the president and CEO of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, and held other positions at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts and at the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

Her biography notes that she was born in Nigeria, was raised in Australia and is a citizen of the Netherlands. She came to the U.S. with her family in 1997.

Hours after taking the Oath of Office on Inauguration Day on Jan. 20, Trump signed an executive order to eliminate all DEI programs from the federal government.

A day later, the president directed the Office of Personnel Management to notify heads of agencies and departments to close all DEI offices and place those government workers in those offices on paid leave. 

Earlier this month, Trump fired Shira Perlmutter, who was in charge of the U.S. Copyright Office, which came just days after terminating the Librarian of Congress, Carla Hayden. The termination was part of the administration’s ongoing purge of government officials who are perceived to be opposed to Trump and his agenda.

Both women were notified of their termination by email, The Associated Press previously reported.

Hayden tapped Perlmutter to lead the Copyright Office in October 2020.

Fox News Digital’s Brooke Singman and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Elon Musk showed up to the Oval Office on Friday to bid farewell to his official role in the Trump administration, but it wasn’t just the mark he made with DOGE that raised eyebrows.

It was the black one under his right eye. 

Social media lit up during the livestreamed event as eagle-eyed viewers noticed what appeared to be a fresh bruise under Musk’s eye, prompting speculation about everything from a gym mishap to a political dust-up. 

The assembled press couldn’t resist asking the obvious: ‘What happened to your eye?’

‘Well, I wasn’t anywhere near France,’ Musk quipped, poking fun at headlines regarding French President Emmanuel Macron, who was caught on camera being shoved by his wife last week. ‘I didn’t know the first lady of France isn’t a lieutenant.’

Then came the real story.

‘No, I just was horsing around with little X,’ Musk said, referring to his five-year-old son, X Æ A-Xii. ‘And I said, ‘Go ahead, punch me in the face.’ And he did. Turns out even a 5-year-old punching you in the face… actually does this.’

President Donald Trump jumped in immediately. ‘That was X that did that?’

‘Yeah,’ Musk replied.

‘X could do it, if you knew X,’ Trump said with a grin.

The whole exchange, captured during Musk’s Oval Office farewell event, quickly became the moment of the day, a lighthearted pause in a sendoff marking the end of Musk’s 130-day stint as head of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).

Musk didn’t let the black eye distract from his message.

‘This is not the end of DOGE,’ he told reporters. ‘Only the beginning.’

According to a May 26 update on DOGE’s official site, the department racked up over $175 billion in savings during Musk’s tenure, mostly through asset sales, canceled contracts, and cracking down on fraud. That translates to an estimated $1,087 saved per taxpayer.

The White House did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.

Former President Joe Biden joked Friday he could take on those who questioned his mental faculties following his first public remarks since announcing he was diagnosed with prostate cancer.

Biden’s statement comes after several books have been released detailing his mental deterioration while in office, including the book, ‘Original Sin: President Biden’s Decline, Its Cover-up, and His Disastrous Choice to Run Again,’ that was released May 20. 

‘You can see that I’m mentally incompetent, I can’t walk,’ Biden quipped with reporters Friday after speaking at a Memorial Day event. ‘And I could beat the hell out of both of them.’

Biden appeared to be referencing the book’s authors, Jake Tapper of CNN and Alex Thompson of Axios. 

The reporters’ book claims that Biden struggled to string together coherent sentences for campaign ad videos, that his Cabinet meetings were ‘so scripted’ and that Biden’s team allegedly plotted a cover-up to hide just how severely his mental faculties had declined.

But Biden’s team has pushed back on the material included in the book. 

‘There is nothing in this book that shows Joe Biden failed to do his job, as the authors have alleged, nor did they prove their allegation that there was a cover up or conspiracy,’ a Biden spokesperson said in a statement to Fox News Digital. ‘Nowhere do they show that our national security was threatened or where the President wasn’t otherwise engaged in the important matters of the Presidency. In fact, Joe Biden was an effective President who led our country with empathy and skill.’

In addition to the publication of multiple books this year chronicling the deterioration of Biden’s mental faculties, leaked audio recordings of Biden’s October 2023 interview with former Special Counsel Robert Hur were released in May, showing that Biden struggled to not slur his words and even appeared to forget the year his son died.

Biden revealed May 18 that he had an ‘aggressive form’ of prostate cancer, and his office later said he had never received a prostate cancer diagnosis before. Biden told reporters Friday that he is ‘optimistic’ about his diagnosis and is currently receiving treatment in the form of a pill. 

‘My expectation is we’re going to be able to beat this,’ Biden said. 

Earlier Friday, Biden appeared at a Memorial Day sponsored by the Delaware Commission of Veteran Affairs where he honored service members who had lost their lives. 

‘We come together and remember the debt we owe to the American military,’ Biden said at the event, sponsored by the Delaware Commission of Veteran Affairs. 

‘The military is a solid spine, the spine of our nation,’ he said. ‘Our troops, our veterans, our military families, and our Gold Star families in particular. Only around 1% of all Americans defend 99% of us — 1%. Just 1% of Americans risk the ultimate sacrifice. We owe them so much more than we can ever repay them.’

Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk wrapped up his time as the public face of DOGE in a press conference with President Donald Trump on Monday, leaving behind a total estimated $175 billion in government cost-cutting over the past few months. 

The $175 billion in savings from slashing government contracts, selling assets, identifying improper payments, and other cost-cutting measures amounts to $1,086.96 per each individual taxpayer, according to the DOGE website. 

The cuts took place all across the government, highlighted by a complete dismantling of USAID, where 83% of the agency’s programs and 5,200 contracts were canceled following the conclusion of a six-week review by DOGE.

Trump discussed some of the other more significant cuts in the Friday press conference.

$20 million for Arab Sesame Street in the Middle East,’ Trump said. ‘Nobody knows what that’s all about. Nobody’s been able to find it. $8 million for making mice transgenders. So they spent $8 million in making mice transgender. And those are better than many others. I could sit here all day and read things just like that.’

While some outlets, including The New York Times and BBC News, have disputed DOGE’s $175 billion estimate and argued the true number is smaller, Musk told reporters in the Oval Office on Friday that the savings will continue to build, and he is confident the total cuts will amount to $1 trillion in the coming years. 

The DOGE influence will only grow stronger,’ Musk said. ‘I liken it to a sort of person of Buddhism. It’s like a way of life so it is permeating throughout the government. And I’m confident that over time, we’ll see $1 trillion of savings, and a reduction in $1 trillion of waste, fraud reduction.’

Additionally, Musk said that the DOGE cuts would soon hit the $200 billion threshold for fiscal year 25-26.

From the start, DOGE was hit with not only a tsunami of negative press and outraged Democratic lawmakers, but also a series of lawsuits, which bogged it down in protracted legal battles as Musk struggled to reach his original estimates of $1-2 trillion in cuts. 

This, coupled with the reality of most of the major end cuts requiring congressional approval to carry out, relegated DOGE’s impact on cutting around the edges of the big programs and agencies it likely would have liked to eliminate entirely.

Musk was asked on Friday what the biggest ‘roadblock’ was for him at DOGE.

‘It’s mostly just a lot of hard work,’ Musk responded. ‘It’s really not any one person or Congress. It’s going through really millions of line items and saying just each one of them makes sense or does not make sense.’

‘Obviously, at times when you cut expenses, those who are receiving the money, whether they receive, whether they’re receiving that money legitimately or not. They do complain, and you’re not going to hear someone confessing that they received money inappropriately. Never. They’re going to always say that they received money appropriately for a report. Of course, naturally, that’s what you’d expect.’

Fox News Digital’s Peter Pinedo contributed to this report.

With Elon Musk leaving his role at the White House as head of the Department of Government Efficiency and President Donald Trump saying DOGE’s work will continue, the question now in Washington is who will take the reins to become Musk’s successor.

Musk, who has led Trump’s waste-cutting task force from Inauguration Day until now, announced his departure in an X post this week, saying: ‘As my scheduled time as a Special Government Employee comes to an end, I would like to thank President @realDonaldTrump for the opportunity to reduce wasteful spending,’

Musk said the DOGE mission ‘will only strengthen over time as it becomes a way of life throughout the government.’

So, who will take Musk’s place? Right now, no one.

A senior White House official previously told Fox News Digital that ‘the DOGE employees at their respective agency or department will be reporting to and executing the agenda of the president through the leadership of each agency or department head.’

The official said DOGE is now part of the ‘DNA’ of the federal government, and that it will keep operating as it already has. 

Speaking with reporters on Thursday, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt confirmed that ‘the DOGE leaders are each and every member of the president’s cabinet and the president himself, who is wholeheartedly committed to cutting waste, fraud and abuse from our government.’

These statements cast doubt on whether any singular individual will succeed Musk as the DOGE chief. However, if Trump finds a DOGE successor necessary and decides to shift gears, who could fill Musk’s shoes?  

Amy Gleason

While Musk was never an official federal employee, Amy Gleason, a little-known government employee who also worked in the first Trump administration, has been serving as the official acting chief of the United States DOGE Service (USDS) since February.

If the president decides to steer clear of any public-facing DOGE chief, it seems likely that he will keep Gleason on as a more behind-the-scenes DOGE leader at USDS.

Gleason, 53, is a career official who was recognized by the Obama administration as a ‘champion of change’ for her work with several nonprofits researching and raising awareness about a rare autoimmune disorder known as Juvenile Myositis. Gleason previously worked in the first Trump administration in what was then called the U.S. Digital Service before leaving to work at Russell Street Ventures, which was founded by Brad Smith, another DOGE leader.

Keeping Gleason on as DOGE chief would allow the president to keep the agency’s efforts alive while following the structure of each cabinet head leading their own waste-cutting programs.

Russell Vought

As director of the White House Office of Management and Budget, Russell Vought has already been a central figure in DOGE’s waste-cutting efforts.

The Wall Street Journal reported that Vought already has plans to continue Musk’s efforts, even in his current role as OMB head. Vought is a close ally of Trump and a much more subdued personality than Musk, making him appear as a likely pick to take over DOGE. 

However, Vought does come with his own political baggage, with many on the left labeling him a ‘Christian nationalist’ and criticizing his role as a co-author of Project 2025. Still, he was successfully confirmed by the Senate in his current role as OMB director.

Vivek Ramaswamy

A one-time GOP presidential candidate-turned key Trump ally, Vivek Ramaswamy, has been widely reported as a top contender to replace Musk at the helm of DOGE. Ramaswamy co-led DOGE alongside Musk for a short period at the start of Trump’s second term. However, he stepped down from his DOGE leadership role in February to begin his run for Ohio governor.

Though Ramaswamy shares Musk’s and Trump’s vision for cutting government waste, it would seem unlikely he would rejoin the DOGE team any time soon with his eyes on winning the keys to the Ohio governor’s mansion in 2026.

Fox News Digital’s Diana Stancy contributed to this report.