“What oversights are you imposing on Elon Musk in DOGE?” asked a town hall audience member. 

“Great question,” Donalds replied. “Oversight from Congress, that’s much more of an appropriation’s aspect. “What DOGE is doing right now, is they’re going through every agency, and they’re examining any contracts or any lack of efficiencies in spending federal dollars.”

There was a disruption from the audience as Donalds continued his answer.

“This is something that,” Donalds said before addressing some people shouting. 

“I’m going to answer you, but if you want to yell, that’s okay, but I just want to answer you,” Donalds said in response to the disruption. “Are you going to allow me to answer the question?”

“Answer it,” multiple people shouted from the crowd.

“So, like I said, what they are doing is under the directions of the president of the United States,” Donalds said. “If you’re going to talk about what oversight is doing, we actually have to let the DOGE committee, the DOGE department, actually finish its work. What they are examining right now is inefficiency in the federal system. This is something that President Obama wanted to do when President Obama was in office.”

Several members of the audience were not pleased with Donalds bringing up former President Barack Obama and began to boo him.

“You can boo if you want to, but those are the facts,” Donalds said. “If you go back in time to 2009, then-President Obama famously said that he wanted to examine efficiencies or lack thereof in the federal government. Elon Musk is doing the exact same thing.”

Donalds’s response was met with cheers and jeers. 

“Here’s the last thing,” Donalds said. “There is a report that comes out every single year. This is the GAO report. The GAO report, every single year, has said that the federal government wastes more than $250 billion per year – $250 billion. Over the last 20 years, the federal government has wasted $3 trillion. I believe that it’s in the interest of the people of Southwest Florida and the United States to examine all inefficiencies in the federal government.”

Later, someone asked Donalds a question about DOGE “invading social security files.” The question was met with loud cheers from the audience. Donalds answered, claiming that doing so was authorized by the president of the United States. This was also met with boos from the crowd. However, he did not specify which president, and that answer surprised many in the crowd.

“Don’t boo,” Donalds said coyly. “Are you ready? The previous president, President Biden.”

This, too, was met with yelling, shouting, and booing. 

“Oh, so you don’t want to hear the whole story,” Donalds said. “I don’t want you to yell and not hear the whole story.”

“Do you want to yell or do you want to hear?” Donalds asked the dissenters in the audience. “Because if you want to hear, I’m trying to give you information. I told you, I’m going to be factual, but you can yell or you can hear.”

FEDERAL JUDGE ALLOWS IMMIGRATION ENFORCEMENT IN RELIGIOUS SPACES

“For the people who are upset with Elon Musk, was it okay when 53 students had the same access to the social security database,” Donalds said. “Was it ok then?” 

“It is intellectually dishonest to be upset with Elon Musk, but not upset with the 53 students who had similar access under the Biden administration,” noted Donalds.