Elon Musk’s DOGE halts $25,000 award to help LGBTQ+ refugees

Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) has scrapped funding to support LGBTQ+ refugees in Greece after a Greek MEP wrote a letter to Musk asking him to identify “misallocated funding to assist illegal migrants”.

The department, which was established by US president Donald Trump following his inauguration with X and Telsa boss Musk at the helm, aims to “maximise governmental efficiency and productivity” and has been at the heart of controversial moves to cut federal funding and foreign aid.

In a letter dated Tuesday (11 February), MEP Emmanouil Fragoks, a member of the right-wing Greek Solution party, wrote to Musk to “formerly request information regarding any identified instances of, direct or through NGOs, misallocated funding intended to assist illegal migrants in Greece”.

“Given recent findings over the improper use of public resources in similar cases, we seek clarification on any financial allocations, violations, or corrective action intended to be taken by your department concerning this matter,” the letter reads.

“The parallel, yet powerful “deep state” system of corruption and waste of public money, working cross-border, in order to enforce the ideology of unstoppable illegal migration must be identified and unrooted.”

Greek Solution is vehemently anti-immigration, with leader Kyriakos Velopoulos previously stating that migrant populations should be transferred to deserted Greek islands and an electric fence should be installed Greece’s border with Turkey.

In response to the letter, Musk replied: “Wow.”

Greek MP @e_fragkos is requesting @DOGE and Elon Musk to inform them about US funds to Greek NGOs reserving luxury hotels for illegal migrants.

WooW ! DOGE is truly becoming a global move. pic.twitter.com/OTMky1hFzL

— حسن سجواني 🇦🇪 Hassan Sajwani (@HSajwanization) February 12, 2025

Writing on X, formerly Twitter, the department followed up on the letter, writing: “While looking into this, the team identified a $25,000 award entitled “Empowering LGBTQIA+ Refugees in Greece” with the description “To provide material, legal and psychological support to LGBTQIA+ asylum seekers and refugees; inform and raise awareness of civil society on issues faced by the LGBTQIA+ community.” It has now been cancelled.”

The move to cancel the funding follows a wider pattern of anti-LGBTQ+ roll backs since Trump returned to office, which has seen him sign several executive orders explicitly targeting the trans community.

These include banning transgender people from serving in the military, barring trans women from female sports and restricting gender-affirming healthcare for trans people under the age 19. He has also signed orders eliminating diversity, equity and inclusion programmes across the government and in the armed forces.

Earlier this month, Marko Elez – a Musk appointed staffer – quit the department after racist social media posts were uncovered.

Posts made by an account linked to Elez, made vile statements such as “You could not pay me to marry outside of my ethnicity”, “Just for the record, I was racist before it was cool”, “I would not mind at all if Gaza and Israel were both wiped off the face of the Earth” and “Normalize Indian hate.”