Authored by Noah Wall via The American Mind,
On July 14, the State Leadership Initiative was honored to host the Florida DOGE team and their tech partners, Vulcan, Echelon, and DigiBuild, for the Florida DOGE Showcase in Washington, D.C. Spearheaded by Governor Ron DeSantis, the state has become the leader for providing accountable and efficient governance to its citizens.
Since its creation in 2025, the Florida DOGE team has identified nearly $1 billion in waste and abuse at the local government level and sent over $878 million back to the federal government. But the team's work extends beyond fiscal savings and budgetary cuts - it also includes auditing university curriculum and state union programs and reining in rogue municipalities that had adopted woke-left policies.
Take Florida's SB 1134, which banned counties and municipalities from using government funds for discriminatory DEI programs and activities. Florida DOGE found that local governments were forcing employees to undergo "Transgender Humility" training, which included the use of a "wheel of power/privilege" that singled out certain ethnic groups as being worse than others. In some extreme cases, the team found that local governments were directing taxpayer dollars to immigration lawyers who represented criminal illegal aliens. All of this was identified by Florida DOGE and prohibited by law.
This ideological audit was most prevalent in universities, where the team examined over 74,000 syllabi and 100,000 research articles for left-wing ideological content. Funding for these DEI-related activities was effectively halted through SB 266 and SB 7044. While the federal DOGE program failed to codify reform through legislation, Florida DOGE succeeded.
Florida DOGE has proven it is the model to emulate. The next step is to provide the blueprint for bringing it to other states.
Enter the State DOGE Playbook, a collaborative effort between the State Leadership Initiative and the Florida DOGE team. This is a step-by-step guide to ensure that these reforms are not merely a temporary win for a single executive's tenure, but a long-term fundamental shift in how red states govern.
Instead of Elon Musk drawing from his own stable of engineers, Florida hired volunteers and tech-minded interns to leverage new technologies to conduct investigations and root out waste and ideological indoctrination previously unheard of at the state level. Many of Florida DOGE's accomplishments were secured with a team of only three full-time employees, supplemented by a staff Florida put together. SLI is proud to be part of this effort; we even sent two of our own to act as special government employees, at no cost to the state, to help identify shadow government organizations funded by the state, local governments, and universities.
All that's needed are a few liaisons for law enforcement and legislators, and the rest is bulk data analysis. Add to this that Florida DOGE implemented these reforms on just a six-figure budget. Rarely have government initiatives accomplished so much in such a cost-effective manner.
None of these accomplishments would've been possible without the power of new AI tools and data-analysis technologies provided by three partners: Echelon, Vulcan Technologies, and DigiBuild. While varying in scope, each was instrumental in identifying waste and abuse during the audits, leading to the most significant reforms in Florida.
Echelon was used to analyze spending and waste in the Lee County school district. Florida DOGE identified up to $80 million in potential savings through contract reviews and more than $8 million in savings by eliminating 170 unnecessary positions spanning 30 departments. Programs like this can restore public schools to their proper mission rather than serving as a patronage scheme for overeducated administrative staff.
Vulcan Technologies was utilized to conduct top-to-bottom payment transaction audits across the state. It was so effective that local governments throughout Florida are implementing it to find opportunities for savings. In a time when property taxes are a dominant issue among voters, AI and DOGE principles are bridging the gap, fulfilling the public's demand for making cuts and providing the services local governments owe their citizens.
Many other states have similar programs. Texas's Office of Regulatory Efficiency has generated over 400 reductions in administrative code, and Oklahoma's DOGE office has produced over $19 million in cuts. But Florida's success remains unparalleled, and SLI's State DOGE Playbook explains how to emulate its success.
Blue states across the country continue to bankrupt themselves by allowing endless fraud and overfunded programs that never deliver on their promises. It's not enough for red states to avoid these pitfalls - red states need to match Florida's pace and provide the governance their citizens deserve. With this playbook, there are no more excuses, only the will to act.
Tyler Durden Sat, 08/01/2026 - 16:20Update (1245ET): President Trump has not taken kindly to the DoJ dropping their case against the former Olympian for vandalizing the Reflecting Pool, exclaiming his displeasure in a post on X:
I disagree 100% with Jeanine Pirro, the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia, on the Reflecting Pool. I don’t know what she was thinking? To me, it was a pure case of VANDALISM...
...that included the grass, which had a big 86 47 emblazoned in giant letters on it, and other elements of the surrounding area.
There may have been some contractor difficulty, but the major damage was caused by VANDALS!"
* * *
As we detailed earlier, the Department of Justice dropped the case against a former Olympian accused of vandalizing the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool in a court filing on July 31.
Former U.S. Olympic canoe racer David Hearn, 67, was accused of vandalizing the landmark this summer by allegedly pulling up and tearing the protective liner at the bottom of the Reflecting Pool after a $14.7 million renovation.
According to Jacki Thrapp, reporting for The Epoch Times, court documents reveal that after Hearn was indicted, the Department of the Interior provided additional documents to prosecutors which showed that damage in June 2026 was the result of flawed installation by the contractor, Atlantic Industrial Coatings.
According to Friday’s filing, the flawed installation happened during “the rush to complete the project prior to events associated with the America 250 celebration in the weeks surrounding Independence Day 2026.”
A defense expert inspected the pool when it was drained, to fix the damage, on July 17 with United States Attorney Jeanine Pirro and staffers and “immediately noted extensive damage.”
The discovery prompted them to dive deeper into installation documents, which showed there were “repeated failures of the lining during the installation process,” according to court docs.
“Given all of this newly discovered information, it is difficult to attribute the widespread damage to the Reflecting Pool to vandalism, let alone to establish that fact beyond a reasonable doubt,” the 20-page filing by U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro said.
Hearn’s lawyers said in a statement that the case should have never been brought.
“Its dismissal today does not erase the abuse of government power in arresting and charging a patriotic American who did nothing wrong,” the statement read. “The government’s approach was ready, fire, aim. The administration owes Mr. Hearn an apology.”
The Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool in Washington on June 26, 2026. Madalina Kilroy/The Epoch Times
The athlete, who previously owned a company that manufactured materials for vessels and competed in the Summer Olympics in 1992, 1996, and 2000, denied allegations that he intentionally tried to damage the pool.
Hearn previously said that he only reached into the water to inspect a section after he saw that the coating was already peeling.
The patriotic pool is nearly 2,030 feet long, 167 feet wide, and can be as deep as 30 inches at its center.
The Maryland-born competitor’s trial was expected to start on Sept. 28 in D.C. Superior Court before the case was dropped on Friday.
Tyler Durden Sat, 08/01/2026 - 15:45