From the Daily Caller News Foundation

By Melissa O’Rourke

California’s population is growing again, but not because Americans are moving in, according to The Wall Street Journal.

In 2024, nearly 240,000 Californians packed up and left the state, WSJ reported. The state’s population still rose by 0.6% overall because more than 361,000 immigrants arrived to take their place.

The exodus from the state is not a new phenomenon, as around 344,000 Californians left in 2023, while 292,000 international migrants arrived, the outlet reported.

About 56% of Californians have considered leaving the state due to the exorbitant cost of living, a 2024 Emerson College poll found. California’s median home price topped $900,000 in 2024 — well over double the national average — while utility and gas prices remain among the country’s highest.

The state’s population decreased for the first time in history in 2020, when over 477,000 Californians left, leading to the state losing a congressional seat. The population continued to decline until 2023, buoyed by an influx of international immigrants.

The H-1B visa program, which allows businesses to employ skilled foreign workers with bachelor’s degrees, brought nearly 79,000 workers to the state in 2024, WSJ reported. However, applications for the program fell by 25% compared to a year ago due to higher fees and expectations that the Trump administration could impose more restrictive immigration policies.

The H-1B visa program has sparked fierce debate among Republicans in recent months. While big names such as Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy have defended the program, opponents have argued it allows companies to undercut American workers by importing cheaper labor from abroad.

In addition to California, many states rely on immigration to drive population growth. In 38 states and Washington, D.C., immigration outpaced domestic migration last year, and in 16 states, it was the only reason populations grew, WSJ reported.

California has the highest share of foreign-born residents in the nation, with more than 25% of its population born outside the U.S., according to the Public Policy Institute of California. As of 2022, about 17% of California’s immigrant population was in the country illegally, according to the Pew Research Center.

At the same time, the Golden State faces mounting challenges, including a $45 billion budget deficit, while programs like Medi-Cal — covering hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants — are projected to cost taxpayers $8.4 billion in the 2024–2025 fiscal year.

From the Daily Caller News Foundation

By Hailey Gomez

Billionaire Elon Musk announced Wednesday on X that his time working in the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) has officially come to an end.

Shortly after his 2024 election win, President Donald Trump appointed Musk to lead DOGE and fulfill his campaign vow of gutting wasteful government spending. In a post on X, however, Musk wrote that his “scheduled time” working as a special government employee has ended

“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. The @DOGE mission will only strengthen over time as it becomes a way of life throughout the government,” Musk wrote.

Semafor’s White House correspondent Shelby Talcott later said on X that a White House official confirmed the end of Musk’s time at the administration and that the offboarding would begin Wednesday evening.

Since working to help Trump into office, Musk has helped the administration bring change to Washington D.C. In February, Musk and his DOGE team began to receive massive pushback from Democrats after announcing the cut of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), leading Democrats and others to protest against the billionaire and his other companies, including Tesla.

During an interview with Fox News’ Bret Baier in March, Musk acknowledged that he and the DOGE team were on a timeline with the administration, technically having a total of 130 days as a “special government employee.” Musk told the Fox host at the time that he believed he and his team would accomplish “most of the work required to reduce the deficit by a trillion dollars within that time frame.”

“We are cutting the waste and fraud in real time. So every day like that passes, our goal is to reduce the waste and fraud by four billion dollars a day, every day, seven days a week, and so far we are succeeding,” Musk said.

DOGE came under the spotlight after USAID reports revealed the program wasted billions in taxpayer-funded dollars, some of which had a high risk of landing in the Taliban’s hands and also aiding an organization linked to the Wuhan Institute of Virology.

While Musk had an initial target to slash as much as $2 trillion from federal spending, the former DOGE member said in April that the team would scale back their goals and instead target $150 billion in federal savings for fiscal year 2026. During that month, Musk also announced he was stepping back as DOGE’s leader, adding his involvement would drop “significantly” in May as the bulk of his reform efforts are “mostly done.”

By May, the billionaire said at the Qatar Economic Forum that he would also pull back his political donations.

“In terms of political spending, I’m going to do a lot less in the future,” Musk said. “I think I’ve done enough.”

“If I see a reason to do political spending in the future, I will do it,” Musk said. “I do not currently see a reason.”

In a recent interview on Sunday, Musk criticized Trump’s “big, beautiful bill” and stated his concerns about how the package could potentially increase budget deficits.

“I was disappointed to see the massive spending bill, frankly, which increases the deficit, not just decreases it, and undermines the work that the DOGE team is doing,” Musk said.