On February 13, it was reported that three weeks into Trump's second term, a series of actions by him and his advisor Musk have caused widespread controversy. Musk's Department of Government Effectiveness (DOGE) has intervened in 18 federal agencies, terminated 199 federal contracts, and tried to lay off tens of thousands of federal workers. Karoline Leavitt, the White House spokeswoman, has attacked judicial rulings against Mr. Trump as an "abuse of the rule of law", as more than 50 lawsuits have been brought against his team for suspending or cancelling billions of dollars in authorized spending without congressional approval, affecting areas such as medical research, agriculture and foreign aid.