President Donald Trump has charged Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency with slashing the federal budget, and one idea Musk has proposed targets a longstanding grievance among politicians: the penny. DOGE has suggested that stopping penny production would save American taxpayers millions. The idea is not new, but the conversation is being turbocharged with Trump back in power and Musk at his side.

How much does it cost to produce pennies?
Producing 4.5 billion pennies "cost U.S. taxpayers over $179 million" in the fiscal year 2023, meaning each one "costs over 3 cents to make," said DOGE on X. However, government statistics show the $179 million taxpayers paid was the combined cost to produce pennies and nickels. Pennies alone cost taxpayers $86 million.

In 2013, taxpayers lost $105 million on penny and nickel production, and that year, the "cost of making pennies and nickels exceeded their face value for the eighth year in a row," said The Washington Post. However, pennies in particular remain the major target for potential spending cuts. 

Would this be a meaningful cut?
DOGE and Musk are "taking aim at an issue that has sparked debate for years," but these costs represent "mere metaphorical pennies when it comes to DOGE's mandate to cut federal spending," said CBS News. Musk originally claimed he could cut $2 trillion from the federal budget, then walked this figure back to $500 billion.

Both Democrats and Republicans have proposed eliminating pennies from circulation, but there "could be a costly downside to ditching the cent, as transactions would be rounded to 5-cent intervals," said the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond, according to CBS. Regardless, Musk's group "alone doesn't have the power to get rid of the coin," said Business Insider. Congress "would need to pass a law stopping the distribution of the coin" or the Treasury secretary would need to step in. And some argue this isn't worth it. 

DOGE "might want to set its sights beyond the lowly penny, as it's not the only coin that costs more to mint than it's worth," said CBS. The U.S. Mint's 2024 annual report "noted that it spends about 14 cents to make and distribute each nickel."

Russia is scrambling to enlist more soldiers to replace the vast numbers killed or wounded in the war in Ukraine. And this need is increasingly being met by thousands of foreign nationals, "lured by the promise of hefty paychecks and fast-tracked citizenship for themselves and their kin," said Politico. In Cuba, Russia's old Cold War ally, a repressive regime, economic crisis and nationwide blackouts make the promise of a Russian passport a "major draw." But the document "comes with a noose attached": Moscow is "trapping foreigners" on the front lines. 

What's Russia offering? 
President Vladimir Putin signed a decree last year allowing foreigners to obtain citizenship in return for a year's service in the Russian army. A Russian passport allows visa-free travel to 117 destinations (compared with just 61 for a Cuban one), and some Cubans hoped enlisting would "buy them a new life," said Politico. 

But many claim they were "hoodwinked into traveling to Russia" after responding to posts on social media for "what they thought would be low-skilled civilian jobs." Darío Jarrosay (pictured above), a 35-year-old teacher and musician, said he responded to a Facebook appeal for construction workers. "I never agreed to enter the war," Jarrosay, who was captured by Ukrainian forces last year, said to reporters in Kyiv. 

What's happening to Cuban fighters in Ukraine? 
Recruits have allegedly suffered beatings, abuse and unpaid wages in the Russian army, as well as the withholding of passports. "They have not given us documents," a Cuban mercenary said in a viral video. "They keep scamming us, they keep deceiving us, we keep dying, and no one does anything." 

For many, Russian citizenship turned out to be a poisoned chalice. As "newly minted Russians," Cuban recruits, even if they only signed up for a one-year stint in the army. are "no exception" to Russia's mass mobilization, said Politico. "Now they are telling us that since we are Russian citizens we have to continue fighting until the end of the war," said one recruit. 

What's Cuba's position? 
Cuba forbids its citizens to fight abroad for personal benefit, with the threat of hefty jail sentences and even capital punishment. But Havana has sent "contradictory signals" over citizens' involvement in Ukraine, said Bloomberg. For Cubans fighting on the other side of the world, said CNN, "their choices now seem to be exile in a war zone or prosecution and a lengthy jail sentence back home."