Newsman: President-elect Donald Trump named tech billionaire Elon Musk and conservative activist Vivek Ramaswamy on Tuesday to head up a new Department of Government Efficiency.
Since Trump announced Despite its name, it won’t actually be a “department,” like the Department of Education or the Department of Homeland Security. Trump said in his statement Tuesday that DOGE “will provide advice and guidance from outside of Government, and will partner with the White House and Office of Management & Budget to drive large scale structural reform,” adding that Musk and Ramaswamy’s work will be completed “no later than July 4, 2026.”
Trump said Tuesday that the new department would exist “outside of Government,” giving advice to those in the White House about overhauling federal agencies. The arrangement would also be likely to allow Musk and Ramaswamy to continue working in the private sector and serve without Senate approval.
Trump said he wanted the department to help deliver “drastic change,” and he compared its ambitions to those of the World War II project to develop atomic weapons.
“It will become, potentially, ‘The Manhattan Project’ of our time,” Trump said. “Republican politicians have dreamed about the objectives of ‘DOGE’ for a very long time.”
Trump said in a statement on to social media that the department will help “dismantle Government Bureaucracy” and slash excess regulations.
“This will send shockwaves through the system, and anyone involved in Government waste, which is a lot of people!” Musk said in the statement released by the transition team.
On X, he added: “Threat to democracy? Nope, threat to BUREAUCRACY!!!”
“It will be done much faster,” Musk said Wednesday on his X platform.
Both Musk and Ramaswamy have already put forth some of their ideas for government reform. Musk has pledged to cut $2 trillion from the federal budget — though he has offered few specifics about what he would look to cut. The total amount of discretionary spending in the federal budget is about $1.7 trillion, and Trump has pledged not to cut Social Security and Medicare, two of the government’s largest expenses. During a late-October town hall on X, Musk suggested his ideal spending cuts could trigger economic pain for people.
“We have to reduce spending to live within our means,” he said. “And, you know, that necessarily involves some temporary hardship, but it will ensure long-term prosperity.”
