President-elect Trump on Tuesday named Elon Musk and former Republican presidential hopeful Vivek Ramaswamy to head the new Department of Government Effectiveness, calling it the “Manhattan Project of our time.”
Musk, the world’s richest person, has said he could cut $2 trillion in federal spending, or nearly a third of what the government spends in a year. Ramaswamy, for his part, has said he wants to trigger mass layoffs at federal agencies, even going so far as to close them, as NBC News reported in 2023.
Despite its name, the department is not a government agency, and Trump said the two men would offer “advice and guidance” to the White House in partnership with the Office of Management and Budget, which is an agency government.
“I am pleased to announce that the Great Elon Musk, together with American Patriot Vivek Ramaswamy, will lead the Department of Government Effectiveness (DOGE),” Trump said in a statement from his transition team Tuesday evening, the calling it a “wonderful two.” Americans “are ready to help his administration “dismantle government bureaucracy, cut excessive regulations, cut wasteful spending, and restructure federal agencies – which is essential to the ‘Save America’ movement.”
DOGE is an apparent nod to the cryptocurrency and meme known as dogecoin favored and promoted by Musk.
Musk promised that the efficiency initiative would “send shockwaves through the system and to everyone involved in government waste, which is a lot of people!” »
Ramaswamy believes the U.S. Supreme Court would back him against any challenge aimed at eviscerating his government.
Trump framed this “radical change” as a long-held Republican dream to “create a never-before-seen entrepreneurial approach to government.”
It is unclear how the organization would operate, since it is not a government agency. It could fall under the federal Advisory Committees Act, which sets the ground rules for how external advisory groups operate and remain accountable to the public. Federal employees must disclose relationships and assets that could lead to potential conflicts of interest and must divest themselves of any large-scale involvement related to their work.
But Musk and Ramaswamy would not be legally subject to these ethical requirements or restrictions.
With news feed services
