US President-elect Donald Trump has chosen tech billionaire Elon Musk to lead a newly created initiative, the Department of Government Efficiency (Doge). This bold initiative, named after Musk’s favorite cryptocurrency, Dogecoin, is designed to overhaul the federal government, cutting bureaucracy and slashing wasteful expenditures.
Joining Musk in this venture is biotech investor and former Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy. Together, they will offer “external advice” to the White House on how to streamline government operations. Trump, announcing the plan on Tuesday, said the Doge initiative would help “dismantle government bureaucracy, slash excess regulations, cut wasteful expenditures, and restructure federal agencies.”
Although it’s called a “department,” Doge is not an official government agency, as such organizations must be established by Congress and staffed by thousands of federal workers. Instead, it’s more of an advisory body, with Musk and Ramaswamy working closely with the White House and the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to tackle what Trump describes as “massive waste and fraud” in the government’s $6.5 trillion budget.
“Elon and Vivek bring fresh, bold ideas to the table. We need their vision to shake up a system that’s become bloated and ineffective,” Trump said. Musk, who has been a major donor to Trump’s campaign, is eager to get started, comparing the effort to the historic Manhattan Project. “This will send shockwaves through the system,” Musk said in a press release. “Anyone involved in government waste should be very, very nervous.”
Musk has long advocated for reducing government spending, recently suggesting cuts of up to $2 trillion—almost a third of the total federal budget. He has also proposed eliminating hundreds of federal agencies, arguing that many of them overlap in responsibilities and only contribute to inefficiency.
Ramaswamy, a political outsider who dropped out of the 2024 Republican presidential race and endorsed Trump, is no stranger to bold proposals either. Last year, he advocated for firing more than 75% of the federal workforce and shutting down agencies like the Department of Education, the FBI, and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives. “We won’t go gently into this fight,” Ramaswamy posted on social media, adding that the goal is to complete their task by July 4, 2026—America’s 250th Independence Day.
The announcement of Doge comes amid a flurry of high-profile appointments from Trump’s camp. John Ratcliffe, a former Texas congressman and federal prosecutor, has been nominated to lead the CIA, while South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem is set to become Secretary of Homeland Security. Fox News host and Iraq War veteran Pete Hegseth is also set to head the Pentagon, a choice that has raised some eyebrows due to his limited government experience.
As for Musk, he’s been a constant presence at Trump’s estate in Palm Beach since the election, even joining a recent call between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. Meanwhile, the Dogecoin cryptocurrency has seen a notable surge in value, riding on the back of Musk’s appointment.
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