Trump Appoints Elon Musk Leader In Newly Created Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE)
By
OSABUOHIEN VIVIAN ROSE a
U.S. President-elect Donald Trump Tuesday appointed Elon Musk to a role aimed at creating a more efficient government, handing even more influence to the world’s richest man who donated millions of dollars to helping Trump get elected.
Musk and former Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy will co-lead a newly created Department of Government Efficiency, an entity Trump indicated will operate outside the confines of government.
Trump said in a statement that Musk and Ramaswamy “will pave the way for my Administration to dismantle Government Bureaucracy, slash excess regulations, cut wasteful expenditures, and restructure Federal Agencies.”
Trump said the new department will realize long-held Republican dreams and “provide advice and guidance from outside of government,” signaling the Musk and Ramaswamy roles would be informal, without requiring Senate approval and allowing Musk to remain the head of electric car company Tesla (TSLA.O), social media platform X and rocket company SpaceX.
The new department would work with the White House and Office of Management & Budget to “drive large scale structural reform, and create an entrepreneurial approach” to government never seen before, Trump said.
The work would conclude by July 4, 2026 – the 250th anniversary of Independence day.
Musk, ranked by Forbes as the richest person in the world, already stood to benefit from Trump’s victory, with the billionaire entrepreneur expected to wield extraordinary influence to help his companies and secure favorable government treatment.
With many links to Washington, Musk gave millions of dollars to support Trump’s presidential campaign and made public appearances with him.
Trump likened the efficiency effort to the Manhattan Project, the U.S. undertaking to build the atomic bomb that helped end World War Two, while Musk promised transparency.
“All actions of the Department of Government Efficiency will be posted online for maximum transparency,” Musk said on X, inviting the public to provide tips.
“We will also have a leaderboard for most insanely dumb spending of your tax dollars. This will be both extremely tragic and extremely entertaining,” Musk said.
Musk said at a Trump rally at Madison Square Garden in October that the federal budget could be reduced by “at least” $2 trillion. Discretionary spending, including defense spending, is estimated to total $1.9 trillion out of $6.75 trillion in total federal outlays for fiscal 2024, according to the Congressional Budget Office.
“Your money is being wasted and the Department of Government Efficiency is going to fix that. We’re going to get the government off your back and out of your pocketbook,” Musk said at the rally.
The acronym of the new department – DOGE – also references the name of the cryptocurrency dogecoin that Musk promotes.
In August Musk and Tesla won the dismissal of a federal lawsuit accusing them of defrauding investors by hyping dogecoin and conducting insider trading, causing billions of dollars of losses.
Dogecoin has more than doubled since Election Day, tracking a surge in cryptocurrency markets on expectations of a softer regulatory ride under a Trump administration.
Ramaswamy said the appointment means he is withdrawing from consideration for the pending U.S. Senate appointment in Ohio, where Governor Mike DeWine will appoint a replacement for JD Vance, who will become Trump’s vice president when they are inaugurated on Jan. 20.
