Trump picks Elon Musk to co-lead government efficiency drive
Entrepreneurs Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy will lead a new Department of Government Efficiency, US president-elect Donald Trump has announced. Ramaswamy is also a former Republican presidential candidate.
According to Trump, they will pave the way for his administration to “dismantle government bureaucracy, slash excess regulations, cut wasteful expenditures and restructure federal agencies”.
He called the initiative “the Manhattan Project of our time”, referring to the American programme to develop the first atomic bomb.
“This will send shockwaves through the system and anyone involved in government waste, which is a lot of people,” commented Musk, who is one of the world’s richest people and whose companies include social media platform X (formerly Twitter), electric vehicle company Tesla, SpaceX and Neuralink.
Ramaswamy is a biotech entrepreneur who ran for the Republican party nomination last year then backed Trump after dropping out.
Ramaswamy and Musk’s business connections have raised some concerns about conflicts of interest as well as the fact that neither has previous experience in government.
19 November webinar: US election: how federal government is getting ready for the new president
‘Outside of government’
Despite the name, the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE – which is also the name of the Dogecoin cryptocurrency that Musk promotes) will not be a government agency. Trump said in a statement that Musk and Ramaswamy will work “from outside government” to provide “advice and guidance” to the White House and the Office of Management and Budget to “drive large scale structural reform, and create an entrepreneurial approach to government never seen before”.
Musk claimed at a rally in October that at least US$2 trillion could be cut from the federal budget, almost a third of federal government spending.
Trump says that Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy will conclude their work by Independence Day on 4 July 2026.
Read more: What Trump’s presidency means for AI
More Trump appointments to the US federal government
Public Citizen, a nonprofit consumer rights organisation, called the announcement “laughable”.
“Musk not only knows nothing about government efficiency and regulation, his own businesses have regularly run afoul of the very rules he will be in position to attack,” co-president Lisa Gilbert said in a statement.
Trump has also announced the nomination of the Fox News host and military veteran Pete Hegseth to be his defence secretary and named John Ratcliffe, a former Texas congressman and federal prosecutor, to lead the CIA.
Ahead of the DOGE announcement, nonprofit AI advocacy group Americans for Responsible Innovation (ARI) launched a petition for Trump to appoint Elon Musk to the role of special advisor on AI.
Satya Thallam, ARI’s senior vice president of government affairs, said: “There’s no one better positioned to help the Trump Administration navigate this new technology.”
“Musk knows what it’s going to take to make America lead on safe AI,” Thallam added.
“He is someone who has both pioneered AI advancement and consistently sounded the alarm about AI’s potential risks.”
About Sarah Wray
Sarah has over 15 years’ experience as a journalist with a specialism in the public sector and topics such as digitalisation and climate action. Sarah was formerly the editor of Cities Today and Smart Cities World, as well as a specialist video-based publication in the aerospace sector. She has also written for publications including Smart Cities Dive, Mobile Europe, Mobile World Live and Computer Weekly.
Related Posts
