President-elect Donald Trump said Tuesday that Elon Musk and former Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy will head a new “Department of Government Efficiency,” which is not, despite the name, a government agency.
The acronym “DOGE” is a nod to Musk’s favorite cryptocurrency, dogecoin. Trump said in a statement that Musk and Ramaswamy will work from outside the government to provide the White House with “advice and guidance” and will partner with the Office of Management and Budget to “drive large-scale structural reforms and create an enterprise approach to the government”. never seen before.” He added that the move would shake up government systems.
It is unclear how the organization will work. It could be included in the Federal Advisory Committee Act, which dictates how outside groups that advise the government must operate and be accountable to the public.
Federal employees are generally required to disclose their assets and entanglements to avoid potential conflicts of interest and to divest important holdings related to their work. Since Musk and Ramaswamy would not be formal federal workers, they would not face those ethical requirements or limitations.
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Musk posted on X: “Department of Government Efficiency. The merchandising will be (fire emojis).” Then he added: “A threat to democracy? No, it threatens the BUREAUCRACY!!!”
Musk has been a constant presence at Mar-a-Lago since Trump won the presidential election.
The president-elect has often said he would give Musk a formal role overseeing a special commission-like group that would recommend ways to cut spending and make the federal government more efficient. At one point, Musk suggested it could save more than $2 trillion, nearly a third of total annual government spending.
Trump had made it clear that Musk would likely not take on any type of full-time position, given his other commitments.
“I don’t think I can hire him full time because he’s kind of busy launching rockets and all the things he does,” Trump said at a rally in Michigan in September. “He said the waste in this country is crazy. And we are going to get Elon Musk to be our cost reducer.”
Ramaswamy suspended his campaign in January and endorsed Trump.
Trump said in his statement that the two will “pave the way for my Administration to dismantle government bureaucracy, reduce overregulation, reduce wasteful spending, and restructure federal agencies.”
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