The eccentric multimillionaire businessman and one of Trump's most ardent supporters in his presidential campaign, Elon Musk, is officially the head of the newly formed Department of Government Efficiency, DOGE, along with ex-presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswami.
HDN Newsroom
Donald Trump promised "drastic change" in the federal government as he announced a new "Department of Government Effectiveness" – DOGE for short – headed by Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswami.
The choice of the term DOGE (Department of Government Efficiency) also refers to Musk's favorite cryptocurrency, Dogecoin, which has been engaged in a frantic rally over the last 24 hours, along with Bitcoin.
Musk and Ramaswami have been tasked with fulfilling Trump's campaign promise to cut up to 100,000 government positions. It's called "the Manhattan project of our time" — a reference to the top-secret push by the U.S. government to build the first atomic bomb during World War II.
What interests Silicon Valley and Wall Street is what all this means for Musk's involvement in his companies.
Shortly after the announcement, analysts at financial services firm Wedbush predicted: "There will be NO changes to Musk's CEO roles with Tesla and SpaceX, mainly from a Wall Street perspective."
For Musk, having one foot in government and the other in business can create a conflict as a government efficiency minister makes changes that could affect his business. Above all, it could, of course, favour them by means of far-reaching deregulation.
Among the promises in Trump's announcement is the mention of cutting "excessive regulations," some of which Tesla may currently be subject to. The company is also under investigation by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration for the role self-driving technology played in four incidents, including one that resulted in death.
Elon Musk has spoken publicly and repeatedly about his interest in a role focused on government efficiency and budget cuts.
At a Trump rally in New York last month, he was asked how much he thought he could save from the U.S. government's total budget of about $6.5 trillion. "I think we could make at least $2 trillion," Musk responded. "Your money is wasted and the Department of Government Efficiency is going to fix it."
In a recent post on X, he wrote that "there is a lot of waste and unnecessary regulation in government that needs to go."
In another, he said: "Federal government spending will bankrupt the country unless action is taken." He has also proposed to significantly reduce the number of civil servants.
For his part, Vivek Ramaswami, after it became known that he was selected for the Department of Efficiency, confirmed that he is withdrawing from the race for senator of Ohio – a seat left vacant by the election of J.D. Vance as vice president of the United States.
The state's governor, Mike Dewine, has the power to temporarily fill the vacancy until the next Senate election in November 2026.
Ramaswami, who was born and raised in Ohio, was among the high-profile figures in the Trump administration and is an American businessman, author, conservative political activist and politician.
He founded Roivant Sciences, a pharmaceutical company, in 2014, currently worth US$1 billion.
In February 2023, he announced his candidacy for the presidential nomination in the 2024 presidential election with the Republican Party.
After the first primaries for the nomination, in the state of Iowa, where he received 7.7% of the vote, he withdrew his candidacy and declared his support for Donald Trump.
