Trump said Ramaswamy and Musk will head the new Department of Government Efficiency.
Businessman Vivek Ramaswamy and billionaire Elon Musk will lead a new temporary department called the Department of Government Efficiency, according to a Tuesday announcement by President-elect Donald Trump.
In a statement, Trump stated that the two “will pave the way for my Administration to dismantle Government Bureaucracy, slash excess regulations, cut wasteful expenditures, and restructure Federal Agencies – Essential to the ‘Save America’ Movement.”
By stating that Musk and Ramaswamy would “provide advice and guidance from outside of Government, and will partner 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 appeared to imply that the two would not be officially joining the government.
The new organization “will send shockwaves through the system, and anyone involved in Government waste, which is a lot of people!” according to Musk’s own statement.
Trump gave them a timetable in his remarks, stating that their work will “conclude no later than July 4, 2026.”
“A smaller Government, with more efficiency and less bureaucracy, will be the perfect gift to America on the 250th Anniversary of The Declaration of Independence,” Trump tweeted. “I am confident they will succeed!”
The Trump campaign described the agency as “potentially, the ‘Manhattan Project’ of our time,” referencing the secret World War II program that was involved in developing the atomic bomb.
Musk was a major part of Trump’s reelection campaign effort, while Ramaswamy ran against Trump in the Republican primary before endorsing him.
The department’s acronym, DOGE, is also a dog meme that inspired Dogecoin, a cryptocurrency promoted by Musk that was created as a joke and is credited with being the first meme coin.
It’s not clear how the organization will operate. It could come under the Federal Advisory Committee Act, which dictates how external groups that advise the government must operate and be accountable to the public.