President-elect Donald Trump eavesdropped billionaire entrepreneurs Elon Musk AND Vivek Ramaswamy to lead a new department charged with shrinking and restructuring the US government to bring about “drastic change”.
This new division is called the Department of Government Efficiency, or the acronym DOGE, a reference to cryptocurrency Musk has supported by voice.
Musk and Ramaswamy “will pave the way” for the Trump administration “to dismantle government bureaucracy, cut excessive regulations, cut wasteful spending and restructure federal agencies,” Trump said. wrote in an announcement on Tuesday at X, a platform owned by Musk.
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“Importantly, we will eliminate the massive waste and fraud that exists throughout our $6.5 trillion in annual government spending,” Trump wrote.
President-elect Donald Trump. (Photo by JIM WATSON/AFP via Getty Images)
Musk and Ramaswamy have until July 4, 2026, or the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, to make the new department's goals a reality.
Both Musk and Ramaswamy were quick to respond to the news.
Ramaswamy wrote in X On Tuesday, DOGE will “prompt” or ask the American people for “examples of government waste, fraud and abuse.”
it added in a separate post that “the only proper response is a massive downsizing” of the federal bureaucracy.
Related: Who is Vivek Ramaswamy?
Musk reposted Ramaswamy's comments on Wednesday morning and wrote, “This is the only way.”
DOGE will soon begin collecting examples of government waste, fraud and abuse. Americans voted for drastic government reform, and they deserve to be a part of fixing it. https://t.co/iRXmgT6ZuQ
— Vivek Ramaswamy (@VivekGRamaswamy) November 13, 2024
This is the only way https://t.co/Lp7k907pHy
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 13, 2024
The US government spent 6.75 trillion dollars in fiscal year 2024, which ran from October 1, 2023 to September 30, 2024.
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