Donald Trump Taps Elon Musk, Vivek Ramaswamy to Lead Nonexistent Department of Government Efficiency

President-elect Donald Trump announced tonight that he would be appointing billionaire Elon Musk and former Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy to head a new Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) upon taking office in 2025. The acronym DOGE appears to be a reference to the digital currency dogecoin, of which Musk is a fan.

“These two wonderful Americans will pave the way for my Administration to dismantle Government Bureaucracy, slash excess regulations, cut wasteful expenditures, and restructure Federal Agencies,” stated the announcement from Trump.

The statement did not offer specifics on the nature of DOGE, but did say that it would “provide advice and guidance from outside of Government,” and that it would “partner with the White House of the Office of Management & Budget.”

In September, Trump said that he would create a government efficiency commission that Musk would run. Musk has called for cutting $2 trillion in federal spending. In 2023, the government spent $1.7 billion in discretionary funds. On X, Musk has already alluded to departments and areas he’d aim to cut, including the Department of Education and funding for National Public Radio.

Musk has been one of Trump’s most ardent supporters. During the campaign, he poured close to $200 million into his political action committee (PAC), the America PAC, which he used to support Trump’s campaign. He also appeared with him at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, and held townhalls across the state to drum up support for the former president. Musk also used his own celebrity, and X, the social media platform that he owns, to bolster the Trump campaign’s talking points, and encourage followers to vote for Trump. A report from the Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH) found that Musk’s political posts on X between when he endorsed Trump and the end of October garnered 17.1 billion views.

In his Tuesday statement, the president-elect said that Musk and Ramaswamy would conclude their work in the new department “no later than July 4, 2026.”