TOI Correspondent from Washington: DOGE days are coming to the United States under Donald Trump. The US President-elect on Tuesday named tech bros Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamyboth of immigrant origin, to head a new Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) to “dismantle Government Bureaucracyslash excess regulations, cut wasteful expenditures, and restructure Federal Agencies.”
Terming it a “Manhattan Project” of the times after the 1940s effort that yielded US the atomic bomb, Trump set a deadline of July 4, 2026 for achieving its DOGE’s goals, saying, “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. I am confident they will succeed!”
“This will send shockwaves through the system, and anyone involved in Government waste, which is a lot of people!” Musk said in turn, as the move rattled Washington DC and its suburbs in Virginia and Maryland where the federal government is the biggest employer, providing more than 300,000 jobs. Nationwide, the federal government employs nearly 3 million people across various departments and bureaus, racking up a massive $ 6.7 trillion tab.
Musk has called for $2 trillion in cuts to the federal budget — almost a third of government expenditure — a goal widely considered unrealistic. But considering he culled 75 per cent of the workforce in Twitter after he bought it and still kept it running, fears of DOGE days in the federal government is coursing through the capital ,with an expected bloodbath from culling its nearly 3 million employees across various bureaus and agencies.
It is not clear though how the new department will work since its funding and staffing are budgeted by the Congress and signed off by the White House. Although Trump and Republicans will be in control of both the executive and legislature, lawmakers are notoriously leery of ceding control over pork barrel, a metaphor for the appropriation of government largesse for localized projects aimed at appeasing constituents.
Trump indicated that DOGE, an acronym coined by Musk after a meme-based cryptocurrency he promoted, will work outside of the government, “providing advice and guidance” — in which case its recommendations are expected to meet legislative and bureaucratic resilience and survivalism of the kind highlighted in the British serial “Yes, Minister.”
Government and media watchdogs are also highlighting Musk’s own business interests with the federal government, with his companies like SpaceXTesla, and Neuralink growing through government contracts and subsidies amid several probes and investigations where they have gone off-track. In effect, the firm of Musk and Ramaswamy, who is a co-founder of a bio-pharma and asset management companies, will be recommending cuts of departments, agencies, and bureaus that are tasked with oversight over their businesses.
Specifically, Musk has bristled at the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) oversight of SpaceX, which has a launch site in Texas next to a national wildlife sanctuary and state park, requiring detailed environmental reviews that the MAGA convert considers excessive.
Ramaswamy on his part has proposed firing 75 per cent of the federal workforce, eliminating the Department of Education and torching the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in the process, arguing the country’s Founding Fathers did not envision a fourth branch of government — the administrative state. “Removing the excess bureaucracy is going to be good for our economy and for our national spirit,” he said in one interview earlier this year.
But Trump appeared to make light of conflict of interest issues, saying the “Great Elon Musk, working in conjunction with American Patriot Vivek Ramaswamy…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.”
“Importantly, we will drive out the massive waste and fraud which exists throughout our annual $6.5 Trillion Dollars of Government Spending. They will work together to liberate our Economy, and make the U.S. Government accountable to “WE THE PEOPLE,” the MAGA supremo and President-elect said in a statement.
