President-elect Donald Trump has announced that he will establish a “Department of Government Efficiency” (DOGE) led by Elon Musk and his former rival, businessman Vivek Ramaswamy. The task of the new advisory body is to “dismantle bureaucracy” and cut expenses. “We will have a ranking of the stupidest spending of your tax money. It will be both incredibly tragic and incredibly funny,” Musk wrote.
Trump announced that the “Department of Government Performance” would be an outside advisory body to work with the White House on structural reforms of the country. According to campaign promises, it will be headed by a billionaire and Trump campaign sponsor Elon Musk. He will run the department together with Trump's former rival in the Republican primaries, businessman Vivek Ramaswamy.
“Together, these two great Americans will pave the way for my administration to dismantle government bureaucracy, eliminate unnecessary regulations, cut wasteful spending and restructure federal agencies essential to the Save America movement,” Trump said in a statement.
“This will send shockwaves through the entire system and to everyone involved in the waste of money, which includes many people!” – Musk said, quoted in Trump's statement. The president-elect announced that the department would complete its work by the 250th anniversary of independence USAi.e. July 4, 2026.
Musk's idea for “maximum transparency”
The idea of the commission – along with its name – was the work of South African Elon Musk, owner of Tesla, SpaceX and the X platform. The abbreviation of its name (Department of Government Efficiency, DOGE) refers to a popular Internet meme depicting a Shiba Inu dog (in Polish known as “dog” on the Internet). Musk previously promoted the Dogecoin cryptocurrency named after the meme. On Tuesday, he said all DOGE activities would be published online “for maximum transparency.”
“We will have a ranking of the most stupid expenditures of your tax money. It will be both extremely tragic and extremely funny,” Musk wrote on his website. He also published the “logo” of the new body, depicting a dog known from memes.
Even during the election campaign, critics of the idea pointed to a potential conflict of interest of Musk, whose SpaceX company relies largely on contracts with NASA and Pentagon.
Main photo source: Evan Vucci/Associated Press/East News