President-elect Donald Trump announced on Tuesday that tech billionaire Elon Musk and former presidential candidate and loyal Trump ally Vivek Ramaswamy will head a new department, the Department of Government Efficiency, giving Musk complete oversight on government spending.
“I am pleased to announce that the Great Elon Musk, working in conjunction with American Patriot Vivek Ramaswamy, will lead the Department of Government Efficiency,” Trump said in a statement.
“This will send shockwaves through the system, and anyone involved in Government waste, which is a lot of people!” Musk added in the statement released by the transition team.
Trump said the new department would target the “massive waste and fraud”, which he claims exists within the $6.5 trillion of government spending.
Musk, the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, has said he wants to cut $2 trillion from the federal budget but has provided little to no details on how he plans to accomplish that goal.
Meanwhile, Ramaswamy campaigned for president on the promise of eliminating federal agencies. Those agencies included the FBI; the Education Department; and the Food and Nutrition Service within the Agriculture Department.
“It will become, potentially, ‘The Manhattan Project’ of our time,” Trump said. “Republican politicians have dreamed about the objectives of ‘DOGE’ for a very long time.”
Musk enters the new role with some stakes in the game as SpaceX has $3.6 billion in contracts with federal agencies this year, according to government data. It’s not clear whether that spending will be a part of the possible cuts.
Trump has not provided details on how the role will work, only saying the department would exist “outside of Government,” giving advice to those in the White House. He has given a deadline of July 4, 2026.
