Trump appoints Elon Musk to DOGE, a new U.S. government department

President-elect Donald Trump has officially announced that fellow billionaire Elon Musk will head a new U.S. Department of Government Efficiency ("DOGE") under his administration. Musk may not be eligible to run for president, but it seems he'll still get to make decisions as part of the incoming U.S. government.

In a statement posted to Trump's social media network Truth Social on Tuesday, the president-elect revealed that "the Great Elon Musk" would work with pharmaceutical and financial millionaire Vivek Ramaswamy to lead the new department. DOGE will partner with and advise the White House's preexisting Office of Management and Budget to "drive large scale structural reform, and create an entrepreneurial approach to Government."

According to Trump, DOGE's purpose is to "pave the way for [his] Administration to dismantle Government Bureaucracy, slash excess regulations, cut wasteful expenditures, and restructure Federal Agencies — Essential to the 'Save America' Movement." DOGE will aim to complete its work by July 4, 2026, resulting in "A smaller Government, with more efficiency and less bureaucracy."

"DOGE will soon begin crowdsourcing examples of government waste, fraud, & and abuse," Ramaswamy posted to X, also announcing his withdrawal from contention for vice president-elect J.D. Vance's imminently vacant Ohio Senate seat. "Americans voted for drastic government reform & they deserve to be part of fixing it."

"This will send shockwaves through the system, and anyone involved in Government waste, which is a lot of people!" Musk claimed in Trump's statement, which he also shared via his X account.

As such, the U.S. may soon see sweeping mass layoffs impacting thousands of government workers. Ramaswamy previously promised "large scale mass layoffs" during his own presidential campaign in 2023, stating that he would cut 75 percent of civilian federal workers — 50 percent within the first year.

His proposed plan would begin by eliminating the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI); the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives; the Nuclear Regulatory Commission; the Department of Education; and the Department of Agriculture's Food and Nutrition Service.

"I will fire 1 million federal employees in 2025," Ramaswamy posted on X in December last year. "SHUT IT DOWN."

There are approximately 2.25 million civilian federal employees in the U.S. If Ramaswamy, Musk, and Trump execute their vision, around 1.7 million Americans could be out of a job.

Trump and Musk's previous 'efficiency' cuts have not gone well

Theoretically, streamlining bureaucracy sounds like it should be a good thing. Unfortunately, Musk has previously demonstrated an exceedingly poor understanding of what constitutes waste. The billionaire infamously cut almost 90 percent of Twitter's staff after acquiring the social media platform in 2022, with many employees let go within mere days of him taking over. 

Renamed X, the company's value has since tanked by nearly 80 percent, while Musk's mass layoffs quickly spawned multiple lawsuits concerning thousands of unpaid severance cases. One report further found that almost a quarter of users have abandoned the platform since Musk took charge, while advertisers have fled.

Now Musk apparently wants to take a similar hatchet to the U.S. government — a plan the president-elect will likely execute with gusto. Trump previously rolled back numerous regulations during his first term as president, cutting worker safety protections, scrapping rail safety requirements, and loosening rules for banks.

The president-elect further eliminated over 100 environmental regulations, with researchers determining that Trump's deregulation would result in the U.S. emitting an additional 1.8 billion tons of greenhouse gases over 15 years. Another analysis concluded that 22,000 American deaths in 2019 were the result of Trump's removal of environmental protections.

The Department of Government Efficiency's name raises some eyebrows as well, as it was seemingly deliberately constructed so it could be abbreviated to DOGE. "DOGE" is the name of a dog meme that inspired Dogecoin, which Musk has previously said is his favourite cryptocurrency. Musk even briefly changed Twitter's logo to Doge in 2023, a switch which caused Dogecoin's value to soar by 30 percent and sparked a class action lawsuit accusing the billionaire of insider trading and manipulating the cryptocurrency's price.

Considering the importance of governmental operations, the decision to put Musk in charge of a new department apparently named after a meme is less than reassuring for the country's future. Musk appeared to confirm the connection, sharing a cartoon image of a Department of Government Efficiency logo featuring an orange dog.

Musk spent over $130 million campaigning for Trump during the recent presidential election, including running a $1 million voter "lottery" whose carefully chosen list of winners seem to only consist of Republicans. (He is currently facing his second lawsuit regarding said lottery.) The billionaire's net worth shot up by $15 billion the day after the election, with his companies such as Tesla, SpaceX, and Neuralink set to benefit from relaxed regulations as well as government contracts with Trump's administration. It doesn't hurt that Musk seems to have the president-elect's ear either.

Of course, the richest man in the world already appears to be planning ways to monetise his new governmental role.

"Department of Government Efficiency," Musk posted to X. "The merch will be 🔥🔥🔥"

Credit: Mashable screenshot: Truth Social