Donald Trump names Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy to head new government agencyExBulletin

President-elect Donald Trump announced that Tesla CEO Elon Musk and Republican primary candidate Vivek Ramaswamy will lead a new agency he calls the “Department of Government Effectiveness.”

JUANA SUMMERS, HOST:

Tonight, President-elect Donald Trump announced something completely new. Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy will lead what Trump calls a Department of Government Efficiency. NPR's Camila Domonoske joins us now. Hi.

CAMILA DOMONOSKE, BYLINE: Hi.

SUMMERS: Camila, if you can, just start by telling us what should we know about this new department or agency or what exactly should we call it?

DOMONOSKÉ: Yeah. So we don't know much yet. It's totally new. We are working with the details that have been released so far. Trump calls it a department, but only Congress can technically create a department. So typically something like this will be called a commission. And according to the press release issued by Trump's team, it will cite “leading the way for my administration to dismantle government bureaucracy, reduce excessive regulations, cut wasteful spending, and restructure federal agencies”, which the press release describes it as something of a long-held Republican dream.

This commission was actually Elon Musk's idea. He proposed it to then-candidate Trump during a conversation on his social media platform X months ago. And speaking of social media, I think I should note that the initials of the name, Department of Government Effectiveness – DOGE. The terminally ill online public might recognize that the term doge, a reference to a cryptocurrency with a Shiba Inu dog icon, started as a joke. Musk adopted it. The value increased enormously after the election. I had to point that out.

SUMMERS: Understood. OK, so based on what we know so far, Camila, what will this group actually do?

DOMONOSKE: Yes, Musk's proposal was a commission to make sure taxpayer dollars are spent wisely. And the president-elect says that this group will provide advice and guidance, so recommendations for reform, essentially, with a deadline of July 4, 2026, to complete this work. As far as the direction of this advice, I mean, it's pretty clear. Musk has previously argued that the federal government's budget could be cut by at least $2 trillion, or nearly a third. And this evening, Musk tweeted or posted on X – threat to democracy? No, threat to the bureaucracy.

SUMMERS: Camila, one question people might ask is: why Musk and Ramaswamy?

DOMONOSKE: Yes, they are both very close allies of Trump. Musk supported his campaign with more than $100 million of his own money. I also think it's worth noting that Musk made huge layoffs at X, formerly Twitter. After his takeover, he reduced the company's workforce from about 8,000 to about 1,500 people. Then there's Ramaswamy, who when he campaigned for president against Trump in the Republican primary, cutting 75 percent of the federal workforce was one of his campaign agendas.

SUMMERS: I want to wrap up and go back to Elon Musk for a second. I mean, aren't his companies very closely tied to the government?

DOMONOSKE: Yeah, I mean, you're talking about Tesla, SpaceX, Starlink. They all received major government contracts or, in some cases, large grants. These are also, for the moment, highly regulated fields – space, automotive. That raised some concerns as this commission discussed the fact that Elon Musk was going to have enormous influence over the budgets of the agencies that oversee his companies and, in some cases, investigated his companies, you know, the SEC, the Department of Justice. and others. I'll also note, you know, I cover Tesla as an automaker, and some Tesla investors were already concerned that Musk was doing too much, that he was too spread out among his multiple companies, his constant social media presence, his campaign for Trump, and now a new role as an advisor to the government.

SUMMERSExBulletin's Camila Domonoske, thank you.

DOMONOSKE: Thank you, Juana.

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