Elon Musk & Vivek Ramaswamy to Lead Trump’s New Government Taskforce, DOGE

Last week, President-elect Donald Trump appointed entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy and Elon Musk as the new Department of Government Efficiency co-heads, or “DOGE.” While the department has a playful name- a nod to the widely popular meme cryptocurrency dogecoin or meme coin – its work has a very serious purpose. The organization, set to work outside of regular government channels, will seek to overhaul bureaucratic processes, clip excessive regulations, and politically driven spending in its partnerships with the Office of Management and Budget (OMB).

Thus, the effort of DOGE – is simply bold in its mission: one that reshapes the federal government by July 4, 2026-the date marking America’s 250th year since the Declaration of Independence. The enterprise was lauded by Trump as potentially “the Manhattan Project of our time, implying that only a streamlined and efficient government would be an appropriate gift to the nation.

Two business leaders bring their acumen: Musk, CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, and Ramaswamy, an entrepreneur who ran for the Republican presidential nomination last cycle. Musk has already said he wants to “start destroying” regulations that “do not serve the greater good,” raising the possibility that the task force could identify upwards of $2 trillion in potential savings, nearly a third of what the U.S. government spends annually. 

Ramsey promised to start by “crowdsourcing examples” of government waste, especially on programs that Congress never renewed, yet it continues getting taxpayer funds. According to Ramaswamy, cutting these expired programs could save $516 billion annually if, indeed, over 1,200 unauthorized programs still receive federal support.

Although DOGE will not be a governmental agency, the task force might be covered by the Federal Advisory Committee Act, which requires public openness and accountability for external advisors to the government. Additionally, since federal employees are regulated by rules and disclosure requirements to prevent conflicts of interest, the heads of DOGE, like Musk and Ramaswamy, will not be included since they are not official government nominees. However, the work of the task force and its recommendations could be tremendously impactful, coming at a time when the administration is seeking unprecedented reductions in federal spending and bureaucracy.

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