Elon Musk will be inaugurated in the second Trump administration.
SpaceX’s founder and CEO will join entrepreneur and politician Vivek Ramaswamy in leading a new Department of Government Efficiency, President-elect Donald Trump announced on November 12. It was announced on Tuesday night.
“These two great Americans have worked together to ensure that my administration dismantles government bureaucracy, cuts excessive regulation, cuts wasteful spending, and supports federal agencies,” President Trump said in a statement Tuesday. This will pave the way for rebuilding the United States, which is essential to the Save America movement.”
“This could potentially become a modern-day ‘Manhattan Project,'” Trump added. “Republican politicians have been dreaming of the ‘DOGE’ goal for a very long time. To drive these kinds of fundamental changes, the Department of Government Efficiency is providing advice and guidance from outside the government, and White House He will work with the House and the Executive Office of the President to drive major structural reforms and create an unprecedented entrepreneurial approach to government. ”
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Trump said Elon Musk and Ramaswamy will finish their work by July 4, 2026, the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence.
The creation of DOGE is not all that surprising. Musk, who campaigned for Trump and poured more than $100 million of his personal funds into pro-Trump political action committees, repeatedly mentioned the idea and the possibility of getting involved in it on X in the weeks leading up to the election. did. (Musk bought X, then known as Twitter, in 2022 for $44 billion.)
And the new division appears to be named after Dogecoin, Musk’s favorite cryptocurrency.
Musk expressed renewed enthusiasm for DOGE after President Trump’s announcement Tuesday night, posting repeatedly about it on X.
“To ensure maximum transparency, all actions of the Ministry of Government Efficiency will be published online. Whenever you think about it, let us know! We’ll also have a leaderboard of your stupidest spending. It’s going to be very tragic and very funny at the same time.” he wrote in one post Tuesday.
Another Tuesday post read: “Either make our government more efficient or America goes bankrupt. At the end of the day, that’s the outcome. I hope I’m wrong, but it’s true.” It’s dark.
Mr. Musk’s involvement in the Trump administration is likely to invite criticism of conflicts of interest, given that the billionaire’s various businesses may benefit from decisions made by Mr. Musk.
“His electric car company Tesla has received millions of dollars in government funding to install EV charging stations. His rocket company SpaceX has won billions of dollars in government contracts for moon missions. And his satellite internet company, Starlink, has also received millions of dollars in subsidies from the “federal government,” NPR reported last week.
This is the second time Musk has joined President Trump’s administration. The SpaceX founder and CEO served on three advisory committees during President Trump’s first term, but after the president pulled the U.S. out of the Paris climate accord. , resigned from the advisory board in 2017.
