Billionaire tech mogul Elon Musk has been named the lead of something President-elect Donald Trump is calling the “Department of Government Efficiency,” an agency that pairs him with Vivek Ramaswamy, a pharmaceutical company founder and one-time Senate candidate.
Trump announced that Musk and Ramaswamy, two of his staunchest supporters, would lead the new department in a statement on Tuesday.
But what exactly is this new government agency? What are its goals and is it a department of ... two?
In his statement appointing Musk and Ramaswamy, Trump broadly said the new agency will look to make the government run more efficiently by getting rid of waste. He envisions it as operating outside of government but forming policies for it, something that has drawn criticism.
"Musk not only knows nothing about government efficiency and regulation, his own businesses have regularly run afoul of the very rules he will be in position to attack in his new ‘czar’ position," Lisa Gilbert, co-president of Public Citizen, said in a statement. "This is the ultimate corporate corruption."
For his part, Musk has said he's going to create a leaderboard for the public to see with information about the "dumbest" government spending, which he wrote on X will be both "tragic and entertaining."
“Together, these two wonderful Americans will pave the way for my Administration to dismantle Government Bureaucracy, slash excess regulations, cut wasteful expenditures, and restructure Federal Agencies,” Trump said in a statement.
Trump added that the department will “provide advice and guidance from outside of Government.” However, he did not explain how it would operate. It’s also unknown if Congress will approve of the guidance it provides. And it's notably not an actual government department, because that would have to be approved by Congress.
"It could come under the Federal Advisory Committee Act, which dictates how external groups that advise the government must operate and be accountable to the public," PBS reported.
There are also concerns and questions about potential conflicts of interest, specifically with Musk, who leads companies with existing government contracts.
The statement from Trump on Tuesday quoted Musk, saying the move would “send shockwaves through the system, and anyone involved in Government waste, which is a lot of people!”
In a post on X, Ramaswamy shared a slogan that he usually used during his own presidential campaign, saying, “SHUT IT DOWN.”
“As the first order of business, this commission will develop an action plan to totally eliminate fraud and improper payments within six months,” Trump said in September. “This will save trillions of dollars.”
Trump said that the work of the department would end no later than July 4, 2026.
“A smaller Government, with more efficiency and less bureaucracy, will be the perfect gift to America on the 250th Anniversary of The Declaration of Independence. I am confident they will succeed!” he said.