Trump says Elon Musk will lead “DOGE,” a new Department of Government Efficiency

President-elect Donald Trump today announced that a new Department of Government Efficiency—or “DOGE”—will be led by Elon Musk and former Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy. Musk and Ramaswamy, who founded pharma company Roivant Sciences, “will pave the way for my Administration to dismantle Government Bureaucracy, slash excess regulations, cut wasteful expenditures, and restructure Federal Agencies,” according to the Trump statement on Truth Social.

DOGE apparently will not be an official federal agency, as Trump said it will provide advice “from outside” of government. But Musk, who has frequently criticized government subsidies despite seeking public money and obtaining various subsidies for his own companies, will apparently have significant influence over spending in the Trump administration. Musk has also had numerous legal disputes with regulators at agencies that regulate his companies.

“Republican politicians have dreamed about the objectives of ‘DOGE’ for a very long time,” Trump said. “To drive this kind of drastic change, the Department of Government Efficiency will provide advice and guidance from outside of Government, and will partner with the White House and Office of Management & Budget to drive large scale structural reform, and create an entrepreneurial approach to Government never seen before.”

Musk—the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, and owner of X (formerly Twitter)—was quoted in Trump’s announcement as saying that DOGE “will send shockwaves through the system, and anyone involved in Government waste, which is a lot of people!”