Donald Trump has confirmed Elon Musk will co-lead the new department of government efficiency.
The president-elect said on Tuesday that the Tesla and X owner – who is also the world’s richest man – will work with former Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy to lead the department, which is known as DOGE for short.
The appointment fulfils a promise Mr Trump made to the tech billionaire after he endorsed him in the race for the White House, and poured more than $119m (£92m) canvassing for him in the seven battleground states.
In a statement, the president-elect said Mr Musk and Mr Ramaswamy “will pave the way for my administration to dismantle government bureaucracy, slash excess regulations, cut wasteful expenditures, and restructure federal agencies”.
Despite its name, the DOGE is not a government agency and is set to provide “advice and guidance” from outside the government.
This will likely mean both Mr Musk and biotech entrepreneur Mr Ramaswamy will be allowed to continue working in the private sector and serve without Senate approval, Sky News’ US partner network NBC reported.
The DOGE acronym of the new department coincides with a popular meme and the name of the cryptocurrency Dogecoin that Mr Musk promotes.
A deadline of 4 July 2026 has been put in place for the department to conclude its work.
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What Musk stands to gain from Trump
Mr Trump added: “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!”
Mr Musk said in the statement that the department will “send shockwaves through the system, and anyone involved in government waste”.
The billionaire has said in the past he wants to cut $2trn from the federal budget but has provided few details on what he would cut.
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In a string of picks for his second administration on Tuesday, Mr Trump also named Fox New host and army veteran Pete Hegseth as his pick for defence secretary and said he would nominate former director of national intelligence John Ratcliffe to be director of the CIA.
Earlier this week, the president-elect named Susie Wiles – who ran his 2-24 presidential campaign – as his White House chief of staff, the first woman in history to take up one of the most important non-elected roles in Washington.
