Elon Musk promises to ‘shatter the system’ after Trump appoints him to his government | US elections

Elon Musk has already taken his position. Along with businessman Vivek Ramaswamy, he will head the Department of Government Effectiveness (DOGE), responsible for “radical” reform of the administration. The richest man in the world is not messing around. “This will shock the system and everyone involved in government waste, of which there are many,” he said after President-elect Donald Trump’s announcement. Musk and Ramaswamy arrived with a knife in their teeth, ready to fire thousands of officials and force the government to operate as one company. The statement compares its mission to the Manhattan Project, in which the United States developed the atomic bomb.

“I am pleased to announce that the great Elon Musk, in partnership with American patriot Vivek Ramaswami, will lead the Department of Government Effectiveness (DOGE),” Trump said in a statement. “Together, these two great Americans will pave the way for my administration to dismantle government bureaucracy, sharply reduce over-regulation, cut wasteful spending, and restructure the federal agencies necessary to the movement to save America,” he added.

Although named after the statutory body, the Department of Government Effectiveness will provide external advice and guidance. “He will work with the White House and the Office of Management and Budget to implement large-scale structural reforms and create a business-like approach to government that has never existed before,” Trump says.

“We will put an end to the enormous waste and fraud that exists in our $6.5 trillion in annual government spending,” says Trump, during whose first term the government deficit and federal debt have soared. The task assigned to the two billionaires has a fixed date: July 4, 2026, the 250th anniversary of the independence of the United States. “A smaller government, with more efficiency and less bureaucracy, would be the perfect gift for this.” anniversary, Trump says.

“We need a Department of Government Efficiency,” Musk said last month at one of his rallies, emphasizing his acronym DOGE, a reference to Dogecoin, a Bitcoin-derived cryptocurrency that uses a dog as a pet and which he somehow sponsors . “Doge on a bronze plaque. “It will be incredible,” he added, before admitting that his plans involve mass layoffs of officials. The tycoon, whose fortune is estimated at $319 billion, said the layoffs would be generous, like two annuities or something like that.

His position will give Musk power over regulators who he believes are holding back the growth of Tesla and SpaceX, his rocket and satellite company. DOGE seeks to prevent over-regulation and limit the power of government agencies. This could benefit it both in developing self-driving cars (where it has clashed with the current government) and in launching rockets. In a sense, he can become a regulator—or a deregulator—of regulators.

On a recent conference call with analysts in which he presented Tesla’s results, he made clear that he would benefit by creating a simpler path to federal approval for driverless vehicles instead of the complex state regulations that exist now. Shares of the electric vehicle company soared on the stock market after Trump’s victory, with the company’s capitalization exceeding a trillion dollars for the first time since 2022. Meanwhile, her companies will continue to have lucrative contracts with the administration.

Vivek Ramaswamy, for his part, ran unsuccessfully in the Republican presidential primary. From the beginning, he played the role of a millennial Trumpist loyal to the former president’s policies. Upon his retirement, he gave his full support to the now president-elect. He sought and applied for a position in the Trump administration. He advocates massive layoffs of officials and sharp cuts in government spending. He even talked about abandoning 75% of state employees.

Musk has become one of the unexpected heroes of the presidential campaign. Already in May it became known that Trump was counting on him on his team if he won the election. Later, the candidate himself confirmed that if elected, he would entrust him with “radical” reform of the administration. Even at Tesla’s June shareholder meeting, Musk spoke about his relationship with the Republican and what he sometimes called him. “He calls me for no reason. “I don’t know why, but it is,” he said.

The South African-born tycoon donated $75 million (€70 million) in the third quarter to the America PAC he founded to support Trump’s re-election campaign, although the amount later exceeded $120 million. He openly called for a vote for Trump after the assassination attempt in Butler, Pennsylvania. It was there that he first attended a rally with him a month before the election and shamelessly joined his hoaxes about immigration, freedom of speech and guns.

Musk later continued to campaign alone, especially in Pennsylvania, holding rallies that mixed politics with trips to Mars. In one, supposed million-dollar lotteries for registered voters were pulled out of a hat, sparking controversy. The Justice Department warned him that they might be illegal, but they fell on deaf ears. A Philadelphia prosecutor unsuccessfully filed a lawsuit to stop them, and then Musk’s lawyers admitted that they weren’t actually random, but rather that the winners had been selected.

He was so active in seeking votes for Trump and spreading hoaxes that even President Joe Biden mentioned his supposed temporary status as an illegal immigrant when he was a student and went to work without a visa. Musk continued to campaign alongside Trump, including a rally at Madison Square Garden in New York, and accompanied the Republican to a party celebrating his election victory.

The tycoon assured that he would maintain his political organization after the elections. He will be responsible for registering Republican voters in key counties across the country in preparation for Trump’s special elections and midterm legislative elections, which will take place in November 2026, as announced on his social media site X. Additionally, he also wants to play a significant role in the primaries, he added. This will mean supporting their preferred candidates within the Republican Party.