Trump Appoints Musk to Help Cut Government Costs in New Department Named After Meme Coin ‘DOGE’
President-elect Donald Trump has appointed tech billionaire Elon Musk and former Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy to lead the newly created Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).
“I am pleased to announce that the Great Elon Musk, working in conjunction with American Patriot Vivek Ramaswamy, will lead the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE),” Trump said in a statement on Wednesday.
Trump, who won the November 5 presidential election, is assembling his transition team ahead of January 20, when he will be inaugurated as America’s 47th President.
Although it remains unclear how the newly created department will operate, it aims to cut down government expenses.
“Together, these two wonderful Americans will pave the way for my administration to dismantle government bureaucracy, slash excess regulations, cut wasteful expenditure, and restructure federal agencies—essential to the ‘Save America’ movement,” the incoming President said.
Last month, during a campaign rally at New York’s Madison Square Garden, Musk, who owns X (formerly Twitter), SpaceX, and Tesla, claimed that at least $2 trillion could be cut from the U.S. annual budget.
“We will drive out the massive waste and fraud which exists throughout our annual $6.5 trillion of government spending. They will work together to liberate our economy and make the U.S. government accountable to ‘We the People,'” the statement said.
Can Elon Musk Help Cut U.S. Government Spending?
Although Elon Musk has not been in government before, the billionaire—currently the world’s wealthiest man—runs profitable companies including Tesla, valued at $1 trillion, and SpaceX, valued at $210 billion.
When he acquired X in 2022 for $44 billion, Musk implemented what many described as one of the largest employee reductions at a major firm, laying off 80 percent of its staff. He then focused on making the platform profitable, introducing features like a paid verification blue tick. However, according to an analysis by The Washington Post, X is now worth $5 billion less than when he acquired it two years ago. The publication also estimated that Musk’s personal investment of $33.5 billion in the acquisition has lost $24.12 billion in value.
In an earlier interview, Musk hinted at cutting down the 428 federal agencies to just 99.
“We are just going to take a look at all the federal agencies and say, ‘Do we really need all 428 federal agencies?'” he said.
He added, “There are so many of them that people have not really heard of, and they have overlapping areas of responsibility. There are more federal agencies than the years America has existed, which means they’re creating more than one per year. That seems like a lot.”
The DOGE Coin and the Department of DOGE
The acronym of the newly created department coincides with the name of a meme cryptocurrency, Dogecoin, which Elon Musk has promoted for years.
Since his candidate won, Elon Musk has become $70 billion richer, as Tesla stock continues to rise. His crypto-backed asset, Dogecoin, has also seen massive growth since Donald Trump won his way back to the White House.
Neusroom checks showed that in the last seven days, Dogecoin has increased by over 114 percent and by 228 percent over the past 30 days. The announcement of the new department, DOGE, has also been widely retweeted by accounts linked to the Dogecoin community, particularly by an account named DogeDesigner.
Neusroom previously reported that Trump’s presidency might make the crypto industry to boom, as enthusiasts believe his policies on the sector will be more favorable than those of the Biden administration.
“You can never be so certain with crypto, though,” Godfirst Victor, a crypto investor, told Neusroom.
“But at least some of the restrictions from the government towards crypto will probably be lifted. I believe the environment will be good for crypto to thrive,” Victor added.
