Trump looks to Elon Musk, Vivek Ramaswamy to provide advice on government efficiency

U.S. president-elect Donald Trump on Tuesday named Elon Musk to a role aimed at creating a more efficient government, handing even more influence to the world's richest man who donated millions of dollars to helping Trump get elected.

Musk and former Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy will co-lead a newly created Department of Government Efficiency, an entity Trump indicated will operate outside the confines of government.

Trump said in a statement that Musk and Ramaswamy "will pave the way for my Administration to dismantle Government Bureaucracy, slash excess regulations, cut wasteful expenditures, and restructure Federal Agencies."

Trump said the new department will realize long-held Republican dreams and "provide advice and guidance from outside of government," signalling the Musk and Ramaswamy roles would be informal, without requiring Senate approval and allowing Musk to remain the head of electric car company Tesla, social media platform X and rocket company SpaceX.

However, it would work with the White House and the Office of Management & Budget to "drive large scale structural reform, and create an entrepreneurial approach" to government never seen before, Trump said.

The work would conclude by July 4, 2026 — the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence.

Musk, ranked by Forbes as the richest person in the world, already stood to benefit from Trump's victory, with the billionaire entrepreneur expected to wield extraordinary influence to help his companies and secure favourable government treatment.

Musk donated millions to campaign

With many links to Washington, Musk gave millions of dollars to support Trump's presidential campaign and made public appearances with him. Trump had said he would offer Musk a role in his administration promoting government efficiency.

Adding a government portfolio to Musk's plate could benefit the market value of his companies and favoured businesses such as artificial intelligence and cryptocurrency.

"It's clear that Musk will have a massive role in the Trump White House with his increasing reach clearly across many federal agencies," equities analyst Daniel Ives of Wedbush Securities said in a research note.

"We believe the major benefits for Musk and Tesla far outweigh any negatives as this continues to be a 'poker move for the ages' by Musk betting on Trump," Ives said.

Trump likened the efficiency effort to the Manhattan Project, the U.S. undertaking to build the atomic bomb that helped end the Second World War, while Musk promised transparency.

"All actions of the Department of Government Efficiency will be posted online for maximum transparency," Musk said on X, inviting the public to provide tips.

"We will also have a leaderboard for most insanely dumb spending of your tax dollars. This will be both extremely tragic and extremely entertaining."

Musk said at a Trump rally at Madison Square Garden in October that the federal budget could be reduced by "at least" $2 trillion US. Discretionary spending, including defence spending, is estimated to total $1.9 trillion out of $6.75 trillion in total federal outlays for fiscal 2024, according to the Congressional Budget Office.

"Your money is being wasted and the Department of Government Efficiency is going to fix that. We're going to get the government off you back and out of your pocketbook," Musk said at the rally.

The acronym of the new department — DOGE — also references the name of the cryptocurrency dogecoin that Musk promotes. In August Musk and Tesla won the dismissal of a federal lawsuit accusing them of defrauding investors by hyping dogecoin and conducting insider trading, causing billions of dollars of losses.

Ramaswamy is the founder of a pharmaceutical company who ran for the Republican presidential nomination against Trump and then threw his support behind him after dropping out.

Ramaswamy said the appointment means he is withdrawing from consideration for the pending Senate appointment in Ohio, where Gov. Mike DeWine will appoint a replacement for J.D. Vance, who will become Trump's vice-president when they are inaugurated on Jan. 20.