Musk to lead dramatic cuts in Trump's 'Department of efficiency'

President-elect Donald Trump announced that he will appoint "Department of Government Efficiency" (DOGE) led by Elon Musk (the creator of SpaceX and Tesla) and businessman Vivek Ramaswamy, a former rival in the Republican primaries. It is expected that Musk will serve in this quasi-department (formally an external advisory body to the White House) in a consultative role. This ensures he can continue managing major businesses like Tesla, SpaceX, xAI, and Neuralink, which produces brain-implantable chips. Trump announced new tasks for businessmen on X.

"Together, these two wonderful Americans will pave the way for my Administration to dismantle Government Bureaucracy, slash excess regulations, cut wasteful expenditures, and restructure Federal Agencies," Trump wrote in a statement published on X.

Before the elections, Musk did not elaborate on how he would cut government spending. However, during one of the online meetings with voters, he admitted plainly that the proposed cuts would cause temporary difficulties but ensure long-term prosperity. "There is so much government waste that it's kind of like being in a room full of targets like you can't miss - you fire in any direction you’re going to hit a target," Musk said about his strategy for cuts. He announced that he foresees a gradual review of government spending.

At the famous rally in Madison Square Garden, the head of Tesla and SpaceX convinced people that "all government spending is taxes." "Your money is being wasted, and the 'Department of Government Efficiency' intends to fix it," he said. Earlier in the campaign, Musk assured that under the new president, he would manage to cut the U.S. federal budget by at least 2 trillion dollars. Bloomberg reminds us that this exceeds the amount Congress spends annually on government agencies, including defence.

The agency calculates that last year the government spent over 6.75 trillion dollars, of which more than 5.3 trillion dollars went to social security, healthcare, defence, and veterans' benefits. And it notes that practice shows it is difficult to convince Congress to cut spending in these areas.

Elon Musk, however, seems adamant on this matter. At the end of October in Pennsylvania, Musk told voters it's necessary to "drain the Washington swamp" because "there are so many of them." He borrowed this phrase from one of the audience (Donald Trump had also spoken about "draining the swamp" when he first ran for the presidency, and many other politicians before him said the same). Musk assured that sharp cuts are needed; otherwise, the country would be led to bankruptcy.

Bloomberg points out that the closest to Musk's plans would be the multi-year vision of Republican Senator Rand Paul, which would involve cutting expenditures by 6% annually for five years until the U.S. expenditures and revenues are balanced. In response to a comment from a user on X, who noted that Trump and Musk's plans would mean "serious upheavals in the economy" and "stock market crashes," after which there would be a "revival" toward a "healthier economy," the billionaire replied meaningfully: "sounds about right."

Earlier, as "Financial Times" reminds, Musk said that the system's savings would come from dismissing hundreds of thousands of employees who currently create "enormous bureaucracy." He also talked about eliminating regulations that, in his opinion, stifle innovation. He also announced that he had identified unsuccessful investments from predecessors. "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 announced in one of his posts on X.

In an interview with conservative and controversial journalist Tucker Carlson, Musk said that he also sees cuts in drastically reducing the number of government agencies, which are currently about 420. "There's so many that people have never even heard of. I think we should be able to get away with 99 agencies," Musk speculated.

The "Washington Post" points out that Musk hasn't clearly stated over what period he's planning to make these radical cuts. Experts generally assess the impact of fiscal decisions over 10 years. If the billionaire meant cutting 2 trillion dollars within one year, it would mean a real reduction in government spending by about one-third. Such an idea is assessed as absurd and unworkable.

"The idea that one can cut $2 trillion in wasteful and unnecessary programs is absolutely absurd," Brian Riedl, a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, a centre-right think tank, told "Washington Post."

In his opinion, we are dealing with a fantasy in which a businessman identified the problem solely in bureaucratic waste, but "that's simply not how it works." Another matter is Trump's expectations, who - based on experiences from his first term - might attempt to bypass Congress when deciding on expenditures completely. This would signal a serious constitutional dispute in the USA.

The service theatlantic.com warns about the risk of oligarchisation in the American version, which Trump's presidency could fuel. "many of the wealthiest Americans have reached the cold conclusion that the opportunities presented by Trump outweigh whatever social opprobrium might follow an embrace (his taking office - ed.)" - it reads.

Although oligarchy is mainly associated with Russia and other Eastern autocracies, and in the USA, Trump allies himself with the most powerful businessmen who do not owe their fortunes to him, the essence of the power-business agreements remains the same. Its main goal will be the exchange of favours.

"The Trumpist oligarchy that is taking shape is far different from the post-Soviet strain. What makes it distinct is that Trump is entering into a partnership with the most powerful technologists in the world. But the core problem of oligarchy is the same. [...] None of this would exactly resemble Putin’s oligarchy, which largely consists of old chums from the KGB and his childhood friends from St. Petersburg," Theatlantic.com notes.

The differences that are supposed to make the American system safer are democratic control and the rule of law. "In contrast to Putin, Trump is aligning with genuinely creative entrepreneurs. Yet that doesn’t make the American model better—just uniquely dangerous. Trump’s transactionalism will be tethered to people driven by greed, but also by messianic fervour, and the result will be like nothing you’ve ever seen," warns the service.