Trump announces Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy will lead the new Department of Government Efficiency

US President-elect Donald Trump is moving ahead with his Cabinet lineup for January 20, announcing Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy as the heads of the new Department of Government Efficiency.

“Together, these two wonderful Americans will pave the way for my Administration to dismantle government bureaucracy, reduce over-regulation, cut wasteful spending, and restructure federal agencies – essential to the ‘Save America’ movement,” Trump said in a statement.

The Department of Government Efficiency will be known by the abbreviation Doge, according to Trump, an apparent reference to the cryptocurrency Dogecoin, which Musk has supported, calling it “the people’s cryptocurrency.”

Musk donated $200 million to Trump’s campaign and was one of his main public supporters ahead of the presidential election.

For his part, Ramaswamy faced off against Trump for the Republican nomination during the primaries, later becoming one of the strongest backers.

Ramaswamy responded separately on X with a slogan he often used during his presidential campaign to call for the elimination of federal agencies, writing: “SHUT THEM DOWN.”

During his campaign, Trump pointed to his proposal for a government efficiency commission as a way to reduce government spending. “As the first order of business, this commission will develop an action plan to totally eliminate fraud and improper payments within six months,” he said in September. “This will save trillions of dollars.”

Ramaswamy, who previously challenged Trump in the Republican presidential primary before endorsing him in January, made cutting waste in government spending a key political platform for his campaign.

Last year, Ramaswamy, who had promised on the campaign trail to eliminate the FBI, the Department of Education and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, laying off thousands of federal workers in the process, released a white paper outlining a legal framework he said would allow the president to eliminate federal agencies of his choosing.

Elon Musk, for his part, said in endorsing Trump on the campaign trail that he would propose a massive rollback of government regulations, which he has long complained about. The Tesla and SpaceX CEO has also proposed an evaluation system that threatens wasteful employees with layoffs and has suggested offering generous severance packages to laid-off government workers. The department’s work will end no later than July 4, 2026, Trump said in the statement.

“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!” he added.

Written by Oscar El Blue

“President-elect Donald Trump’s picks for his new administration”
These are the positions Trump has formally announced so far: