Trump picks Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy to advise on government efficiency

US president-elect Donald Trump on Tuesday said Elon Musk and former Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy will lead a new non-governmental agency called the Department of Government Efficiency (Doge).
The acronym Doge is a nod to Musk’s favourite cryptocurrency, dogecoin.
Mr Trump said in a statement that Mr Musk and Mr Ramaswamy will work from outside the government to offer the White House “advice and guidance” and will partner with the Office of Management and Budget to “drive large scale structural reform, and create an entrepreneurial approach to Government never seen before”.
He added that the move would shock government systems.
It is not clear how the organisation will operate. It could come under the Federal Advisory Committee Act, which dictates how external groups that advise the US government must operate and be accountable to the public.
Federal employees are generally required to disclose their assets and entanglements to ward off any potential conflicts of interest, and to divest significant holdings relating to their work.
As Mr Musk and Mr Ramaswamy would not be formal federal workers, they would not face those requirements or ethical limitations.
Mr Musk posted on X: “Department of Government Efficiency. The merch will be (fire emojis).”
Later, he added: “Threat to democracy? Nope, threat to BUREAUCRACY!!!”
Mr Musk has been a constant presence at Mar-a-Lago since Mr Trump won the presidential election.
The president-elect has often said he would give Mr Musk a formal role overseeing a group akin to a blue-ribbon commission that would recommend ways to slash spending and make the federal government more efficient.
Mr Musk at one point suggested he could find more than two trillion dollars in savings – nearly a third of total annual government spending.
Mr Trump had made clear that Mr Musk would likely not hold any kind of full-time position, given his other commitments.
Mr Ramaswamy suspended his campaign in January and threw his support behind Mr Trump.
Mr Trump said in his statement the two will “pave the way for my Administration to dismantle Government Bureaucracy, slash excess regulations, cut wasteful expenditures, and restructure Federal Agencies”. – AP