President-elect Donald Trump announced Tuesday that Elon Musk and former Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy will head a new external advisory group dubbed the “Department of Government Efficiency” (DOGE), named after Musk’s preferred cryptocurrency.
The organization, despite its official-sounding name, will operate outside the federal government, offering “advice and guidance” to the White House while partnering with the Office of Management and Budget. Trump said the group will “drive large scale structural reform, and create an entrepreneurial approach to Government never seen before.”
The arrangement could fall under the Federal Advisory Committee Act, which governs external advisory groups, though specific operational details remain unclear. Unlike federal employees, Musk and Ramaswamy would not face standard government ethics requirements such as asset disclosure or divestment of potential conflicts of interest.
“I don’t think I can get him full-time because he’s a little bit busy sending rockets up and all the things he does,” Trump said of Musk at a September Michigan rally. “He said the waste in this country is crazy. And we’re going to get Elon Musk to be our cost cutter.” Musk has claimed he could identify more than $2 trillion in potential savings, representing nearly a third of annual federal spending.
Trump’s statement outlined the group’s mission to “dismantle Government Bureaucracy, slash excess regulations, cut wasteful expenditures, and restructure Federal Agencies.” Ramaswamy, who suspended his presidential campaign in January to endorse Trump, joins Musk, who has been frequently present at Mar-a-Lago since Trump’s election victory.
