US president-elect Donald Trump on Tuesday announced that Elon Musk and businessman Vivek Ramaswamy will lead a new Department of Government Efficiency tasked with cutting federal waste.
The body will be called Doge for short, a cheeky nod to the meme and Dogecoin cryptocurrency, represented by a picture of a Shiba Inu dog, that Mr Musk has long promoted.
Mr Musk became a key ally to Mr Trump during his campaign, reportedly spending more than $100 million to help the Republican win and repeatedly boosting Mr Trump's candidacy on X, which he owns.
In a statement, Mr Trump said the department would “dismantle government bureaucracy, slash excess regulations, cut wasteful expenditures and restructure federal agencies”.
He said the department “will provide advice and guidance from outside of Government,” a move that could allow Mr Musk to avoid disclosing his financial holdings.
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. Because Mr Musk and Mr Ramaswamy would not be formal federal workers, they would not face those requirements or ethical limitations.
Still, Mr Musk might come under pressure to recuse himself from any decisions that could be seen to help any of his companies, which benefit from billions of dollars in federal contracts.
Mr Trump is set to return to Washington on Wednesday to President Joe Biden in the Oval Office.
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