This year’s President Elect is Donald J. Trump, and he hasn’t wasted any time making announcements about new changes and ideals he’s planning to implement both on and beyond his inauguration. One of Trump’s non-govermental plans is DOGE, or the “Department of Government Efficiency”. The department will be led by businessmen Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy (rom-ah-swa-me). Musk and Ramaswamy will both have considerable power under their new governmental positions, so it’s important to be informed about what DOGE exactly is, and who’s in charge of it.
President Elect Trump gave numerous details about what the Department of Government Efficiency is and what it plans to accomplish in the previously mentioned announcement. The acronym of the department, DOGE, is a not-so-subtle nod to Musk’s favorite cryptocurrency “Dogecoin”. DOGE will be essential to “Save America”, a political action committee started by Trump following his loss of the 2020 presidential election. Factcheck.org describes Save America as being made to “build on the accomplishments of the Trump administration while supporting the Republican Party and the country.” Furthermore, Trump claims that DOGE will be the “Manhattan Project” of our time, referring to the heavily influential World War 2 program that produced the first nuclear weapons. Trump bookends his announcement by setting a date and restating the department’s central purpose: cutting down excess governmental costs. Word by word, Trump wrote “Importantly, we will drive out the massive waste and fraud which exists throughout our annual $6.5 trillion of government spending.” DOGE’s work is said to be completed by no later than July 4, 2026, which Trump considers a “perfect gift to America on the 250th Anniversary of the Declaration of Independence.”
While Trump is heavily involved with DOGE’s creation, the aforementioned businessmen Musk and Ramaswamy will head the department. To truly understand what DOGE is and what it will be, it’s essential to learn about its appointed leaders.
Elon Musk is undoubtedly the most widely known between the two, whether for good or bad. Born in South Africa, Musk is most well known for his entrepreneurial ventures in forming SpaceX, co-founding PayPal, and being the CEO of Tesla. Recently, following Musk’s controversial acquisition of X (formerly known as Twitter, of course), Musk has made a noticeable breakthrough into the world of politics, publicly endorsing Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump after an attempt made on Trump’s life in July of 2024. He subsequently became one of Trump’s biggest financial backers, spending approximately $277 million towards his campaign and political action committee. Upon being nominated for this non-governmental commission position, he vowed that he would “balance the budget immediately” and cut $2 trillion in spending. Of this he also claimed that it would come with “temporary hardship,” but ultimately serve as a push for stable economic growth.
Vivek Ramaswamy is also an entrepreneur, having founded Roivant Sciences, a pharmaceutical company. He has a bachelor’s degree in biology from Harvard, and later went back to law school at Yale, where he befriended fellow politician J.D Vance. After stepping down as CEO of Roivant, Ramaswamy diverged from previous claims of apoliticism, and, much like Musk, he too made moves into the political sphere. He has been a proud advocate of a “high-carbon lifestyle,” promotes raising the voting age to 25, and has also pledged to fire over 75% of the federal workforce. The most significant move into this sphere that he made was throughout his own bid for a spot in the Oval Office in 2024. Ramaswamy eventually suspended his campaign, and endorsed Donald Trump for the presidency, having placed fourth in the Iowa Republican caucus.
While Trump, Musk, and Ramaswamy may be public figures, their intentions and plans can always change. These plans and their implementations have an impact upon US citizens everywhere. Despite that fact, it’s important to stay updated on what you can learn about new developments and the people behind them during this transitional period in the United States government.
Sources: CBS News (1) (2), FactCheck, Britannica (1) (2) (3), Reddit (repost of Trump’s DOGE announcement)
