Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy lead new DOGE division

Loyalty is rewarded: Donald Trump appoints Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy to head a new department for "efficiency gains within the government."

Incoming U.S. President Donald Trump officially welcomes Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy to his team. The two entrepreneurs will lead the newly formed *Department of Government Efficiency*, or DOGE. The acronym DOGE, of course, is a reference to Elon Musk's favorite crypto currency, Dogecoin (DOGE), which rose a whopping 74 percent in value this week.

According to Trump, the goal of this department is "to cut red tape, eliminate unnecessary regulations, cut waste and restructure federal agencies." He ambitiously calls the department "the Manhattan Project of our time." This is not a ministry, but an advisory body to the government.

Clearly, the example comes from Argentine President Javier Milei, who went viral with his rigorous austerity measures. In one video, Milei can be seen symbolically ripping the Ministry of Culture and other agencies off a board, shouting "Afuera!" which in Spanish means "away with it!" means.

Trump expects Musk and Ramaswamy to complete their task no later than July 4, 2026, exactly 250 years after the signing of the American Declaration of Independence. With this, Trump surrounds himself with his most loyal supporters. Musk supported the 78-year-old both financially and publicly during the campaign.

Ramaswamy initially began as Trump's rival in the election campaign, but later pulled out to support Trump. Known for his conservative views, he criticizes progressive ideas such as Critical Race Theory in his New York Times bestseller. He also strongly opposes the "climate agenda," which he sees as misguided.

Among other things, Musk is CEO of SpaceX, a space company that has multiple contracts with NASA. Under the Commercial Crew Program, for example, SpaceX has received a major contract to develop the Crew Dragon spacecraft, which transports American astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS). This leaves Musk as the leader of the government-related DOGE division potentially facing conflicts of interest.