Elon Musk will co-lead a new Department of Government Efficiency after helping to deliver Pa. to Trump. But what is DOGE?
The newly established commission known as DOGE is run by two Trump loyalists. Musk claims the organization will have a "leaderboard" for wasteful government spending.
It seems like all of Elon Musk’s work in Pennsylvania may have paid off.
President-elect Donald Trump announced late Tuesday that Musk, the world’s richest man and owner of X, as well as Vivek Ramaswamy, former GOP presidential primary candidate, will lead the newly-established Department of Government Efficiency, or ”DOGE.”
The commission, aimed at “large scale structural reform,” will operate outside the government but will partner with the White House and the Office of Management & Budget, Trump said in a statement. Its “work,” Trump said, will be completed by July 4, 2026.
The specifics of what that “work” entails, or how the commission will provide guidance from outside the government, is unclear. An official government agency cannot be created without an act of Congress, which will still have final say on spending bills.
Musk has promoted the concept driving DOGE for at least several months, first mentioning a government efficiency commission during a conversation on X Spaces with Trump in August. Since then, Musk has ramped up his pro-Trump efforts, including campaigning for the then-GOP candidate in Pennsylvania. Ramaswamy, a businessman who was once Trump’s opponent in the 2024 primary, has also become a close ally the president-elect.
Notably, the new department, which intends to improve government efficiency, will be led by two people, as pointed out by skeptics of the project online.
DOGE is a brand new commission and it’s unclear how much power it will wield. But, here’s what we know about what the department can and can’t do, and why Musk and Ramaswamy are both in charge.
What is the Department of Government Efficiency?
The Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE (a reference to the much-memed Dogecoin cryptocurrency) is intended to act as an outside commission advising the White House and the Office of Management & Budget on cutting spending that is deemed wasteful, reducing staff, and curbing regulations.
The commission may be charged with driving “drastic change” and “an entrepreneurial approach to Government never seen before,” Trump said in his statement.
How will the Department of Government Efficiency operate?
It remains unclear how the organization would operate, but it could be guided by the Federal Advisory Committee Act, PBS reported, which upholds certain legal and ethical guidelines.
The Federal Advisory Committee Act, established in 1972, provides the legal basis for how federal advisory committees operate, including guidance on open meetings, charters, public involvement, and reports, according to the U.S. General Services Administration.
Federal employees are typically required to disclose their assets and other involvements to mitigate any conflicts of interest by detangling themselves from any questionable involvements, but since Musk and Ramaswamy would not be official federal workers, they would not be held to those standards.
The SpaceX CEO’s companies were promised billions in federal contracts last year, The New York Times reported in October.
Musk has already started to weigh in on X in regards to how he wants the commission to operate. In posts to the platform Tuesday night, he suggested that 99 federal agencies “is more than enough” and that “all actions of the Department of Government Efficiency will be posted online for maximum transparency.” If the public believes the commission is cutting something important or is not cutting something deemed wasteful: “Just let us know!” Musk said.
The billionaire also said the commission will have a “leaderboard for most insanely dumb spending of your tax dollars.”
On his X account Tuesday, Ramaswamy said the commission “will soon begin crowdsourcing examples of government waste, fraud, & abuse.”
It’s unknown how this leaderboard or how the commission’s “crowdsourcing” or communication strategy with the public will work.
The commission also appears to have its own X account, denoted with a gray verification check mark because it is “a government or multilateral organization account.”
Why are Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy in charge?
Perhaps ironically, the commission with the goal of achieving less government bureaucracy has two people leading its charge.
But their appointments are not surprising.
Both Musk and Ramaswamy have positioned themselves as Trump loyalists on the 2024 campaign trail.
Musk devoted millions of dollars and significant amounts of time to helping deliver Pennsylvania for Trump, and some Republicans in the Keystone State give him credit for bolstering Trump’s victory by bringing enthusiasm and clout to the campaign trail.
Most of Musk’s work was sponsored through his pro-Trump America PAC — which the billionaire said is not going away anytime soon. The Tesla and SpaceX CEO and X owner held town halls across the Commonwealth, debuted a petition, which included various cash prizes (including a $1 million lottery for swing state voters) for signers, all while spreading election misinformation on X.
Ramaswamy was once a political opponent of Trump’s during the 2024 GOP presidential primary. But after dropping out of the race in January, the biotech entrepreneur threw his support behind Trump, and served as a surrogate on the campaign trail, including appearing in the spin room after Trump’s debate against Vice President Kamala Harris in Philadelphia in September.
What could Musk’s leadership style look like?
While Musk has been at the forefront of major entrepreneurial and technological innovations, and has remained connected to the federal government through his business dealings, this will be Musk’s first time working closely with a presidential administration, so it’s uncertain how he will utilize that power.
Government efficiency is a topic he has long been passionate about, and as a major Trump ally, he’s found himself in increasingly important spaces in the president-elect’s inner circle — speaking with world leaders and even becoming an honorary member of the Trump family.