After Donald Trump’s victory last week, there was a very brief pause, a moment of acknowledgment of the red wave that was actually sweeping the country, and then, in the next moment, the realization that Americans had voted for Trump’s norms for the second time. – destructive brand of politics.

During his first administration, most of Trump’s picks for Cabinet and other positions were traditional. He succeeded in securing deep tax cuts, but his promise to combat the “deep state” by shrinking the bureaucracy was never realized and budget deficits soared. This was especially true after the economy shut down due to the pandemic.

Trump promised during his campaign that things would be different this time.

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For proof: Trump asked friends Elon Musk, the world’s richest man, and Vivek Ramaswamy, a wealthy entrepreneur and former presidential candidate, to head the Department of Government Efficiency, or “DOGE,” and use it to suggest ways to vastly improve . Reduced the size and scope of the federal government.

Musk and Ramaswamy were part of the Trump campaign’s team of misfits, whom Trump likened to Marvel movie superheroes: “Avengers.” Voters seemed to like the idea of ​​outsiders fighting together to restructure the government, making it cheaper and more responsive to the common man.

Now, in the still hazy days following the election, Trump is quickly appointing his team to de facto positions in government, including “DOGE,” and there is a collective gasp from the establishment—perhaps this is the effect Trump intended. . It looks like Trump is actually getting ready to do what he promised. But it is still unknown whether he can actually achieve his goals and whether voters will like the results.

What will “DOGE” do?

It’s early days, but essentially the Department of Government Efficiency would be tasked with finding ways to eliminate “waste” and inefficiencies in government.

In the press release announcing the formation of the advisory committee, Trump said it would be the “Manhattan Project of our time,” referring to the attempt to create an atomic weapon during World War II. Duty, according to Embers“Eliminating Government Bureaucracy, cutting excessive regulations, cutting wasteful spending, and restructuring Federal Agencies.”

Musk in question He would not be compensated for his work with DOGE and Ramaswamy reportedly It won’t happen either. Trump said his work, a “gift” to the nation, would end on July 4, 2026, the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence.

The new DOGE account on X has already put out a call for resumes. after reading: “We are so grateful to the thousands of Americans who have expressed interest in helping us at DOGE. We don’t need any more part-time idea generators. We need small government revolutionaries with super high IQs who are willing to work 80+ hours a week for no-frills cost-cutting efforts. If this is you, send your CV via DM to this account. Elon & Vivek will review the top 1% of applicants.”

Ramaswamy looks ready to start cutting. during a speech At a Buckley Institute event at Yale last week, he described himself as a “national libertarian” who supports reducing the size and scope of the federal government.

“Do we believe in replacing the left-wing nanny state with a right-wing nanny state? Or do we really want to go in there and eliminate the nanny state?” he asked.

“I think the right answer for the future of the country is to go in there and shut it down,” he said.

Most federal spending locked up

Musk and Ramaswamy both run their own businesses; Musk famously cut 80% of Twitter’s workforce, now X, BBC The process was “painful.”

Now Musk saying He wants to cut $2 trillion from the $6.75 trillion federal budget.

But the government may find it more difficult to cut its spending because so much of it depends on promises made to creditors or American taxpayers. In 2024, federal government spends $1.1 trillion goes to interest payments on the nation’s debt, $2.9 trillion goes to Social Security and Medicare, and $1.4 trillion goes to defense spending.

Republicans have been sounding the alarm about the national debt for some time and saying they want to rein in government spending. The federal government’s budget as a percentage of GDP has increased from 20% to 23% since 2015, and the national debt of $35.46 trillion accounts for 123% of GDP.

It’s just that Democrats and Republicans have different ideas on how to reduce the $1.8 trillion annual deficit by 2024. Democrats say the rich and corporations should pay more taxes, while many Republicans want to cut spending.

Ramaswamy is definitely in favor of cutting spending. He recently talked about wanting to cut federal bureaucracy and the idea that this would be a place where he could find significant savings. About 3 million Americans Working for the federal government, except military personnel or government contractors. Federal employees live in every state in the country, but the largest number live in the Washington, D.C. area, including the surrounding cities of Virginia and Maryland.

Even laying off government employees will be difficult. Most are unionized, with 800,000 federal workers organized under the umbrella union of the American Federation of Government Employees. AFGE.

After the election, AFGE issued a statement saying: “During Trump’s first term, his administration sought to eliminate many of the union contracts we negotiated, downsize and redeploy federal agencies at great disruption and cost to taxpayers, and replace tens of thousands if not tens of thousands of jobs. – partisan civil servants with political appointments who will blindly carry out his orders.” The union said it “will not allow any political leader, regardless of their political affiliation, to be rude to our Constitution and laws.”

Trump hopes that by reducing regulations and taxes he can grow the economy in a way that helps raise federal revenue. It also plans to raise federal revenue through tariffs on foreign goods, but economists He states that this will increase costs for consumers.

The other “problem” is Congress; Ultimately, Congress decides how much the government spends and largely how it is spent by passing budget bills. Trump and agency heads could implement some of the recommendations created by DOGE, but they would have to rely on Congress to make major, lasting changes.

Government waste is not hard to find

As soon as news spread about Ramaswamy and Musk’s new roles, people started flooding them with ideas of what to cut.

On Thursday, Musk added: emoji To a post by Kentucky Senator Rand Paul who said, “The National Institutes of Health spent over $3,000,000 watching hamsters fight on steroids.”

Paul is ready with a number of other ideas from his annual event:Publication of Complaints” Report on federal spending with nearly $500 billion in ideas on what to cut.

Proposals have been made to abolish the Department of Education and abolish the IRS, although most of its spending continues as block grants to states.