Trump names Elon Musk to lead government efficiency drive

US president-elect Donald Trump on Tuesday named Elon Musk for a role aimed at creating a more efficient government, handing more influence to the world's richest man who donated millions to help Trump get elected.

Musk and former Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy will co-lead the  newly created department of government efficiency, an entity Trump indicated will operate outside the confines of government.

Trump said Musk and Ramaswamy “will pave the way for my administration to dismantle government bureaucracy, slash excess regulations, cut wasteful expenditures and restructure federal agencies”.

Trump said the new department will realise long-held Republican dreams and “provide advice and guidance from outside government”, signalling the Musk and Ramaswamy roles would be informal, without requiring senate approval and allowing Musk to remain the head of electric car company Tesla, social media platform X and rocket company SpaceX.

The new department would work with the White House and office of management & budget to “drive large scale structural reform, and create an entrepreneurial approach” to government not seen before, Trump said.

The work would conclude by July 4 2026, the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence.

Musk, ranked by Forbes as the richest person in the world, stood to benefit from Trump's victory, with the billionaire entrepreneur expected to wield extraordinary influence to help his companies and secure favourable government treatment.

With many links to Washington, Musk gave millions to support Trump's presidential campaign and made public appearances with him.

Adding a government portfolio to Musk's plate could benefit the market value of his companies and favoured businesses such as artificial intelligence and cryptocurrency.

“It's clear Musk will have a massive role in the Trump White House with his increasing reach clearly across many federal agencies,” equities analyst Daniel Ives of Wedbush Securities said in a research note.

“We believe the major benefits for Musk and Tesla far outweigh any negatives as this continues to be a 'poker move for the ages' by Musk betting on Trump,” Ives said.

The move was criticised by Public Citizen, a progressive consumer tights NGO that challenged several of Trump’s first-term policies.

“Musk not only knows nothing about government efficiency and regulation, his own businesses have regularly run afoul of the very rules he will be in position to attack in his new ‘czar’ position,” said Lisa Gilbert, co-president of Public Citizen.

“This is the ultimate corporate corruption.”

Trump likened the efficiency effort to the Manhattan Project, the US undertaking to build the atomic bomb that helped end World War 2, while Musk promised transparency.

“All actions of the department of government efficiency will be posted online for maximum transparency,” Musk said on X, inviting the public to provide tips.

“We will also have a leader board for most insanely dumb spending of your tax dollars. This will be extremely tragic and extremely entertaining,” Musk said.

Musk said at a Trump rally at Madison Square Garden in October  the federal budget could be reduced by “at least” $2-trillion (R36.1-trillion). Discretionary spending, including defence spending, is estimated to total $1.9-trillion out of $6.75-trillion in total federal outlays for fiscal 2024, according to the Congressional Budget Office.

“Your money is being wasted and the department of government efficiency is going to fix that. We're going to get the government off your back and out of your pocketbook,” Musk said at the rally.

The acronym of the new department, Doge, also references the name of the cryptocurrency dogecoin Musk promotes. In August Musk and Tesla won the dismissal of a federal lawsuit accusing them of defrauding investors by hyping dogecoin and conducting insider trading, causing billions of dollars in losses.

Dogecoin has more than doubled since Election Day, tracking a surge in cryptocurrency markets on expectations of a softer regulatory ride under a Trump administration.

Shares in Tesla fell on Wall Street ahead of the announcement but are up about 30% since the election.

Ramaswamy, founder of a pharmaceutical company, ran for the Republican presidential nomination against Trump and then threw his support behind the former president after dropping out.

He said the appointment means he is withdrawing from consideration for the pending US Senate appointment in Ohio, where governor Mike DeWine will appoint a replacement for JD Vance, who will become Trump's vice president when they are inaugurated on January 20.

Reuters