Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s support for President-elect Donald Trump’s election campaign is beginning to benefit the tech mogul, especially now that Trump has started to appoint the first members of his future government team.
Musk is among them. Trump has fulfilled his campaign promise by placing him and Vivek Ramaswamy, a biotech entrepreneur and ex-presidential candidate, at the helm of the newly established Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). Their task is to reduce and regulate federal spending.
Musk’s new ministry. In a recent statement released on Truth Social, Trump’s social media platform, the president-elect appointed Musk and Ramaswamy to tackle the challenging mission of cutting public spending. The goal is to “dismantle government bureaucracy, slash excess regulations, cut wasteful expenditures, and restructure federal agencies,” which Trump sees as essential to what he calls the “Save America” movement.
Trump has praised Musk and Ramaswamy, referring to their leadership of this new department as “the Manhattan Project of our time.” He aims to eliminate the “massive waste and fraud which exists throughout our annual $6.5 trillion of government spending.”
An “advisory” department. Trump aims to optimize government structures by eliminating anything deemed unprofitable. Unsurprisingly, he has selected two billionaire entrepreneurs to spearhead this initiative.
According to Trump’s statement, Musk and Ramaswamy will have the authority to implement significant changes in public spending. To mitigate any conflicts of interest, the statement clarifies that this new department will function as an external, non-executive advisory body. “The Department of Government Efficiency will provide advice and guidance from outside of government, and will partner with the White House and Office of Management & Budget to… create an entrepreneurial approach to government never seen before,” Trump said.
Targets: July 4, 2026 and $2 trillion. Trump has set a deadline for the new department led by Musk and Ramaswamy to show results: July 4, 2026. He said, “[This] will be the perfect gift to America on the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence.”
However, achieving this goal will be challenging, as neither Musk nor Trump have specified the measures necessary to carry out the promised $2 trillion in public spending reductions. During a campaign speech, Musk said, “We have to reduce spending to live within our means. That necessarily involves some temporary hardship, but it will ensure long-term prosperity.”
Project 2025. During the electoral campaign, the conservative think tank The Heritage Foundation introduced Project 2025, a plan aimed at expanding presidential powers and significantly reforming the structure of the federal government.
One of the proposed measures includes the dismissal of up to 50,000 civil servants. Trump has alluded to this in his campaign statements, referring to these workers as “dishonest people.”
The “Musk Algorithm.” Writer Walter Isaacson, the author of Musk’s official biography, mentioned that Musk’s optimization processes in his companies were so intense that his employees nicknamed them the “Musk Algorithm.”
This system, which the tech mogul is expected to apply in optimizing federal spending, consists of five key points, as outlined in Isaacson’s book:
- Question the specification requirements. It’s crucial to identify the individual responsible for establishing a requirement rather than relying on instructions from a general department or agency. Additionally, each specification should be scrutinized. The final recommendation is to enhance the specifications to make them less “dumb.”
- Eliminate unnecessary parts of the process. This step encourages removing as many elements of the process as possible, with the idea that some can be reintroduced later if needed. One of Musk’s mottos is, “If you do not end up adding back at least 10% of them, then you didn’t delete enough.”
- Simplify and optimize. Musk points out that a common mistake is simplifying and optimizing a component or process that should’ve been discarded in the previous step.
- Accelerate cycle times. According to Musk, all processes can be expedited, but this should only be done after completing the first three steps. This ensures that time isn’t wasted trying to speed up something that should’ve been eliminated.
- Automate. After questioning all specifications, removing unnecessary parts and processes, and refining all errors, the final step is to automate the task. This reduces human intervention in the process.
A company isn’t a state. As mentioned in point two of the “Musk Algorithm” and its implementation at X, Tesla, and SpaceX, Musk’s optimization system allows for up to 10% cuts, followed by the possibility of backtracking.
However, the downside is that, unlike a business, the federal government doesn’t need to be profitable in all its measures. In fact, these cuts can have a direct impact on the lives of citizens.
DOGE: the new “ministry” that’s trading up. Musk’s involvement in the Trump campaign has been shadowed by concerns over his conflicts of interest and influence in the political arena.
One particularly interesting aspect was the name he suggested for the efficiency department, which coincidentally matches the name of his favorite memecoin: dogecoin. This “coincidence” has significantly impacted the price of the cryptocurrency, which recently increased by 92.83%, according to data from CoinMarketCap.
Let the show begin! Musk’s reaction to his official appointment came swiftly. He posted on his X account, “All actions of the Department of Government Efficiency will be posted online for maximum transparency.” He further encouraged anyone who believes that something important has been cut or that the department isn’t doing enough to reach out to him.
Additionally, Musk said that he would create a ranking of the most absurd expenses funded by American taxpayer dollars.
Image | Thomas Hawk
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