Written by: Fanfan
Editor: odette
Source: Guokr
In August this year, Musk and Trump connected for two hours on the X platform, talking about everything from international situation to US domestic affairs. At the end of the conversation, Musk concluded: "Inflation comes from government overspending. We need a government efficiency committee to control spending." Trump responded: "You are best at layoffs. If you are willing to do this, I would be happy to do it."
After the conversation, Musk tweeted on X that he was looking forward to serving America "for no pay, no title, no recognition."
At the time, everyone thought it was a bit outrageous. After all, these two people have always been the gate tower and the hip axis, each saying their own thing. Unexpectedly, the first big news after Trump won the election was that he fulfilled his promise to Musk and established the "Department of Government Efficiency", abbreviated as DOGE.
Musk also designed a logo for the new department he leads. The fewer words, the bigger the event. ｜x.com
DOGE obviously borrowed the name of Dogecoin, which Musk supported, but Trump quickly issued an official announcement to prove that this playful name was serious.
Remember the bloody storm caused by the high-spending and selling of Dogecoin? It’s quite ironic to call the government department this name.
“The great Elon Musk,” the announcement read, “will join Vivek Ramaswamy (Indian businessman, entrepreneur, and Republican) in leading the newly created Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE.”
In the announcement, Trump also declared that the importance of efforts to cut government spending is comparable to the modern Manhattan Project, and that the Department of Government Efficiency will work with the White House Office of Management and Budget to promote large-scale government structural reforms and complete the reforms by July 4, 2026. "This is a gift to the 250th anniversary of the publication of the (Declaration of Independence)," Trump said.
Announcements from the Trump-Vance Administration
As soon as the news came out, the price of Dogecoin rose accordingly. It seems that the phenomenon of speculating on concept stocks is the same in every country.
Currently, the DOGE department is recruiting talents on the Internet, requiring "super high IQ and 80+ hours of work per week", and Musk himself will review the top 1% of applicants.
Musk's next step in politics
Two things Musk may do after taking office are to cut U.S. government spending and streamline administrative agencies.
In October, Musk publicly stated at a rally at Madison Square Garden in New York that he intends to cut at least $2 trillion from the federal budget. However, according to the Congressional Budget Office, discretionary spending, including defense spending, is estimated at $1.9 trillion of the $6.75 trillion in total federal spending in fiscal year 2024.
In other words, based on the current spending of the US government, the money Musk plans to cut is almost as much as all the government's discretionary spending.
Another thing he might do is lay off employees.
Currently, the US government has about 428 administrative agencies, and Musk believes that 99 is too many. On other occasions, Musk has publicly called for the elimination of current administrative agencies. He called on his fans to "if you think there is anything I should cut but haven't cut, please tell me directly." He also claimed that he would set up a ranking list in the future to rank the most wasteful and stupid tax expenditures.
When Musk says he will lay off employees, he really does. In 2019, Musk quickly laid off 10% of Space X employees with an email, and many employees were immediately unable to log into their work systems after seeing the email; after acquiring Twitter in 2022, Musk laid off 80% of the employees, drastically reducing the company's size from 8,000 to 1,500; at the beginning of this year, he laid off 28,000 Tesla employees.
Will the U.S. government face such a round of layoffs in the future? What will happen to the laid-off American civil servants? Will the U.S. government's already low efficiency become even lower due to staff shortages? These are all questions.
What Musk will do after taking office: Email every government official and ask what you did this week
In addition to being a government efficiency officer, Musk may also further use his close relationship with Trump to interfere in more American politics. For example, last Wednesday, Musk participated in Trump's first phone call with Ukrainian President Zelensky after his victory.
Can layoffs reduce expenses?
Although it looks beautiful, Musk's idea may not work.
American political economist Francis Fukuyama published an open letter to Musk the day before yesterday, in which he mentioned, "It is widely believed that the federal bureaucracy is bloated and overstaffed, but this is not the case. In fact, the government is understaffed."
Since 1969, the number of civil servants in the US government has basically not increased, at about 2.3 million, because the US government has been streamlining its employees. For example, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services oversees $1.4 trillion in spending, one-fifth of the entire federal budget, but they have only 6,400 full-time employees, while the Office of Refugee Resettlement, which is responsible for resettling millions of refugees, has only 150 employees. If these personnel are cut, fraud and waste in the health insurance system may increase, refugees may get out of control, and the economic losses caused by these side effects are difficult to accurately calculate.
In addition, some media also stated that the United States’ financial problems should not be handed over to three billionaires (referring to Musk, Trump, and Ramaswamy, who are all wealthy businessmen). They can only represent the interests of the privileged class, which is a natural breeding ground for corruption.
Others say Musk's enthusiasm reminds people of Andrew Mellon, the last Treasury Secretary who was determined to drastically cut U.S. government spending in the 1920s. He laid off an average of one Treasury employee a day and cut the size of banknotes to save printing costs. However, later historians believed that his belt-tightening plan accelerated the arrival of the Great Depression in the United States in 1929.
Trump's Cabinet
Eight years ago, when Trump was elected president of the United States for the first time, he himself did not expect to win the election, so he was not fully prepared. According to the Center for Presidential Transition, after taking office, the new president needs to be responsible for the appointment and handover of about 4,000 political officials and staff members. Because Trump did not decide who to appoint to what position, many positions were directly assigned by the Republican Party.
But this time it was different. Trump came prepared and had already arranged his cabinet members.
So far, Trump has announced the following appointments:
Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who has a tough stance on China, was put on China's blacklist and banned from entering the country.
Attorney General Matt Gaetz, a Florida congressman accused of rape and sexual assault of a minor, is being investigated by the House of Representatives for misappropriating campaign funds.
Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth, is a U.S. Army veteran and Fox News host, who previously served as a major in the military.
Surgeon General, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., environmental lawyer, anti-vaccine activist.
Trump also said that after taking office, he would further increase tariffs on China, force Nvidia to shift chip manufacturing to the United States, and repeal the executive order issued by the Biden administration to restrict the development of AI. But on the other hand, Trump is one of the few politicians who has said that "TikTok will never be banned", and his election may bring a glimmer of hope for the TikTok ban.
