Trump appoints Musk to lead new Department of Government Efficiency

The president-elect Donald Trump announced that Elon Musk will lead a new Department of Government Efficiency (Doge) along with former Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy. In a statement on his Truth Social platform, the tycoon said that Musk and Ramaswamy “will lead the way for my administration to dismantle government bureaucracy, cut excess regulations, cut wasteful spending and restructure federal agencies.”

Musk, founder of Tesla and SpaceX and owner of X, was a major donor to Trump during his presidential campaign.

The Department for Government Efficiency led by Elon Musk “will potentially become the ‘Manhattan Project’ of our times”, Trump said again in the note in which he announced the appointment of the CEO of Musk to the project that led to the development of the atomic bomb during World War II.

“I expect Elon and Vivek to make changes to the federal bureaucracy with an eye to efficiency and, at the same time, improving the lives of all Americans,” declared Trump, who underlined that they will work together to ‘ liberate the US economy and hold the government accountable to its citizens.

Trump’s choices

For the Pentagon, Trump chose an anchorman from Fox, the tycoon’s right-wing megaphone television, Pete Hegseth, while to lead the CIA he would choose Texas congressman John Ratcliffe, former director of National Intelligence.

The tycoon also confirmed the nomination of the governor and former parliamentarian of South Dakota, Kristi Noem, as secretary of the Department of Homeland Security. “Kristi,” Trump wrote, “has been very strong on border security. She was the first governor to send National Guard troops to help Texas fight Biden’s border crisis, and they were sent a total of eight times. She will work closely with the ‘border czar’ Tom Homan to protect the border and will ensure that our American homeland is safe from our adversaries I have known for years, I have worked with her on a wide variety of projects, will have a part important in our mission to Make America Safe Again.”