Elon Musk has been in all the sauces in recent months. First in the campaign, as a generous donor and dedicated rally attendant, and then in the transition, as a companion of the president-elect of the United States and an agitator for various causes. With the inauguration of Donald Trump, the time has come to begin carrying out the task entrusted to him: a drastic reform of the Administration. Musk has begun to prepare to take out the scissors and cut spending and regulations. He proposes to “shake the system”, among other things, for his own benefit.
The final week of President Joe Biden’s term has highlighted some of the conflicts of interest that can arise in his push against any regulation. The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) sued him on Tuesday for breaking the law and deceiving investors in the purchase of Twitter, with an estimated illicit profit of more than $150 million. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) temporarily halted launches of its Starship spacecraft on Friday after opening an investigation into an explosion of the device that forced commercial flights to be diverted and caused a shower of debris towards the Caribbean islands.
In his campaign rallies, Musk made it clear that one of his objectives was to release obstacles to his space tests. “Mars will be impossible. “We will be forever confined to Earth,” he said that would be the result of a Kamala Harris victory.
Musk will go to Washington this weekend for the president’s inauguration. He is expected to speak at Sunday’s rally at Capital One Arena. He will be one of the direct witnesses who will see Trump swear the Constitution inside the Capitol. The tycoon will then be in charge of the self-proclaimed and non-existent Department of Government Efficiency, DOGE, a nod to Dogecoin, the cryptocurrency derived from bitcoin that uses a dog as a pet and that he somehow sponsors. He will be accompanied by the millennial Trumpist Vivek Ramaswamy, Trump’s rival in the primaries who could not withstand the first round.
“What I like about Elon is that he is a great cost cutter, and Elon believes he can reduce the costs of our government by two trillion dollars,” Trump said in a campaign interview in Glendale, Arizona. “And I think he can do it,” he added.
When Elon Musk bought Twitter, he laid off 75% of the workforce. It eliminated the content moderation teams, but also dispensed with some of the engineers and commercial teams. There were multiple problems, moments of chaos, loss of income and a plummet in the company’s valuation, but the social network continued to function. Replicating this manual in the public Administration will not be an easy task.
Peculiar status in the White House
The richest man in the world will have work space in the White House complex, in the office building adjacent to the presidential palace. However, the work of the DOGE will remain outside the traditional administrative apparatus. Its peculiar status will test the application of transparency regulations, conflicts of interest and other norms that apply to the traditional administrative apparatus and its members.
The DOGE, in fact, will not have the power to make decisions. It will make recommendations to the White House and Congress, competent not only in budgetary matters, but also in most matters that have to do with the elimination or reorganization of agencies.
The structure of the DOGE is kept secret. It seems that it will function more as an informal group. Musk initially asked for highly trained volunteers willing to work 80 hours a week without pay. The offer must not have been tempting enough. Two weeks ago, the DOGE account launched a request for resumes for paid jobs “We are recruiting a very small number of engineers from software and full-time salaried cybersecurity engineers. If you are interested, send us by direct message some points that demonstrate your exceptional ability and your mobile phone number,” DOGE wrote in its X account.
The tycoon has turned to the help of Silicon Valley investors and entrepreneurs, including Peter Thiel, for whom Vice President-elect JD Vance worked. They have created messaging groups with which they communicate and try to organize.
The DOGE has begun to target some expenses, such as those for development aid. Its cut would fit into Trump’s nationalist and isolationist policy. He has also been pointing out some small amounts of apparent waste of public money. Cutting two trillion from a budget of 6.5 trillion, however, will not be an easy task. The majority are interest on the debt (with an upward trend), military spending (which Trump wants to increase) and recognized benefits (such as social security and health care, which the president-elect promised during the campaign to respect). On July 4, 2026, the 250th anniversary of the independence of the United States, and the date set to complete its work, it will be seen if it has been successful.
