Featured Image Credit: Chris Unger/Contributor / The Washington Post/Contributor / Getty
Elon Musk has revealed more details about his new government department DOGE and when it's set to 'expire'.
Donald Trump is heading back to the White House, and going with him is his ever-expanding inner circle. After doing all those bizarre jumps at Trump rallies, it looks like it's paid off for Elon Musk. As well as seeing his net worth soar in a post-election boom, Musk has been appointed the co-head of a new department designed to slash government spending. The Department of Government Efficiency plans to remove $2 trillion from government spending, and while there are worries about what this will mean for departments like Health and Education as Trump vows to spend big on Defense, Musk is confident he can pull it off.
Musk is running DOGE with Vivek Ramaswamy, who ran as a Republican candidate in the 2024 election but eventually dropped out. Posting on X, Ramaswamy put DOGE on a tight schedule and revealed when they plan to pull the plug.
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Independence Day 2026 is the big day when DOGE should be no more. Musk replied to Ramaswamy and told his followers, "The final step of @DOGE is to delete itself."
Musk has said that he and Ramaswamy won't be paid for their roles running DOGE, however, you will have to technically pay them to apply for a job there.
Taking to the comments, there were plenty of calls for DOGE to carry on.
One said: "As long as US Politicians and their donors exist DOGE will always be needed. Let’s keep it forever."
The final step of @DOGE is to delete itself https://t.co/ZCj2NvHm1U
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 2, 2024
Another added, "Perhaps not delete, rather put it on standby," and a third said, "Need a maintenance mechanism to prevent a relapse but yeah totally agreed."
Skeptics think DOGE has an impossible task ahead of it because too much of the federal spend lies in National Security or causes close to Trump's manifesto. Still, Musk has a long history when it comes to cuts, famously gutting Twitter staff when he bought the social media platform and eventually turned it into X. He's similarly been cutting costs at SpaceX, swapping $1,500 rocket latches for $30 bathroom stall locks.
Speaking to USA Today, author Tim Higgins warned about the potential ramifications of Musk's cuts. Higgins is the author of Power Play: Tesla, Elon Musk, and the Bet of the Century and warned that Musk's promises to cut thousands of federal jobs should be taken very literally. Higgins added: "One of the things about Elon is that he tends to throw out huge, hairy, audacious goals that people don’t think are possible but by doing that he pushes the organization to achieve more than what they thought was possible."
Even if Musk and Ramaswamy plan to slash and burn, there are worries that they won't actually have the power to cut federal departments outside of advising Trump.
With the clock already ticking on the DOGE, Musk and Ramaswamy will have to put their budget-savvy plans into play pretty quickly if they want to shave a mere $2 trillion off the government spend.
