After Donald Trump’s victory last week, there was a very brief pause, a moment to acknowledge the red wave that had indeed descended on the entire country – and then, the next moment, we realized that Americans had actually voted a second time for the Trump standard. -a brand of politics that breaks minds.

During his first administration, many of Trump’s choices for his cabinet and other positions were conventional. He managed to secure large tax cuts, but his promise to fight the “deep state” by cutting bureaucracy never materialized, so deficits increased. This was especially true after the economy shut down due to the pandemic.

This time, Trump promised during his campaign, things would be different.

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As proof: Trump asked his friends Elon Musk, the richest man in the world, and Vivek Ramaswamy, a wealthy entrepreneur and former presidential candidate, to head the Department of Government Effectiveness, or “DOGE,” and use it to suggest ways to significantly reduce public spending. reduce the size and scope of the federal government.

Musk and Ramaswamy were part of the Trump campaign’s team of misfits, which Trump compared to the Marvel movie superheroes, the “Avengers.” Voters seemed to like the idea of ​​outsiders fighting together to remake government, to make it less costly and more responsive to ordinary citizens.

Now, in the still-blurry days after the election, Trump is quickly assigning his team to real government positions, including “DOGE,” and there is a collective gasp from the establishment – ​​​​which is perhaps the effect Trump is looking for. . It looks like Trump is getting ready to do what he promised. But it remains unclear whether he can actually achieve his goals and whether voters will like the results.

What will “DOGE” do?

It’s just a start, but the Department of Government Effectiveness would essentially be responsible for finding ways to reduce government “waste” and inefficiency.

In his press release announcing the creation of the advisory committee, Trump said it would be the “Manhattan Project of our time,” referring to the effort to create an atomic weapon during World War II. Its mandate is, according to Assetto “dismantle government bureaucracy, reduce excessive regulations, cut wasteful spending, and restructure federal agencies.”

Musk said he would not be paid for his work with DOGE and Ramaswamy would have not either. Their work – a “gift” to the nation, Trump said – will end on July 4, 2026, the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence.

The new DOGE account on X has already launched a call for applications. THE message read: “We are very grateful to the thousands of Americans who have expressed interest in helping us with DOGE. We don’t need more part-time idea generators. We need revolutionaries in small government, with very high IQs, willing to work 80+ hour weeks at unglamorous cost cutting. If this is you, send a DM to this account with your resume. Elon & Vivek will review the top 1% of candidates.

Ramaswamy looks ready to start cutting. During a speech At a Buckley Institute event at Yale last week, he described himself as a “national libertarian” who supports reducing the size and scope of the federal government.

“Do we believe in replacing the left-wing nanny state with a right-wing nanny state? Or do we actually want to step in and dismantle the nanny state? he asked.

“I think the right answer for the future of the country is to just get in there and shut it down,” he said.

Much of federal spending is blocked

Both Musk and Ramaswamy have run companies – Musk having cut 80% of Twitter’s workforce, now BBC the process was “painful”.

Now Musk is adage he wants to cut $2 trillion from the $6.75 trillion federal budget.

But he may find it harder to cut government spending because much of it is locked in promises to creditors or U.S. taxpayers. In 2024, the the federal government spent $1.1 trillion for interest payments on the national debt, $2.9 trillion for Social Security and Medicare, and another $1.4 trillion for defense spending.

Republicans have been saying for some time that they want to curb public spending while sounding the alarm on the national debt. The federal government’s budget has increased as a percentage of GDP since 2015, from 20% to 23%, and the national debt, at $35.46 trillion, represents 123% of GDP.

It’s just that Democrats and Republicans have different ideas about how to reduce the annual deficit, which stood at $1.8 trillion in 2024: Democrats say the rich and corporations should pay more taxes, while many Republicans want to cut spending.

Ramaswamy is strongly in favor of cutting spending. In recent days, he has talked about his desire to cut the federal bureaucracy, with the idea that this would be a place where he could make significant savings. About 3 million Americans work for the federal government, excluding military personnel or government contractors. Federal employees live in every state across the country, although most live in the Washington, D.C. area, including cities in Virginia and Maryland that surround the District.

Even cutting the government workforce will be difficult. Most are unionized, with 800,000 federal workers grouped under the umbrella union the American Federation of Government Employees, AFGE.

After the election, AFGE released a statement that said: “During Trump’s first term, his administration attempted to dismantle many of our negotiated union contracts, shrink and outsource federal agencies, resulting in major disruptions and costs for taxpayers, and replacing tens of thousands of self-employed workers. – partisan officials appointed by politicians who would blindly carry out his orders. The union said it would “not stand idly by and let any political leader – regardless of political affiliation – flout the Constitution and our laws.”

Trump hopes that by cutting regulations and taxes, he can grow the economy in a way that will help increase federal revenue. He also plans to increase federal revenue by imposing tariffs on foreign products, but economists point out that this would increase costs for consumers.

The other “problem” is Congress: Ultimately, Congress decides how much the government spends, and largely how it is spent, by passing budget bills. Trump and agency heads may be able to implement some of the suggestions generated by DOGE, but they will have to rely on Congress to make significant and lasting changes.

Government Waste Is Not Hard to Find

As soon as news of Ramaswamy and Musk’s new roles spread, people started peppering them with ideas about what to remove.

On Thursday, Musk added a emoticon to a message from Kentucky Senator Rand Paul, who said: “The National Institutes of Health spent over $3,000,000 watching hamsters fight on steroids. »

Paul is ready with a host of other ideas from his annual report”Dissemination of grievances” report on federal spending, containing about $500 billion in ideas on what to cut.

There have been suggestions to abolish the Department of Education, although most of its spending would continue as block grants to states, and to abolish the IRS.