Elon Musk, the wealthiest man in the world, has been a full-time presence at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago transition headquarters.
According to media reports, he is advising the president-elect on cabinet nominees and even joined a conversation between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky last week.
On Tuesday night, Trump announced that he was assigning Musk to work with tech entrepreneur and former Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy in a “department of government efficiency” tasked with identifying new budget cuts.
Musk’s political action committee spent around $200m to help Trump’s presidential campaign, and he promises to continue to fund the group’s efforts to advance the president-elect’s agenda and help Republican candidates in upcoming congressional elections.
Meanwhile, it remains to be seen where Robert F Kennedy Jr, another key figure, lands. Trump has said that he plans to give the former Democrat and vaccine sceptic, who abandoned his independent bid and endorsed the Republican, a role in making America “healthy” again.
“He wants to do some things, and we’re going to let him go to it,” Trump said in his election victory speech.
Questions remain about what Musk’s new job is exactly
It’s not yet clear what form the organisation Elon Musk has been tasked to lead will take.
In a statement confirming the appointment, Trump says the so-called Department of Government Efficiency will “provide advice and guidance from outside of government” – implying it will not sit within formal federal government structures.
The statement also says the organisation will “partner with the White House and [the pre-existing] Office of Management & Budget to drive large scale structural reform”.
We also know Musk and his partner Vivek Ramaswamy have been given a July 2026 deadline for their work. It’s not clear if their positions would also expire at that point.
Musk and Ramaswamy react to their appointments
In Trump’s statement confirming he is setting up a new agency tasked with cutting government spending and regulation, Musk is quoted as saying: “This will send shockwaves through the system, and anyone involved in Government waste, which is a lot of people!”
Musk has responded to a post sharing the statement on X – the social media platform he owns – on an account managed on behalf of Tommy Robinson, a far-right UK activist who is currently imprisoned.
“People have no idea how much this will move the needle,” he writes.
Ramaswamy also reacted on X, writing: “We will not go gently.”
What exactly will Musk and Ramaswamy be doing?
Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy have been handed the authority to conduct sweeping changes to government spending, according to Donald Trump.
“Together, these two wonderful Americans will pave the way for my Administration to dismantle Government Bureaucracy, slash excess regulations, cut wasteful expenditures, and restructure Federal Agencies – Essential to the ‘Save America’ Movement,” his statement reads.
“It will become, potentially, ‘The Manhattan Project’ of our time,” he says, referring to the American programme to develop the first atomic bomb.
It is unclear exactly what form this new department will take but it appears it will be outside formal government structures.
The statement goes on: “The Department of Government Efficiency will provide advice and guidance from outside of Government,” he adds, with a goal to “create an entrepreneurial approach to Government never seen before”.
Trump says they have a deadline of concluding their work by US Independence Day on 4 July, 2026.
