What Elon Musk could do with DOGE

Elon Musk is recruiting an unpaid army of small-government revolutionaries to cut costs, destroy bureaucracy and eliminate tens of thousands of federal government jobs in the US.

So what? He’ll face pushback, but he’s used to that.

Cutting the size of the US government is an article of faith for Republicans dating back to Ronald Reagan’s 1986 line: “The nine most terrifying words in the English language are: I'm from the Government, and I'm here to help.”

Reagan’s efforts to shrink the state did not get far, but Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency will have

• a hotline to the White House;
• the zeal of a man who claims to have undercut Nasa’s cost of going to space by a factor of ten; and
• the backing of a president ready to re-write rules with executive orders.

And whose army? Musk looks likely to recruit some of his favourite cost-cutters. He calls them America’s A team. They include:

• Steve Davis, who oversaw deep staff cuts at Twitter as it became X.
• Omead Afshar, who dismissed 14,000 people at Tesla this year.
• Jared Birchall, who runs Musk’s family office.

Musk and his fellow billionaire Vivek Ramaswamy have given themselves a deadline of 4 July 2026 – the 250th anniversary of American independence – to deliver a birthday gift to the nation.

First, money. Every year, the US Congress walks to the cliff edge of a government shutdown, arguing theatrically over spending cuts before eventually passing a federal budget. Trump himself has gone far on promises to “drain the swamp”, without actually doing anything to reduce the national debt or deficit (now standing at $36 trillion and $2 trillion respectively).

Musk is thinking bigger. He’s promising to use DOGE to save $2 trillion in federal spending and cut the budget by a third.

It may be harder than he thinks.

Congress rules. Two-thirds of the federal budget goes on mandatory spending – for instance on pensions for the elderly and military veterans, and health insurance for older people – that can’t be cut without Congress.

DOGE isn’t really a department at all. Congress would need to pass a law to create it – adding more costs and federal jobs to the Washington bureaucracy. Instead it will be a private advisory body.

But this DOGE will have teeth. Musk and Ramaswamy will work with a key figure in the new Trump administration – Russell Vought, architect of Project 2025 and now Trump’s pick to run the Office of Budget Management. Vought is set to reheat an idea from the dying days of Trump’s first term to fire 50,000 federal workers.

The how. Musk will provide the ammunition.

• He thinks he can force through sweeping cuts thanks to two 2024 Supreme Court rulings which checked the power of federal agencies to enact regulations without the consent of Congress.
• DOGE plans to give Trump a list of regulations where federal agencies exceeded their powers.
• Trump would use executive orders to immediately pause enforcement of those regulations.

The who. Fewer regulations mean fewer staff.

• DOGE will use insiders to identify the minimum number of employees required to run a slimmed-down government.
• Vought wants to get rid of tens of thousands of previously unsackable civil servants by redesignating them as political appointees.
• Ramaswamy would go much further. He’s argued for cutting a million federal jobs in four years, shutting down the Department of Education and the FBI in the process.

Also in their sights… Targets include diversity and inclusion programmes used widely in schools and workplaces; foreign aid funding for ‘leftist’ causes; and red tape hampering ambitious building projects like an Alaskan highway upgrade that’s been 40 years in the making.

Red back yards. Cuts could hurt Republican districts. For example, Project 2025 calls for the dismantling of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration as a driver of “the climate change alarm industry”. But that would cost hundreds of jobs in Republican districts in North Carolina and Mississippi.

What’s more… Musk is setting himself up for serious conflicts of interest. What happens when he recommends cuts in regulations governing electric vehicles, satellites, tech platforms and space exploration? Answers will depend on his relations with Congress, not just with Trump. Expect him to be spending more time in Washington.