As we prepare to enter the new year, we’re taking you back to some of The Daily Wire’s best reporting from 2024. <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/heres-how-elon-musks-department-of-government-efficiency-will-work" target="_blank" rel="noopener">This article</a> was originally published on November 16.
President-elect Donald Trump has tapped Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy to lead the new Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), an effort to trim the fat under which the federal government labors — namely, a sprawling bureaucracy and runaway government spending.
Musk spawned the idea for the department and offered to head it up during an X space with Trump <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2024/08/12/technology/trump-musk-x-spaces-interview.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">back</a> in August. Following his election victory, Trump made DOGE official, <a href="https://x.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1856658569124262092" target="_blank" rel="noopener">saying</a> in a statement that it will “dismantle Government Bureaucracy, slash excess regulations, cut wasteful expenditures, and restructure Federal Agencies” and give government an “entrepreneurial approach.”
“It will become, potentially, ‘The Manhattan Project’ of our time,” Trump said.
The new department has already sparked endless memes — the DOGE acronym is a nod to the cryptocurrency Dogecoin. Musk is a fan, and briefly changed X’s logo to the coin’s dog meme last year. Another meme making the rounds shows Musk and Ramaswamy as the downsizing consultants from the movie “Office Space,” who famously <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m4OvQIGDg4I&amp;t=2s" target="_blank" rel="noopener">ask</a> an employee, “What would you say you do here?”
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Bureaucrats beware 😎 <a href="https://t.co/zfSRjttv2s">pic.twitter.com/zfSRjttv2s</a>
— Fight With Memes (@fightwithmemes) <a href="https://twitter.com/fightwithmemes/status/1856660639357252051?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 13, 2024</a></blockquote>
Despite its name, DOGE will actually function as a commission outside the government that will work with the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to advise the president on what government bloat can be cut.
DOGE will operate on a deadline. It will finish its work by July 4, 2026, the nation’s 250th birthday, Trump said.
Musk is ready to go.
Since Trump&#8217;s announcement, the SpaceX founder and Tesla CEO has been excitedly posting about how he will approach slashing federal waste, but he is also promising to be “very open and transparent” about what DOGE does.
One of his main targets: regulation.
“The world is suffering slow strangulation by overregulation. Every year, the noose tightens a little more,” Musk <a href="https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1856729913148989710">posted</a>. “We finally have a mandate to delete the mountain of choking regulations that do not serve the greater good.”
<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/transgender-monkeys-barbie-fraud-heres-some-of-the-government-waste-doge-could-target">Read More: Transgender Monkeys And Barbie Fraud: Here’s Some Of The Government Waste DOGE Could Target</a>
He wants a broad review of regulations to determine “which ones are sensible and which ones are not.”
Musk has personally experienced crippling regulation while trying to launch SpaceX rockets. In October, he sued California regulators and accused them of “shamelessly breaking the law” after they <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/shamelessly-breaking-the-law-elon-musk-blasts-california-officials-denying-spacex-launches">cited</a> his political views in their decision to reject more rocket launches.
He also wants to shutter hundreds of the more than 400 federal departments. During an interview last month, Musk pointed out that the United States creates more than one federal agency a year on average.
“That seems a lot. That seems crazy. I think we should be able to get away with 99 agencies,” Musk <a href="https://x.com/cb_doge/status/1856531980034187642" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a>.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Elon Musk explains the importance of creating the Department of Government Efficiency.
&#8220;There are around 428 federal agencies. There&#8217;s so many that people have never even heard of. I think we should be able to get away with 99 agencies.&#8221;
<a href="https://t.co/QIdTmHWQLj">pic.twitter.com/QIdTmHWQLj</a>
— DogeDesigner (@cb_doge) <a href="https://twitter.com/cb_doge/status/1856531980034187642?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 13, 2024</a></blockquote>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
ELON ON D.O.G.E. “We&#8217;re going to make the spending lower. And if somebody&#8217;s got a better idea for how to make the spending lower, tell us. But if we don&#8217;t, we&#8217;re going to bankrupt the country.”
<a href="https://t.co/FxCLE5t8RX">pic.twitter.com/FxCLE5t8RX</a>
— America (@america) <a href="https://twitter.com/america/status/1856707967120191709?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 13, 2024</a></blockquote>
Lowering spending is Musk’s other big objective.
“We’re going to make the spending lower, and if somebody’s got a better idea for how to make the spending lower tell us, but if we don’t we’re going to bankrupt the country, and so we’ve got to do something, and it’s got to be some pretty big moves,” Musk said during a town hall in Pennsylvania last month.
“Drain the swamps. There’s so many swamps,” he added.
He joked that he will probably need “quite a significant security team because someone might literally go postal on me — from the Post Office.”
Ramaswamy wants to take a similarly aggressive approach. The tech entrepreneur and former Republican presidential candidate said that DOGE would soon begin “crowdsourcing examples” of government waste, fraud, and abuse.
“Americans voted for drastic government reform &amp; they deserve to be part of fixing it,” Ramaswamy <a href="https://x.com/VivekGRamaswamy/status/1856538974384255206" target="_blank" rel="noopener">posted</a>.
Ramaswamy also said he wants to sort out the <a href="https://www.newsnationnow.com/politics/government-waste-inefficiency-trump-doge/#:~:text=Congressional%20funding%20for%20expired%20programs,had%20expired%20under%20federal%20law." target="_blank" rel="noopener">more</a> than half a trillion dollars a year that goes towards nearly 500 expired federal programs.
“This is totally nuts. We can &amp; should save hundreds of billions each year by defunding government programs that Congress no longer authorizes. We’ll challenge any politician who disagrees to defend the other side,” he <a href="https://x.com/VivekGRamaswamy/status/1856763732363546813" target="_blank" rel="noopener">added</a>.
In September, Ramaswamy floated a “thought experiment” about firing 75% of federal employees immediately with “some metric of screening for those who actually had both the greatest competence as well as the greatest commitment and knowledge of the Constitution.”
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Vivek’s “thought experiment” of cutting 75% of federal govt employees while avoiding lawsuits of unlawful termination due to discrimination. 
<a href="https://t.co/FWgvcBeATm">pic.twitter.com/FWgvcBeATm</a>
— Steve Hou (@stevehouf) <a href="https://twitter.com/stevehouf/status/1856552726680748450?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 13, 2024</a></blockquote>
“Not a thing will have changed for the ordinary American other than the size of their government being a lot smaller and more restrained, spending a lot less money to operate it,” Ramaswamy said during a podcast interview. “All we require is leadership with a spine to get in there and actually do what conservative presidents have maybe gestured towards and talked about but not really effectuated ever in modern history.”
Ramaswamy <a href="https://x.com/stevehouf/status/1856552726680748450?s=46&amp;t=o-U3qwC25WnWaylJ0oeG7Q" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a> government agencies are “no different” from private companies in that “it’s 25% of the people who do 80 or 90% of the useful work.”
When Musk took over X, he laid off about 80% company’s workforce, more than 6,000 people.
While the decision was “not fun at all,” Musk <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2023/04/12/tech/elon-musk-bbc-interview-twitter-intl-hnk/index.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a> “drastic action” was necessary because the company was facing “a $3 billion negative cash flow situation” and had just “four months to live.”
DOGE is already recruiting employees, and Musk and Ramaswamy will personally review the top 1% of applicants.
“We don’t need more part-time idea generators,” the new official DOGE account <a href="https://x.com/DOGE/status/1857076831104434289" target="_blank" rel="noopener">posted</a> on November 14. “We need super high-IQ small-government revolutionaries willing to work 80+ hours per week on unglamorous cost-cutting.”
Musk and Ramaswamy have their work cut out for them. The federal government spends $6.75 trillion a year. Already this year, federal spending has <a href="https://fiscaldata.treasury.gov/americas-finance-guide/federal-spending/#:~:text=The%20federal%20government%20spends%20money,)%2C%20resulting%20in%20a%20deficit." target="_blank" rel="noopener">increased</a> by $114 billion. Within that massive amount is a seemingly never-ending list of eyebrow-raising expenditures.
Around $900 billion in wasted taxpayer dollars were <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/barbie-fraud-meth-monkeys-rand-pauls-annual-festivus-report-shows-900-billion-in-government-waste" target="_blank" rel="noopener">counted</a> last year in Senator Rand Paul’s (R-KY) “Festivus Report,” his annual tally of government waste that highlights glaring and often humorous examples.
Among the bigger expenses: in fiscal year 2023, the Treasury spent $659 billion on just the interest on the national debt, much of which was borrowed from China, the report noted. Taxpayers are paying to keep the lights on in federal office buildings, the majority of which are mostly empty, one report <a href="https://perry.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=402694#:~:text=Federal%20government%20agencies%20are%20using,mountain%20of%20unused%20office%20space." target="_blank" rel="noopener">found</a>.

<script async src="https://www.instagram.com/embed.js"></script>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
<script async src="https://www.tiktok.com/embed.js"></script><div data-widget-host="revcontent" data-pub-id="165152" data-widget-id="290588"></div><script src="https://delivery.revcontent.com/165152/290588/widget.js"></script>

How Elon Musk’s DOGE Will Work

CONTINUE READING

Your Child’s School Might Still Be Pushing Transgender Ideology Despite Trump’s Orders

Trump Says MSNBC Changed Name Because It’s ‘Ashamed’

Plant-Based Beyond Meat Denies It’s Filing For Bankruptcy Amid Falling Sales

Democrats Love Citing This One Climate Change Study. Turns Out It’s All Bogus.

NYC Mayor Eric Adams Proposes Law To Involuntarily Commit Drug Addicts

The Feds Took Over The DC Police In The 90s, Too. Here’s How That Went.

News and Analysis

Donald Trump

Elon Musk

Trump Administration

Vivek Ramaswamy

A video goes viral showing a baby being refused his mother by two gay "dads". This is just the tip of the iceberg, which is why we will have an important discussion today about surrogacy. 

Hour 1

The Matt Walsh Show

Ep. 1765 - This Video Is One Of The Worst Things I've Seen In A Long Time 

The Strait of Hormuz officially opens for business (kind of), the Pope makes “shocking” comments on immigration, and President Trump promises UFO disclosure at TPUSA. 


The Michael Knowles Show

Ep. 1956 -  Pope Leo's "SHOCKING" Immigration Comments EXPLAINED

A false miscreed has corrupted our leadership class.


The Andrew Klavan Show

Ep. 1275 - Dumb, Dumber and Progressive

President Trump announces a 10-day ceasefire between Lebanon and Israel, a murder-suicide involving former Democratic Lieutenant Governor Justin Fairfax shakes Virginia, and France and Britain hold a conference to secure the Strait of Hormuz – after the Iranian conflict ends. Get the facts first with Morning Wire.

- - -

Ep. 2738

- - -

Wake up with new Morning Wire merch: https://bit.ly/4lIubt3

- - -

Today's Sponsors:

Alliance Defending Freedom - Visit https://JoinADF.com/WIRE or text 'WIRE' to 83848 to learn more.

Pocket Hose - Text MORNING to 64000 to get a FREE pocket pivot and their 10-pattern sprayer with the purchase of ANY size Copper Head hose. Message and data rates may apply.

Morning Wire

U.S. Expands Hormuz Blockade & VA Fairfax Deaths Investigated | 4.17.26

U.S. Expands Hormuz Blockade & VA Fairfax Deaths Investigated | 4.17.26 [Member Exclusive]

A ceasefire goes into effect between Israel and Lebanon, a tragic murder-suicide rocks Virginia, and Dairy Queen deploys AI in the drive-thru. Get the facts first with Evening Wire.
- - -
Ep. 2737
- - -
Wake up with new Morning Wire merch: https://bit.ly/4lIubt3 
- - -
Today’s Sponsor:

Alliance Defending Freedom - Visit https://JoinADF.com/WIRE or text “WIRE” to 83848 to learn more.


Evening Wire: Lebanon Ceasefire Begins & Murder-Suicide Rocks VA | 4.16.26

The Pendragon Cycle

Menu

— News and Analysis —

How Elon Musk’s DOGE Will Work