Elon Musk shared this AI-generated picture of himself back in September this year.
Credit: X/@elonmusk
The world's richest man, Elon Musk, has now been added to the Trump Cabinet, where he, along with Indian-American Republican Vivek Ramaswamy, will be in charge of the Department of Governmental Efficiency (DOGE).
Musk, who is known as a ruthless taskmaster, had earlier promised that he would bring down the cost of running the US government as he has done with many of his own companies.
Regarding their appointment, Musk shared a statement issued by Donald Trump on his X account.
In the statement Trump said, "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."
"It will become, potentially, "The Manhattan Project" of our time," Trump adds.
Here is what the DOGE will do as per latest plans:
1. Provide advice and guidance from outside of Government.
2. Partner with the White House and Office of Management & Budget to drive large scale structural reform.
3. Create an entrepreneurial approach to Government never seen before.
4. Trump's statement says the department will "drive out the massive waste and fraud which exists throughout our annual $6.5 Trillion Dollars of Government Spending. (sic)"
5. Work together to liberate the US economy and make the US government accountable to 'WE THE PEOPLE'.
Apart from these, Musk himself has given hints about how he wants to approach his new role. "All actions of the Department of Government Efficiency will be posted online for maximum transparency," he said in a post on X, adding, "Anytime the public thinks we are cutting something important or not cutting something wasteful, just let us know!"
"We will also have a leaderboard for most insanely dumb spending of your tax dollars. This will be both extremely tragic and extremely entertaining 🤣🤣" Musk further added.
Ramaswamy has also stated what the DOGE will do as soon as Trump enters office. "DOGE will soon begin crowdsourcing examples of government waste, fraud, & and abuse. Americans voted for drastic government reform & they deserve to be part of fixing it."