Trump’s allies say they will “free people and businesses from illegal regulations never passed by Congress.”

Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, US President-elect Donald Trump’s new “efficiency” czars, have outlined plans for a “drastic reduction” in regulations and “massive workforce reductions.”

In an article in The Wall Street Journal on Wednesday, Musk and Ramaswamy said they would build on two recent Supreme Court rulings that limited the authority of federal regulatory agencies to “free individuals and businesses from regulations.” illicit laws never adopted by Congress.

Musk and Ramaswamy said they would work with legal experts within government agencies and use cutting-edge technology to identify regulations that Trump could “immediately suspend enforcement of” and subject to “review and rescission.”

“When the president rolls back thousands of such regulations, critics will accuse the executive branch of abuse of power,” Musk and Ramaswamy wrote.

“In effect, it will be about correcting executive overreach regarding thousands of regulations promulgated by administrative fiat that were never authorized by Congress. The president must legislate with deference to Congress, not to bureaucrats within federal agencies.

Musk and Ramaswamy, who were tapped by Trump to lead a so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), said they would target more than $500 billion “authorized by Congress or used in a way that Congress never anticipated,” including $535 million. in funding for public broadcasting, $1.5 billion in grants to international organizations, and nearly $300 million awarded to progressive groups like Planned Parenthood.

Musk and Ramaswamy said DOGE would also conduct audits of government contracts to “generate significant savings” and “identify the minimum number of employees required in an agency for it to carry out its constitutionally authorized and statutorily mandated functions.” .

“Critics argue that we cannot significantly reduce the federal deficit without targeting benefit programs like Medicare and Medicaid, which require a cut from Congress,” they wrote, referring to health programs covering more than 150 million Americans.

“But it distracts from the scale of waste, fraud, and abuse that almost all taxpayers want to end – and which DOGE aims to address by identifying specific executive actions that would result in immediate savings for taxpayers. “

Musk, CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, has become one of Trump’s most powerful and influential allies since publicly supporting the president-elect earlier this year.

The South African-born billionaire invested millions of dollars in Trump’s re-election campaign and participated in many of the president-elect’s meetings and calls with lawmakers and foreign leaders.