The FBI is expected to be shut down and 1.5 million civil servants laid off under Donald Trump’s new cost-cutting department.

This is the opinion of Vivek Ramaswamy, who was appointed to head it. alongside the richest man in the world, Elon Musk.

Mr. Ramaswamy – whose slogan became “Stop him!” — said on the campaign trail that he also wanted a crusade against big government from the Department of Education, the Internal Revenue Service and foreign aid to Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan.

His opinions, expressed as a loyal substitute for Mr. Trump as the election approachesis perhaps at the extreme end of what is possible at the new Department of Government Effectiveness, or DOGE.

Indeed, shutting down an entire federal agency would likely require congressional approval.

But Mr Ramaswamy will at least now have the power to set the priorities of the new department, which was created from scratch to cut red tape and bureaucracy in just two years.

The new agency will operate outside of government and provide recommendations to the White House on how to reduce regulation and cut huge chunks of the nearly $7 trillion federal budget.

It was Mr. Musk’s original idea, the tech billionaire who became one of Mr. Trump’s closest advisers, who floated the idea of ​​a cost-cutting commission during the election campaign.

The president-elect gave the two men, whom he described as “two great Americans,” until July 4, 2026 – the 250th anniversary of Independence – to submit a report containing their findings.

In his announcement, Mr. Trump said the body would bring about a “radical change” by making proposals on “large-scale structural reform”. The recommendations would push the government to take a “more entrepreneurial approach” by focusing on federal bureaucracies and agencies, as well as cutting red tape and spending.

Mr. Trump has previously said he wants to abolish the Department of Education, let states control schooling and decimate what he calls “the deep state” — career federal employees who he says are pursuing clandestinely their own programs.

Generally speaking, major budgetary measures fall within the jurisdiction of Congress. They can follow the advice of outside panels like the proposed effectiveness panel, or ignore it. That could be at odds with Mr. Ramaswamy’s claims that he can close departments using executive orders through Mr. Trump.

In an effort to be transparent, Musk said DOGE would release its “actions” for public comment:

He also mentioned a list of “stupid” expenses, which he said would be “extremely entertaining.”

Under the current budget, the biggest spending departments are Health and Human Services, the Social Security Administration and the Treasury.

Social Security accounted for $1.46 trillion in spending, health care for $912 billion, and Medicare for $874 billion in government spending over the past year.

For clues about how Musk and his colleagues might make drastic cuts in federal budgets, some look to Ronald Reagan’s Grace Commission.

It was made up of about 150 business leaders reviewing government spending and producing 2,500 recommendations.

“Most of the recommendations, including those requiring congressional legislation, were never implemented,” the Reagan Library said.

During his first term, Mr. Trump signed an executive order to “eliminate or reorganize unnecessary federal agencies,” but failed to close the 19 he had in mind.

Shrinking big government

The full scope and mechanics of DOGE are still being decided, and it is also unclear how the commission will be funded, which raises further questions. The federal law on advisory committees does not require that advisory bodies pay their members.

Some have already suggested that it is ironic that an efficiency department has two people – Musk and Mr Ramaswamy – to do a single job.

Mr. Ramaswamy, a billionaire pharmaceutical entrepreneur and former Republican presidential candidate, campaigned on a platform to reduce the size of the American government.

He said he would use executive orders to close agencies and, in the case of the FBI, he wanted to reallocate part of its $11.4 billion budget to the Secret Service and the Defense Intelligence Agency.

“Stop him!” has become a key campaign slogan for the businessman-turned-conservative influencer, who dropped out of the Republican primaries to support Mr. Trump.

A 2021 book “Woke INC” by Mr. Ramaswamy denounced business strategies dictated by concerns about climate change and social justice, hinting at other cost-saving goals.

Mr. Ramaswamy’s proposal to close the FBI is likely to find favor with his boss.

Investigators raided the president-elect’s Mar-a-Lago resort in August 2022 as part of an investigation into withheld classified documents. It was reported that Melania Trump refused a traditional post-election meeting with the first lady, Jill Biden, due to her anger at having their South Florida home ransacked during the search.

And as with the palace raid of the 1920s, Mr. Ramaswamy said “we are not going to take it easy,” indicating how the financier and Mr. Musk will approach their new task.

Mr Musk’s agenda includes $2 trillion in budget cuts – just under a third of the US government’s $6.75 trillion in spending.

“Your money is being wasted and the Department of Government Efficiency is going to solve this problem,” he said at the pro-Trump rally at Madison Square Garden in New York.

“We are going to get the government off your back and out of your wallet. »

The Tesla founder’s fingerprints are all over the project, right down to its abbreviation, DOGE, the meme-themed cryptocurrency he’s promoting.

The price of the low-cost crypto jumped 150% in response to the news.

Mr. Musk’s involvement, however, will scare some people given his lucrative government contracts, including for rockets, satellites and other space operations.

He became incredibly close to Mr. Trump before the Republican’s election victory, hosting him on X, using the social media platform as a campaign spokesperson and leading the campaign on the ground in the swing state of Pennsylvania.

The tech mogul has a slash-and-burn historyafter laying off about 3,700 of Twitter’s 7,500 employees when it took over the website in 2022, saying it was the most effective way to cut costs following its $44 billion acquisition.

Under Mr Musk’s plan, the US government would reduce the number of some 400 agencies and bureaucracies to just 99.

He also said the interest bill on the public debt, which stood at $950 billion last year, was “unsustainable.”

But critics have questioned the Trump-backing duo’s ability to come close to the promised $2 trillion in budget cuts.

Limited savings opportunities

Larry Summers, a former Treasury secretary, told the Economic Club of New York that they would be lucky to find even a tenth of that in savings, because the extent of government waste is limited.

Cutting Aid to Ukraine Would Save About $175 Billionfigure approved by Congress since the Russian invasion began nearly three years ago.

Washington has provided Israel with around $310 billion since the Jewish state’s founding in 1948.

Agencies facing the crisis, including the Department of Education ($238 billion) and the IRS ($12 billion), would also fail to seriously reduce the budget.

Any significant savings would also likely have to be channeled to other government agencies or departments taking on the work.

“It’s just mathematically impossible to come up with $2 trillion,” Glenn Hubbard, former chairman of the American Council of Economic Advisers, also told the club.

Marc Goldwein, senior policy director for the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, told CNN that DOGE should target key spending areas, like Social Security, Medicare and defense, to be successful.

He said projects like this were “often an excuse to do nothing” by Republicans promising to save money on the campaign trail.

Mr. Trump made similar promises before his first term, but failed to deliver on his campaign commitments.

The talents of Mr. Musk and Mr. Ramaswamy will be put to the test if they are to finally make a difference.

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