President-elect Donald Trump has an ambitious agenda to shrink the size of the federal government, uproot the federal bureaucracy and limit Washington’s intrusion into the daily lives of the average American citizen. Such goals have long been the goal of many Republican leaders, although few have succeeded in actually advancing them.

Trump himself struggled to restrict government during his first term, facing significant resistance from entrenched executive agencies and congressional Republicans. Indeed, the new co-head of the Department of Government Effectiveness (DOGE), Elon Musk, was named Thursday. shared a meme commenting on Republican apprehensions over budget cuts.

However, the president-elect’s second term could see him make more substantial progress in reducing federal bloat than the first time around. Here’s how he and his allies aim to rein in or eliminate federal agencies.

Department of Government Effectiveness (DOGE)

After the election, Trump officially announced that former Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy and X platform owner Elon Musk would do so. lead DOGEa new federal agency whose sole purpose is to reduce the size of other government agencies and eliminate waste.

“Together, these two wonderful Americans will lead the way for my administration to dismantle government bureaucracy, cut excessive regulations, cut wasteful spending, and restructure federal agencies – which is essential to the ‘Save America’ movement,” said Trump. working with the White House and the Office of Management and Budget to implement reforms and has an expiration date of July 4, 2026. Trump viewed smaller government as his gift to America on its 250th birthday .

The exact jurisdiction and authority of DOGE remains somewhat unclear at the time of publication.

First of all: severance pay

To limit resistance from federal employees facing the prospect of losing their jobs, Musk proposed giving federal employees generous severance packages to ease their transition out of public service. “We are going to significantly reduce the government workforce, but we are going to provide very long severance packages. Like two years, or something like that. » Musk said in October. “Look, go do something else, that’s what we’re going to say. And you will be paid for two years. So you have plenty of time to find something else to do.

“The goal is not to be cruel or to make people not be able to pay their mortgage or anything,” he added. “We simply have too many people in the government sector, and they could be more productive elsewhere. »

Fire “rogue bureaucrats”

However, these will not be exclusively amicable separations. Trump has long expressed frustrations with the so-called “deep state,” saying federal employees actively obstructed or slowed his agenda during his first term.

Trump’s plan to eliminate the federal bureaucracy includes reinstatement of a 2020 decree he issued legislation that authorizes the president to fire “rogue bureaucrats” and maintain physical separation between inspector general offices and the departments they oversee.

He promised the mass dismissal of “corrupt actors” within federal ministries. Although this move would serve primarily to reduce the influence of bureaucrats, it would serve doubly to reduce the federal workforce and could prove decisive in achieving significant personnel reductions.

Moving departments out of Washington, DC

Among the key proposals is moving the mountain of federal agencies out of the Washington, D.C., area to both undercut lobbyists and decentralize decision-making. The prospect of mandatory relocation outside the beltway could also cause an exodus of federal personnel rooted in the region.

So far, few specific projects aimed at moving agencies have been launched. Relocating the FBI from its current headquarters to the J. Edgar Hoover Building, however, has long been a priority project, although the government selected a site in Greenbelt, Maryland, last year to build a new headquarters.

In March 2023, Trump issued a Agenda 47 political video in which he indicated that up to 100,000 government positions could leave Washington.

Eliminate the Ministry of Education

During the campaign, Trump pledged to completely eliminate the Department of Education, a longtime goal of conservative politicians. His rationale for abolishing the department goes beyond simply reducing the size of government and is part of his plan to revitalize American education. “The long-term goal, but now it’s a short-term goal, is to dismantle the federal Department of Education and redistribute its functions to the states,” Trump said in March last year.

It is one of the largest federal agencies, and eliminating it outright would potentially be one of the most substantial cuts to the federal government in recent decades.

Old-fashioned spending cuts

House and Senate Republicans continue to campaign heavily on government budget cuts, with House conservatives particularly emphasizing the lower chamber’s “power of the purse” as a means of exerting control over federal agencies.

House Speaker Mike Johnson has struggled to secure spending concessions in the current Congress in light of the narrow Republican majority and Democratic-controlled Senate. The new Republican majority in the Upper House, however, opens the door for conventional legislative efforts to reach the president’s desk.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune this week announced that the upper house would work with the House “to address President Trump’s priorities,” including “streamlining the bureaucratic machine.”