Elon Musk campaigned for Donald Trump and stands to reap the benefits of being close to the president-elect
Elon Musk was promised a leadership role in a new commission to audit government spending, and ahead of Donald Trump's inauguration, the promise has been kept. AFP

KEY POINTS

  • $DOGE is up 400% in the past week as Donald Trump fills up his cabinet
  • Musk and Ramaswamy will be responsible for reducing 'excess regulations'
  • Musk has promised 'maximum transparency' in the D.O.G.E's activities

President-elect Donald Trump has announced that Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy will lead the yet-to-be-established Department of Government Efficiency (D.O.G.E), pumping the price of the token based off of the said commission.

The DOGE token based on the said department, which is separate from the world's largest memecoin, Dogecoin (DOGE), soared late Tuesday night after the incoming president made the announcement, which the Tesla CEO posted on X.

The memecoin, which is only a few months old, has been up by over 100% in the last 24 hours amid a weeklong rally of 400%, late Tuesday night data from CoinGecko showed.

Trump Details Musk and Ramaswamy's Roles

Trump, who won by a landslide over Vice President Kamala Harris in the 2024 U.S. presidential elections, announced Tuesday night that "the Great" Musk and "American Patriot" Ramaswamy will "pave the way for my Administration to dismantle Government Bureaucracy."

Other key tasks that the two entrepreneurs are expected to achieve include:

  • Cutting down "excess regulations" – While the Tesla CEO has yet to publicly talk about how the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has been regulating cryptocurrency firms, Ramaswamy has called for crypto deregulation and also said the financial regulator's workforce needs a significant reduction.
  • Reducing "wasteful expenditures" – Musk has repeatedly slammed the outgoing administration's spending practices, saying DO.G.E will ultimately save the government up to $2 trillion.
  • Provide advice and guidance "from outside of Government" – It is unclear whether this will change in the future, but it appears that for now, Musk and Ramaswamy's government audit commission will not officially be established as a new government unit.
  • Implement "large scale structural reform" – In particular, the reforms will be implemented within the Office of Management & Budget, Trump said.
  • Establish a new approach to the government – Trump said the D.O.G.E will "create an entrepreneurial approach to Government never seen before," further signaling massive changes in how the second Trump presidency will approach government management.

Trump's High Expectations

As the government prepares for the turnover from a Democratic administration, Trump made sure to reiterate that he has very high expectations of his chosen D.O.G.E leaders.

"I look forward to Elon and Vivek making changes to the Federal Bureaucracy with an eye on efficiency and, at the same time, making life better for all Americans," he wrote.

The D.O.G.E commission will be disbanded "no later than July 4, 2026."

Musk Promises Complete Transparency

Meanwhile, Musk said the D.O.G.E will post all of its activities online "for maximum transparency," adding that the American public can let the commission know if it is "cutting something important or not cutting something wasteful."

He went on to reveal that the commission will present a leaderboard where the public can check the "most insanely dumb spending of your tax dollars," a spectacle that the SpaceX founder believes will be both "extremely tragic and extremely entertaining."

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