The American billionaire's unwavering support for Donald Trump has therefore paid off. Elon Musk was named minister of “government efficiency” in the Republican’s future government on Wednesday. The boss of Tesla, Space X and the social network Their objective is clear: to make budget cuts to reduce government spending.
“Together, these two wonderful Americans will lead the way for my administration to dismantle government bureaucracy, reduce excessive regulations, cut wasteful spending, and restructure federal agencies,” Donald Trump announced in a statement Tuesday.
At the head of this department, they could make $2,000 billion in cuts to the federal government's budget, estimated at between $6,500 and $7,000 billion. Donald Trump even compared this ministry to the “Manhattan Project of our time”, named after the American research and development program during World War II set up to create the atomic bomb. And to get there, “we’re not going to go smoothly,” Vivek Ramaswamy tweeted on Tuesday.
The “waste” of the American bureaucracy targeted
The path forward at the moment is to eliminate positions considered unnecessary. Donald Trump has promised a “smaller, more efficient government with less bureaucracy” by 2026. Elon Musk is known for having made significant cuts in the staff of the social network
But the details of these amputations were not given. The American billionaire gave few examples, recently pointing to the American Defense budget, which he describes as “gigantic”. “It’s a billion dollars. The interest on our debt is higher than the Defense budget, he declared, this is not sustainable. We have to do something, otherwise the country will go bankrupt. »
The Department of Education would also be in the sights, Donald Trump having promised during his campaign to dismantle it so that each American state manages this subject itself.
Beyond the promised savings, the two future ministers declare that they want to make the government and its administrations more efficient by removing what seems superfluous to them. They are trying to convince the Americans of the need for these cuts by assuring Americans that their money is being misused, brandishing the threat of bankruptcy of the United States if the situation is not taken under control. “Either we succeed in making government efficient, or America goes bankrupt,” Elon Musk has been repeating for several weeks.
“Everything the government spends comes from your taxes,” the Tesla boss had already declared. Your money is being wasted and the Department of Government Efficiency is going to fix it. » The ministry will “soon begin to collect examples of government waste, fraud and abuse”, adds Vivek Ramaswamy.
End of mission on July 4, 2026
The two men promise “transparency” and “clarity” in their actions and encourage the population to contribute to the project by giving their opinion. “If anyone has a better idea on how to reduce expenses, tell us,” Elon Musk has assured several times.
The two men will not be ministers in the French sense of the term. It is more of a temporary mission which must end on July 4, 2026 – the American national holiday -, specifies the press release from the future American president. “Musk is not expected to become an official government employee, which means he probably won't be forced to divest from his business empire,” explains the Wall Street Journal.
