Elon Musk and former Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy's new "Department of Government Efficiency," or DOGE, has announced that it is open to receiving applications for staff jobs and is seeking to hire people with "super high IQ."
In a post on X, the Department of Government Efficiency stated that it needs "super high-IQ small-government revolutionaries willing to work 80+ hours per week on unglamorous cost-cutting."
"If that's you, DM this account with your CV. Elon & Vivek will review the top 1% of applicants," the post added.
Sending a direct message requires X users to pay Musk's company a monthly fee, which some consider a conflict of interest and ethics issue.
Following the department's post, many responded by suggesting spending cuts.
We are very grateful to the thousands of Americans who have expressed interest in helping us at DOGE. We don’t need more part-time idea generators. We need super high-IQ small-government revolutionaries willing to work 80+ hours per week on unglamorous cost-cutting. If that’s…
— Department of Government Efficiency (@DOGE) November 14, 2024
In a separate post on the platform, Musk highlighted that his pay is zero but wants to "greatly help America."
Indeed, this will be tedious work, make lots of enemies & compensation is zero.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 14, 2024
What a great deal! 😂 https://t.co/16e7EKRS6i
Even a brief stint in government by people with high competence and integrity would greatly help America https://t.co/bcKHSorSn5
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 14, 2024
Earlier this week, Trump announced that Musk and businessman Ramaswamy, would co-lead the new initiative and "provide advice and guidance from outside of Government." This department is tasked with trimming Washington's bureaucracy.
"(DOGE) will provide advice and guidance from outside of Government, and partner with the White House and Office of Management & Budget to drive large scale structural reform, and create an entrepreneurial approach to Government never seen before," the president-elect said at the time.
Musk and Ramaswamy have both called for sweeping changes to federal programs, such as mass layoffs and deep cuts, NBC News reported.
On Wednesday, the Tesla and Space CEO proposed cutting grant money to non-profit groups, calling them the "illegal arm of the government."
“Government-funded non-governmental organizations” is obviously a contradiction in terms 😂
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 13, 2024
They are just an illegal arm of the government. https://t.co/j5CRlWK388
The DOGE could only become an official federal department if Congress approves it. The president-elect has already set a deadline of July 4, 2026, for the DOGE commission to complete its work.
Musk recently said that the department's actions will be published online "for maximum transparency" and will include a "leaderboard for most insanely dumb spending of your tax dollars."
"This will be both extremely tragic and extremely entertaining," he wrote.
He became a key ally to Trump during his campaign, reportedly spending over $100 million to help the Republican win and repeatedly boosting Trump's candidacy on X.
Before the election, Musk claimed he could slash $2 trillion from the federal budget.
