Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy are asking Americans who are “high-IQ small-government revolutionaries” and willing to work over 80 hours a week to join their new Department of Government Efficiency – at zero pay.
In a new X post on Thursday that doubled as a job announcement and another one of Musk’s trolling attempts, the account for the newly formed Doge wrote: “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.”
The name of the department, which is not part of the federal government, harkens back to a meme of an expressive shiba inu dog.
“If that’s you, DM this account with your CV. Elon & Vivek will review the top 1% of applicants,” the statement added.
In a separate post, Musk chimed in on the callout, saying: “Indeed, this will be tedious work, make lots of enemies & compensation is zero.”
“What a great deal!” Musk, the richest man in the world, wrote with a laughing emoji. He has promised to reduce federal bureaucracy by a third and cut $2tn from US government spending, an endeavor he said “necessarily involves some temporary hardship”.
Earlier this week, Donald Trump announced the appointment of Musk and Ramaswamy to Doge, saying: “Together, these two wonderful Americans will pave the way for my administration to dismantle government bureaucracy, slash excess regulations, cut wasteful expenditures, and restructure federal agencies – essential to the ‘Save America’ movement.”
Trump went on to describe the newly formed department as the “‘Manhattan Project’ of our time,” referring to the US-led research program during the second world war that sought to create the nuclear bomb, which killed an estimated 214,000 people in Japan in 1945.
Since the first assassination attempt against Trump in July, Musk has emerged as one of his staunchest allies, at one point proclaiming himself to be “dark Maga” during the campaign. He donated $120m to the president-elect’s campaign, held rallies for him in the swing state of Pennsylvania and promoted Trump’s message relentlessly on X.
Following Trump’s re-election victory, Musk posted an edited photo of him carrying a sink in the Oval Office, writing on X: “Let that sink in.”
The image harks back to Musk’s publicity stunt from October 2022, shortly after he closed his $44bn deal of buying X, previously known as Twitter. Musk walked into the company’s headquarters carrying a sink. According to a new Fidelity estimate, X is worth nearly 80% less than when Musk purchased it two years ago.
• The caption accompanying the main photograph was amended on 14 November 2024. An earlier version inadvertently said the image showed Donald Trump, when Elon Musk was meant.
