The name of President-elect Donald Trump's so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) is tellingly ambiguous. Despite the "department" label, Trump says DOGE, which will be overseen by billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk and former presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, will "provide advice and guidance from outside of government." That makes DOGE sound more like an advisory committee than an actual federal agency (which would require congressional authorization). And exactly what Trump means by "efficiency," a potentially broad but possibly narrow concept, remains unclear.
Trump, who has never previously shown much interest in fiscal restraint, promises "drastic change," resulting in "a smaller Government, with more efficiency and less bureaucracy." With Musk and Ramaswamy's help, he said, "we will drive out the massive waste and fraud which exists throughout our annual $6.5 Trillion Dollars of Government Spending."
