WASHINGTON — US President-elect Donald Trump said on Nov 12 that Elon Musk and former Republican presidential hopeful Vivek Ramaswamy will lead the newly created Department of Government Efficiency.

Musk and Ramaswamy “will pave the way for my Administration to dismantle Government Bureaucracy, slash excess regulations, cut wasteful expenditures, and restructure Federal Agencies”, Trump said in a statement.

Trump said their work would conclude by July 4, 2026, adding that a smaller and more efficient government would be a “gift” to the country on the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence.

The appointments reward two Trump supporters from the private sector.

Musk leads electric car company Tesla, social media platform X and rocket company SpaceX, while Ramaswamy is the founder of a pharmaceutical company who ran for the Republican presidential nomination against Trump and then threw his support behind the former president after dropping out.

Musk gave millions of dollars to support Trump’s presidential campaign and made public appearances with him. Trump had said he would offer Musk, the world’s richest person, a role in his administration promoting government efficiency.

The acronym of the new department — DOGE — coincides with the name of the cryptocurrency Dogecoin that Musk promotes.

“This will send shockwaves through the system, and anyone involved in government waste, which is a lot of people!” Musk said, according to Trump’s statement, which called the new government initiative “potentially The Manhattan Project of our time”, referring to the US plan to build the atomic bomb that helped end World War II.

Trump also said on Nov 12 that he had picked former director of national intelligence John Ratcliffe to serve as director of the Central Intelligence Agency.

He also said he will nominate Fox News Channel host Pete Hegseth to be secretary of defence.

Ratcliffe, a close ally of Trump, served as director of national intelligence at the end of his first term.

He was confirmed as the nation’s top spy in May 2020, eight months before Trump left office. A former member of the House of Representatives and US attorney for Texas, he received no support from Senate Democrats during his confirmation.

As director of national intelligence, Ratcliffe was accused by Democrats and former intelligence officials of declassifying intelligence for use by Trump and his Republican allies to attack political opponents, including Joe Biden, then Trump’s rival for the presidency, a charge Ratcliffe’s office has denied.

News outlets, including Reuters, also reported on concerns that Ratcliffe exaggerated his counter-terrorism experience as a federal prosecutor in Texas.

On Hegseth, Trump said: “Pete is tough, smart and a true believer in America First.”

“With Pete at the helm, America’s enemies are on notice — Our Military will be Great Again, and America will Never Back Down,” he added.

Hegseth is an Army National Guard veteran and according to his website served in Afghanistan, Iraq and Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

Trump also said he had picked William McGinley to serve as his White House counsel.

McGinley had served in Trump’s first presidential term as White House Cabinet secretary.

“Bill is a smart and tenacious lawyer who will help me advance our America First agenda while fighting for election integrity and against the weaponisation of law enforcement,” Trump said in a statement.

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