WASHINGTON – The world’s wealthiest man, Elon Musk, and former presidential candidate Vivek Ramswamy met with congressional Republicans on Thursday to brainstorm ideas for the newly-formed Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) which President-elect Donald Trump tasked them with leading.
Musk met with incoming Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., in the morning, while Ramaswamy met with several other Republican Senators. In the afternoon, both joined House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., in addressing a larger group of House and Senate Republican lawmakers.
After leaving Thune’s office accompanied by his son, X Æ A-Xii, Musk told a group of reporters, “I think we just need to make sure we spend the public’s money well.”
In response to a question about ending tax credits for electric vehicles, Musk said, “I think we should end all credits.” Currently, electric vehicle buyers can earn a tax credit up to $7,500 under the Inflation Reduction Act, the landmark climate law that President Joe Biden signed in 2022.
Trump tasked DOGE with advising the government on how to slash the federal budget. In a November 12 statement announcing the formation of DOGE, Trump said Musk and Ramaswamy “will pave the way for my Administration to dismantle Government Bureaucracy, slash excess regulations, cut wasteful expenditures, and restructure Federal Agencies.”
Musk and Ramaswamy wrote in a Wall Street Journal op-ed last month that they plan to take aim at over $500 billion in government spending and drastically reduce the number of federal employees. “The entrenched and ever-growing bureaucracy represents an existential threat to our republic, and politicians have abetted it for too long,” they wrote.
Ramaswamy, a former pharmaceutical entrepreneur, challenged Trump for the Republican nomination in 2024, but dropped out and endorsed him after a fourth-place finish in the Iowa caucuses. During his campaign, Ramaswamy called for half of the federal workforce to be fired at random based on the last digit of their Social Security number.
Musk is the longtime CEO of electric car company Tesla and space technology company SpaceX. After purchasing the social media website Twitter in 2022, which he later renamed X, Musk said he fired 80% of the company’s staff.
Addressing a pool of reporters before Thursday afternoon’s meeting, Speaker Johnson said specifics on DOGE’s plans would have to wait. “There won’t be a lot of detail for the press today,” he said. “And that’s by design, because this is a brainstorming session.”
Johnson praised Musk and Ramaswamy as “innovators” and “forward-thinkers,” arguing that their work would be crucial to delivering for taxpayers. “Government is too big, it does too many things, and it does almost nothing well,” Johnson said.
Critics of DOGE have warned it may target entitlement programs such as Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, which make up roughly 50% of the federal budget. “I’m very worried about it,” said Democratic Senator Tim Kaine of Virginia. “The President-elect has said that they won’t, but I think that they will propose it.”
Earlier this week, Florida Rep. Jared Moskowitz became the first Democrat to join the congressional Delivering Outstanding Government Efficiency (DOGE) Caucus.
The House DOGE Caucus was founded by Rep. Aaron Bean, R-Fla., and Rep. Pete Sessions, R-Texas, while the Senate DOGE Caucus is led by Senator Joni Ernst, R-Iowa.
