Newly elected President of the United States Donald Trump has named technology magnate Elon Musk and former Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy as his picks to head the so-called Department of Government Efficiency, a new body he plans to create once he returns to the White House.

“Together, these two great Americans will pave the way for my administration to dismantle the government bureaucracy, eliminate redundant regulations, reduce wasteful spending and restructure federal agencies,” Trump said in a statement on Tuesday.

“Importantly, we will eliminate the massive waste and fraud that exists in our $6.5 trillion in annual government spending.”

Trump added that under his plan, Musk and Ramaswamy would complete their work by July 4, 2026, the 250th anniversary of the signing of the US Declaration of Independence.

“A smaller government, with more efficiency and less bureaucracy, will be the perfect gift for America,” Trump said.

A campaign promise

The proposed department appears to be inspired by a conversation Trump had during his campaign with Musk, one of his most prominent supporters.

On August 13, the two men sat down for a two-hour live broadcast on Musk’s social media platform

“You are the biggest cutter,” Trump replied. ‘I need an Elon Musk. I need someone who has a lot of strength, courage and smarts.

Trump revisited the idea later during his campaign, including during an appearance in September before the New York Economic Club.

“I will create a government efficiency commission charged with conducting a full financial and performance audit of the entire federal government and making recommendations for dramatic reforms,” Trump said at the time.

It is unclear how the new department will function once it is established. Tuesday’s statement indicated that Ramaswamy and Musk would “provide advice and guidance from outside the government.”

Critics note that independent nonpartisan watchdogs already exist within government to ensure efficiency and conduct audits, including the Government Accountability Office.

Rewarding Trump’s supporters

However, Trump’s announcement Tuesday appears poised to reward two of his most prominent private sector supporters.

Musk, a billionaire originally from South Africa, is the founder of the electric car company Tesla, the owner of X and the leader of SpaceX, a rocket-building company.

Ramaswamy is now the founder of a pharmaceutical company. Earlier this year, he ran against Trump in the Republican primary season, but dropped out after finishing fourth in the Iowa caucus in January. He immediately endorsed Trump after he suspended his campaign.

Musk’s endorsement came months later, after Trump faced an assassination attempt at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, in July.

Musk posted a video of a blood-stained Trump and wrote in the aftermath: “I fully support President Trump and hope for his speedy recovery.”

Musk has since donated millions of dollars to Trump’s election campaign and made public appearances with him, including at a follow-up rally in Butler.

Since Trump won the November 5 presidential election, Musk has also been a constant presence at the newly elected president’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida.

DOGE, the acronym for the newly created department, is also the name of the cryptocurrency Musk is promoting.

Drastic change

Since his first successful presidential bid in 2016, Trump has promised to slim down the government and “drain the swamp” – his slogan for ridding Washington DC of unnecessary bureaucracy and corruption.

In Tuesday’s announcement, Trump teased “drastic changes” in his second term. He has already pledged to shut down the Department of Education, which distributes federal aid, cracks down on discrimination in schools and publishes research on educational attainment.

A future Department of Government Efficiency, Trump explained, would work with the White House to “achieve sweeping structural reforms and create an entrepreneurial approach to government never seen before.”

Musk suggested at one point that he could find more than $2 trillion in savings if he were given the power to overhaul federal functions — an amount equivalent to nearly a third of the government’s total annual spending.

To illustrate the size and importance of his proposed department, Trump drew a comparison between the new body and a World War II program that developed the atomic bomb.

“It will potentially become the ‘Manhattan Project’ of our time,” Trump said on Tuesday.

Musk was quoted in Trump’s press release celebrating the department’s upcoming creation.

“This will send shockwaves through the system and through everyone involved in government waste, which is a lot of people!” he said.