Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy outline plans for mass regulatory cuts under Trump

Elon Musk become a close ally to Trump during his campaign, reportedly spending over $100 million to boost his presidential bid.

Elon Musk outlined plans Wednesday for his new role as "efficiency" czar - signalling an assault on federal spending and staffing that would be backed by President-elect Donald Trump's executive powers and a conservative Supreme Court.

Writing in the Wall Street Journal, the world's richest man said he was taking aim at hundreds of billions of dollars in government spending - including funding for public broadcasting and international aid - as well as at bureaucracy that represents, according to him, an "existential threat" to US democracy.

The Tesla and SpaceX CEO, who also owns the X social media platform, said that he and Vivek Ramaswamy, a fellow businessman and Trump loyalist, would work to slash federal regulations and make major administrative changes.

"We are entrepreneurs, not politicians. We will serve as outside volunteers, not federal officials or employees," Musk and Ramaswamy wrote in their most detailed remarks since Trump named them heads of a new so-called Department of Government Efficiency.

They said DOGE - expected to function more as an advisory group rather than a formal department - will prepare a list of regulations which Trump could invalidate unilaterally.

"When the president nullifies thousands of such regulations, critics will allege executive overreach. In fact, it will be correcting the executive overreach of thousands of regulations promulgated by administrative fiat that were never authorized by Congress," they said.

Musk and Ramaswamy added that a reduction in regulations would pave the way for "mass head-count reductions across the federal bureaucracy," and said DOGE would aim to cut more than $500 billion in government expenditures.