Trump wants Elon Musk to overhaul the government. Here’s what could be on the chopping block

President-elect Donald Trump and Elon Musk have big ambitions for making the federal government leaner and more efficient by reviewing its budget and operations from top to bottom.

President-elect Donald Trump and Elon Musk have big ambitions for making the federal government leaner and more efficient by reviewing its budget and operations from top to bottom. Musk, the world’s richest person who owns or runs several companies, has warned that his goals – including cutting at least $2 trillion in federal spending – could cause “temporary hardship” before ultimately creating “long-term prosperity.” His pronouncements are prompting budget experts to scoff, while sending chills down the spines of many federal workers and those who depend on the federal government for assistance or their livelihood. Details about how the new Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, will operate – and how Musk and his co-leader Vivek Ramaswamy will avoid conflicts of interest – remain scarce. But the duo has spoken openly about areas of the government they’d like to see altered, while Trump and Republican lawmakers have a long list of programs and operations they’d like to reform. It’s important to note that while Trump has promised that the initiative will make “drastic changes,” Musk and Ramaswamy will not have any direct power to make spending cuts, regulatory changes or other moves. The group will exist outside of the government and will likely serve to make recommendations to the White House for the president’s annual budget, which outlines the president’s vision but Congress is not required to follow. Asked at a town hall on X last month about what the initiative’s first steps would be, Musk said there is so much government waste that it would be easy to find targets. “We, just as a country, obviously, we need to live within our means,” said Musk, who owns X and is CEO of Tesla and SpaceX. “So that means just looking at every line item, every expense and saying, ‘Is this necessary at all?’”