Trump’s idea of department where super-wealthy businessmen cut government is unlikely, USC researchers say

After his victory in the presidential election, President-elect Trump announced some plans for his presidency.  

One of those is the creation of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). 

The DOGE is set to be headed by Tesla CEO Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, the founder of Roivant Sciences.  

Saving money is the goal.

The would-be agency’s role would be to observe government operations and spending to help regulate them for efficiency. 

The department would partner with the federal Office of Management and Budget to “drive large scale structural reform and create an entrepreneurial approach to government never seen before,” Trump said. 

But the DOGE would be difficult for Trump to create, as the president doesn’t possess the power to create departments unilaterally, said one professor at the University of South Carolina. 

Political science professor Cody Drolc spoke about the nomenclature of this potential department. 

“He’s going to call it a department because when you think of a department you think big,” Drolc said. “You think power. You think something official. The president can’t do that. Congress has to do that. The president can be involved in these processes like structuring a department” but not creating it. 

Drolc went on to clarify that the DOGE could exist as an advisory board however, as the president can create a board without going through the same checks and balances required for the creation of a department. 

Another obstacle in the way of Trump creating the DOGE is the existence of other governmental bodies that already serve its intended purpose.  

Economics professor Jason DeBacker noted that one of those governing bodies has been a longstanding one. 

“We’ve had an office of government efficiency, effectively the GAO (Government Accountability Office), for more than 100 years,” DeBacker said. “Trump may not be aware that it exists. But it already exists, and it’s been doing that job to see if spending is efficient.”  

The GAO website uses that kind of language. 

“GAO examines how taxpayer dollars are spent and provides Congress and federal agencies with objective, non-partisan, fact-based information to help the government save money and work more efficiently,” the website says. 

The proposed department faces scrutiny from many critics, potentially because of Musk’s possible business conflict of interest with certain government programs and Ramaswamy’s inexperience with politics. 

Political science professor Shannon Bridgmon spoke about the inexperience of both men in relation to government procedure. 

“These two hold themselves up as paragons of private sector virtues: efficiency, profitability, social investment, that kind of stuff,” Bridgmon said. “But neither of them has any experience” in government. 

Musk, in a post on X, said he can find a way to save the U.S. government $2 trillion, one-third of the nation’s annual spending.  

Details of that plan have not yet been released.