(Reuters) On Tuesday, U.S. President-elect Donald Trump named Elon Musk to a role aimed at creating a more efficient government, handing even more influence to the world's richest man who donated millions of dollars to helping Trump get elected.
Musk and former Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy will co-lead a newly created Department of Government Efficiency, an entity Trump indicated will operate outside the confines of government.
Trump said in a statement that Musk and Ramaswamy "will pave the way for my Administration to dismantle Government Bureaucracy, slash excess regulations, cut wasteful expenditures, and restructure Federal Agencies."
Trump said the new department will realize long-held Republican dreams and "provide advice and guidance from outside of government," signaling the Musk and Ramaswamy roles would be informal, without requiring Senate approval and allowing Musk to remain the head of electric car company Tesla (TSLA.O), social media platform X and rocket company SpaceX.
The new department would work with the White House and Office of Management & Budget to "drive large scale structural reform, and create an entrepreneurial approach" to government never seen before, Trump said.
The work would conclude by July 4, 2026 - the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence.
Musk, ranked by Forbes as the richest person in the world, already stood to benefit from Trump's victory, with the billionaire entrepreneur expected to wield extraordinary influence to help his companies and secure favorable government treatment.
With many links to Washington, Musk gave millions of dollars to support Trump's presidential campaign and made public appearances with him.
Adding a government portfolio to Musk's plate could benefit the market value of his companies and favored businesses such as artificial intelligence and cryptocurrency.
"It's clear that Musk will have a massive role in the Trump White House with his increasing reach clearly across many federal agencies," equities analyst Daniel Ives of Wedbush Securities said in a research note.
"We believe the major benefits for Musk and Tesla far outweigh any negatives as this continues to be a 'poker move for the ages' by Musk betting on Trump," Ives said.
The move was criticized by Public Citizen, a progressive consumer tights NGO that challenged several of Trump’s first-term policies.
"Musk not only knows nothing about government efficiency and regulation, his own businesses have regularly run afoul of the very rules he will be in position to attack in his new ‘czar’ position," Lisa Gilbert, co-president of Public Citizen, said in a statement. "This is the ultimate corporate corruption."
MAXIMUM TRANSPARENCY PROMISED
Trump likened the efficiency effort to the Manhattan Project, the U.S. undertaking to build the atomic bomb that helped end World War Two, while Musk promised transparency.
"All actions of the Department of Government Efficiency will be posted online for maximum transparency," Musk said on X, inviting the public to provide tips.
"We will also have a leaderboard for most insanely dumb spending of your tax dollars. This will be both extremely tragic and extremely entertaining," Musk said.
Musk said at a Trump rally at Madison Square Garden in October that the federal budget could be reduced by "at least" $2 trillion. Discretionary spending, including defense spending, is estimated to total $1.9 trillion out of $6.75 trillion in total federal outlays for fiscal 2024, according to the Congressional Budget Office.
"Your money is being wasted and the Department of Government Efficiency is going to fix that. We're going to get the government off you back and out of your pocketbook," Musk said at the rally.
The acronym of the new department - DOGE - also references the name of the cryptocurrency dogecoin that Musk promotes.
In August Musk and Tesla won the dismissal of a federal lawsuit accusing them of defrauding investors by hyping dogecoin and conducting insider trading, causing billions of dollars of losses.
Dogecoin has more than doubled since Election Day, tracking a surge in cryptocurrency markets on expectations of a softer regulatory ride under a Trump administration.
Shares in Tesla fell on Wall Street ahead of the announcement but are up about 30% since the election.
Ramaswamy is the founder of a pharmaceutical company who ran for the Republican presidential nomination against Trump and then threw his support behind the former president after dropping out.
Ramaswamy said the appointment means he is withdrawing from consideration for the pending U.S. Senate appointment in Ohio, where Governor Mike DeWine will appoint a replacement for JD Vance, who will become Trump's vice president when they are inaugurated on Jan. 20.
U.S. President-elect Donald Trump said on Tuesday he has picked as his secretary of defense Pete Hegseth, a Fox News commentator and veteran who has expressed disdain for the so-called "woke" policies of Pentagon leaders including its top military officer.
Hegseth, if confirmed by the U.S. Senate, could make good on Trump's campaign promises to rid the U.S. military of generals who he accuses of pursuing progressive policies on diversity in the ranks that conservatives have rallied against.
It could also set up a collision course between Hegseth and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Air Force General C.Q. Brown, a former fighter pilot with command experience in the Pacific and the Middle East, who Hegseth accused of "pursuing the radical positions of left-wing politicians."
The 44-year old NATO-skeptic is perhaps Trump's most surprising pick as he fills out his cabinet ahead of the Jan. 20 inauguration, and the decision drew swift condemnation from some of Trump's opponents.
"The job of Secretary of Defense should not be an entry-level position," Representative Adam Smith, the top Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee, said on X.
Trump, announcing his decision, praised Hegseth, who is an Army National Guard veteran and according to his website served in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
"Pete is tough, smart and a true believer in America First," Trump said in a statement. "With Pete at the helm, America's enemies are on notice - Our Military will be Great Again, and America will Never Back Down."
While Hegseth has articulated only limited policy positions in the past, he has railed against NATO allies for being weak and said that China is on the verge of dominating its neighbors.
Hegseth has said he left the military in 2021 after being sidelined for his political and religious views by an Army that didn't want him anymore.
"The feeling was mutual - I didn't want this Army anymore either," Hegseth said in his book "The War on Warriors: Behind the Betrayal of the Men Who Keep Us Free."
There is already anxiety in the Pentagon that Trump aims to root out military officers and career civil servants he perceives to be disloyal.
Culture war issues could be a trigger for firings.
Trump told Fox News in June he would fire generals he described as "woke," a term for those focused on racial and social justice but which is used by conservatives to disparage progressive policies.
Hegseth could be an advocate for such firings.
"The next president of the United States needs to radically overhaul Pentagon senior leadership to make us ready to defend our nation and defeat our enemies. Lots of people need to be fired," he wrote in his book.
Hegseth also took aim at Brown in particular, asking whether he would have gotten the job if he were not Black.
"Was it because of his skin color? Or his skill? We'll never know, but always doubt - which on its face seems unfair to CQ. But since he has made the race card one of his biggest calling cards, it doesn't really much matter," he wrote.
Trump's former U.S. generals and defense secretaries are among his fiercest critics, with some declaring him unfit for office. Trump has suggested that his former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Mark Milley, could be executed for treason.
Hegseth has also slammed Milley for failing to execute Trump's policies dutifully when in office and accusing him of being "a partisan to the end" to aid Democrats.
'SELF-RIGHTEOUS AND IMPOTENT' ALLIES
Hegseth has been sharply critical of America's European allies and his selection could fuel even greater anxiety in NATO about what a Trump administration will mean for the alliance.
"Outdated, outgunned, invaded, and impotent. Why should America, the European 'emergency contact number' for the past century, listen to self-righteous and impotent nations asking us to honor outdated and one-sided defense arrangements they no longer live up to?" Hegseth wrote in his book.
"Maybe if NATO countries actually ponied up for their own defense — but they don't. They just yell about the rules while gutting their militaries and yelling at America for help."
In appearances on podcasts and television he has said China is building a military "specifically dedicated to defeating the United States of America."
"They have a full spectrum long-term view of not just regional but global domination and we are we have our heads up our asses," Hegseth said on a podcast last week.
During the same appearance, Hegseth said Russia's 2022 invasion of Ukraine appeared to be "Putin's give-me-my-shit-back war."
Trump has been critical of President Joe Biden's assistance for Ukraine, fueling concern about the future of support for President Volodymyr Zelenskiy's government under a Republican-controlled White House, Senate and possibly House of Representatives.
"If Ukraine can defend themselves... great, but I don't want American intervention driving deep into Europe and making (Putin) feel like he's so much on his heels," Hegseth said.
U.S. President-elect Donald Trump said on Tuesday he had picked John Ratcliffe, a close ally who was director of national intelligence at the end of his first term, to serve as director of the Central Intelligence Agency.
Ratcliffe served as the nation's top spy from late May 2020 until Trump left office in January 2021. More recently, he was co-chair of the Center for American Security, a think tank advocating Trump positions, and advised the former Republican president on national security policy during his 2024 campaign.
"I look forward to John being the first person ever to serve in both of our Nation’s highest Intelligence positions. He will be a fearless fighter for the Constitutional Rights of all Americans, while ensuring the Highest Levels of National Security, and PEACE THROUGH STRENGTH," Trump said in a statement announcing the nomination.
Ratcliffe, a former member of the House of Representatives, promised at his confirmation hearing to be DNI in May 2020 that he would provide "objective and timely intelligence" in the position.
He also said he would closely monitor other issues like Iran's military, North Korea's nuclear weapons program and foreign interference in the U.S. election.
When Ratcliffe was confirmed as DNI in 2020 by the Republican-majority Senate, all Democratic senators voted against his nomination, citing his lack of experience and partisanship.
With Republicans again controlling the chamber next year, and months of experience as DNI, he is expected to be easily approved this time.
CRITIC OF BIDEN MIDEAST POLICY, CHINA HAWK
More recently, Ratcliffe has criticized how Democratic President Joe Biden's administration has approached the conflict in the Middle East. In an article published in June, he argued that Biden's threat to withhold weapons shipments to Israel over its military actions in Gaza had put a key ally at risk. He also argued that the administration had not been tough enough on Iran.
Ratcliffe also positioned himself as a China hawk during his tenure as DNI.
"The intelligence is clear: Beijing intends to dominate the U.S. and the rest of the planet economically, militarily and technologically," Ratcliffe wrote in a December 2020 article in the Wall Street Journal.
As DNI, Democrats and former intelligence officials accused him of declassifying intelligence to benefit Trump and his Republican allies. They claimed he used this information to attack political opponents, including Biden, then Trump's rival for the presidency. Ratcliffe's office denied this charge.
It was the second time Trump nominated Ratcliffe for the post. He was the most junior member of the House Intelligence Committee, with just six months on the panel, when Trump first said he wanted to appoint him in July 2019.
Trump quickly abandoned Ratcliffe's first nomination when members of Congress worried he was too inexperienced and too partisan. But Republicans supported Ratcliffe when Trump picked him again, saying the office of DNI was too important to be filled with only acting officials.
Ratcliffe had represented a Texas congressional district since 2015 and served on the House intelligence and judiciary committees. He became known as an outspoken defender of Trump during the Democratic-led proceedings that resulted in Trump's 2019 impeachment on charges of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress.
The Republican-led Senate later acquitted Trump, the only U.S. president to be impeached twice.
Trump has had a rocky relationship with intelligence agencies, including the CIA, accusing their employees of being part of the "deep state," his term for career federal employees he accuses of pursuing their own agendas.