Shocking Move by Musk & Ramaswamy: Massive Federal Layoffs & Bold Rule Overhaul in Trump’s Vision

Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, two tech entrepreneurs, announced Wednesday that their new government efficiency panel will find “thousands” of laws that President-elect Donald Trump should remove. They claim that this will support “mass head-count reductions” throughout the government. In a Wall Street Journal op-ed, the two, who were appointed panel co-chairs last week, outlined their strategies for the “Department of Government Efficiency” (DOGE).

What is DOGE, the new Trump administration agency that Musk and Ramaswamy will head?

At every stage, the two of us will encourage DOGE to pursue three main types of reform: costsavings,administrative reductions, and regulatory rescissions, they stated. “Instead of enacting new laws, we will concentrate especially on promoting change through executive action based on existing legislation.” Musk and Ramaswamy cited a number of recent Supreme Court rulings that have challenged the administrative state’s authority, contending that a “plethora of current federal regulations” go outside agency jurisdiction and may be subject to repeal.

They contend that reducing regulations ought to permit “at least” proportionate reductions in the government personnel. The two authors of the op-ed stated that “a significant reduction in federal regulations provides sound industrial logic for mass head-count reductions across the federal bureaucracy.” They stated that once the agency’s scope of jurisdiction is appropriately constrained, “not only are fewer employees required to enforce fewer regulations, but the agency would produce fewer regulations.”

Arguments concerning civil service protections that may prevent Trump from terminating federal employees were averted by Musk and Ramaswamy. They added, “These safeguards are intended to shield workers from political reprisals.” However, the Act permits “reductions in force” that do not specifically target any particular employee. The president can also “prescribe rules governing the competitive service,” according to the statute. That authority is wide-ranging.

“With this power, Mr. Trump can enact a variety of ‘rules governing the competitive service’ that would reduce administrative overcrowding, from mass layoffs to moving federal agencies outside of the Washington region,” they continued. According to Reuters, government employees are already organizing in response to possible mass layoffs, preparing public campaigns and hiring attorneys in the hopes that Congress will intervene.

According to The Washington Post, DOGE also intends to target “unauthorized” government money, which may affect everything from NASA to veterans’ health care and opioid addiction treatment. It appears that the op-ed aims to allay popular doubts about Musk and Ramaswamy’s panel’s capacity to bring about change. Since it would only have advisory authority as an outside-of-government group, experts previously told The Hill that it may encounter several challenges from both Congress and the executive branch.

Musk and the president-elect have a tight relationship, though, and that might matter. With millions of dollars donated to his own pro-Trump super PAC and appearing on the campaign trail, the CEO of SpaceX and Tesla was instrumental in Trump’s campaign. Musk has stayed close to Trump since his resounding victory over Vice President Kamala Harris earlier this month. The billionaire tech tycoon was present at Mar-a-Lago on election night to see the results roll in and was subsequently mentioned in Trump’s victory address.

Over the past two weeks, Musk has reportedly spent a lot of time at the Palm Beach, Florida, resort attending meetings, including ones with world leaders, and offering his opinions on Trump’s Cabinet choices. Additionally, he brought Trump to Texas to watch a SpaceX rocket launch on Tuesday afternoon.