Reply to Musk after Trump’s 2024 Demanski Presidential Candidate Eliminated his Role in the Federal Government
Until he dropped out of the 2024 presidential race in January to endorse Trump, Ramaswamy vowed to reduce the role of the federal government. He proposed to slash the Federal Reserve workforce by at least 75% and to deport American-born children of immigrants who are in the country illegally.
He has a record of cutting spending within his businesses. Mass layoffs of up to 1,500 people were conducted after he bought X.
At a rally in New York City ahead of election day, Musk said the budget for the federal government could be slashed by at least $2 trillion.
Musk has become an important voice in conservative politics. He first proposed a “government efficiency commission” that would monitor federal agencies during a conversation he had with Trump on X. Since winning the presidential election, Trump and Musk have remained in close orbit.
Musk has a stake in the administration and may have conflicts of interest. He could potentially get regulatory authority over the agencies that regulate his companies that receive government funding. Musk’s companies have also been the subject of federal investigations.
While most department heads have to be confirmed by the Senate, it’s unclear what formalities Musk and Ramaswamy will have to go through for these roles.
“We will not allow ourselves to be deceived,” Ramaswamy said in a post on X, which was tagged Musk who commented separately in Trump’s announcement.
The appointment also brings Ramaswamy, a biotech entrepreneur and former Republican presidential candidate, officially into Trump’s administration after he was reported to have once been under consideration for vice president.
He wants to help him reduce bureaucracy, cut waste, and restructure agencies through a commission he has called the “Department of Government Efficiency”.
The Department of Government Efficiency: It’s hard to do what Trump did during his first term was hard, but it does make a difference
An official government agency cannot be created unless Congress passes an act of Congress.
The acronym for the new agency, “Department of Government Efficiency” is an obvious wink to Musk’s dog-themed coin that skyrocketed after he promoted it.
“People are apprehensive and fearful,” says Nicole Cantello, an attorney with the Environmental Protection Agency who now serves as a union president representing EPA workers in the Upper Midwest.
About 2 million people work for the government. They help protect public health all over the country. They ensure food is safe and veterans are cared for.
At the tail end of his first term, Trump issued an executive order that created a new category of political appointees, called Schedule F. His plan was to move an unknown number of career civil servants into this category, making it easier to fire them and replace them with loyalists.
Donald Kettl, professor emeritus at the University of Maryland School of Public Policy, believes that it will return in the next Trump administration.
“They are going to do this in a relatively short order because they are sure that they will be able to do it correctly,” says the co-founding member of the working group dedicated to protecting and Reforming the Civil Service.
Earlier this year, the federal Office of Personnel Management issued a rule to make it harder to convert career federal employees into political appointees who can be fired at will.
Some federal workers recall how difficult it was to do their jobs during Trump’s first presidency, even without a commission hellbent on slashing regulations and jobs.
She talks about the changes that made it hard for their work. For example, lawyers could no longer directly ask companies about the pollutants they were discharging. They had to go through headquarters, instead of the regional offices.
She says that when there is an additional bureaucratic roadblock in, they can sit on it for a long time. You aren’t enforcing the law.
Why Federal Workers are Faint in Trump’s Maneuvrability? Comment on the “Apprehensive and fearful’: Federal Workers await a dismantling under Trump”
The EPA regional office in Chicago has been moved hundreds of miles from the Great Lakes. The idea was dropped after getting a lot of backlash.
“A lot of them feel they put their four years in,” she says. They are not going to do that this time because it took so much out of them.
Last month, a conservative group issued a list of “subversive” bureaucrats who are not trusted to enforce immigration laws.
Marcus Hill, president of the Senior Executives Association, said that it was unnerving. They are the highest-ranking civil servants, who help political appointees carry out their agendas in a lawful manner.
Hill, who spent 38 years in government, says that there is doubt about the motives of people who choose to serve their country.
“Whether it was a Democratic or Republican administration [that] came in, I understood clearly what my role and responsibilities were in terms of supporting that administration,” he says.
Hill notes that career civil servants swear an oath to uphold and defend the Constitution and to faithfully execute their duties, not to swear allegiance to any party or president.
Source: ‘Apprehensive and fearful’: Federal workers await a dismantling under Trump
How likely are federal workers to be fired en masse? The Kettl challenge for the future of the Department of Government Efficiency (DGO)
Even with Trump’s unveiling of his “Department of Government Efficiency,” Kettl says it’s unlikely we’ll see federal employees fired en masse. Such a move would undermine Trump’s ability to get anything done, which would be disastrous for his administration.
“Who wants to read, if you’re on the inside of the new government, that unsafe drugs have been unleashed on the public, or that it’s not safe to buy Cheerios in the grocery store?” he says.
“If you succeed in getting your message across, then you don’t need to chop everybody’s head off,” says Kettl. “You need to tell people that you’re serious about this.”