Key Takeaways:
Donald Trump launched the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) to end public “waste and fraud.” The department is co-led by billionaires Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy. While Musk improved efficiency at X after he bought the platform, bureaucracy could make it hard to implement similar plans at government-level.Donald Trump recently announced the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), tasked with downsizing federal bureaucracy, improving the ease of doing business, and reducing government spending.
DOGE shares its acronym with Dogecoin, the meme coin favored by Elon Musk who will co-chair the department with fellow billionaire Vivek Ramaswamy.
The president-elect is channeling his crypto-savvy as he buckles down to business ahead of his January 2025 inauguration.
Beyond the symbolism, DOGE is also a salutary of collective genius, risk tolerance, decentralization, and other values that Trump shares with the cryptocurrency community as he returns to the White House.
Announcing the new department, Trump said Musk and Ramaswamy will help end “the massive waste and fraud which exists throughout our annual 6.5 Trillion Dollars of Government Spending.”
DOGE will operate outside government, making good on Trump’s mission to put business over bureaucracy. It will advise the president without going through Congressional processes.
Cryptocurrency is already winning ahead of Trump’s day-one promises. Trump’s push for small government and support for innovation gels well with crypto firms who have had their fair share of run-ins with regulators.
High Hopes, Little Room to Maneuver
Trump has positioned himself against the so-called deep state. During his first term, he had sparring matches against federal agencies, which he accused of lethargy and conspiracy against his administration.
In his second and likely last term in office, Trump knows that he will be limited by the structures he will be working within. His solution is to bring down the structures themselves.
DOGE will seek to dissolve some agencies but, outside government, its role will be merely consultative, according to some experts. Trump will still need Congress to approve any radical changes to government structures.
Warren Whitlock, a U.S.-based emerging tech advisor and crypto founder, says DOGE will bring “some change” but not enough of it. In an interview with Cryptonews, he said:
“Government can’t be as efficient as a business because decisions aren’t made by the same logic. Business has an easy scorecard – profit. The government doesn’t get to count profits and winds up with other metrics [that are politically-driven].”
Whitlock said to make real changes, the United States needs the attitude Musk used with Twitter, now X, which he bought for $44 billion in 2022.
“He [Musk) eliminated the waste,” he said. “Twitter works better and he saved a bundle.”
However, the Tesla and SpaceX billionaire could afford to ignore criticism and maneuver because X is his company, Whitlock detailed.
Government, on the other hand, is sensitive to public opinion and structural adjustment may be unpopular with Trump’s key constituencies.
According to Whitlock, implementing the extent of changes Musk brought to X “may be a fantasy for DOGE and the federal government.”
That’s because, in government, “bureaucracy has the power to get elected officials, the media and the public to work against implementation of what’s needed…Shutting down what doesn’t accomplish a net good for the people.”
DOGE: Brainiest Gang in Government Business
Donald Trump tipped DOGE to become “the Manhattan Project of our time.” The World War 2 era gathering of science geniuses, recently celebrated in the Oscar-winning movie Oppenheimer, loosely operated outside government to further the nation’s interests.
A key strand of Oppenheimer is how the semi-autonomous entity was not only constituted outside government for greater efficiency but also how bureaucrats characteristically persecuted those who embodied progress and genius.
The Manhattan Project reference is a nod to the high ambitions of DOGE and its high-IQ composition. Musk, in particular, has arguably beaten space-colonist rival Jeff Bezos to the title of Silicon Valley’s foremost nerd.
Not only have the leads adopted the “Manhattan” narrative deeper into their agenda, but they are also branding the Department of Government Efficiency as the brainiest gang in government business.
“We need super high-IQ small-government revolutionaries willing to work 80+ hours per week on unglamorous cost-cutting,” the department said in one of its first X updates. “If that’s you, DM this account with your CV. Elon & Vivek will review the top 1% of applicants.”
Collective Genius vs. Red Tape
Three of America’s biggest egos, Trump, Musk, and Ramaswamy, gather in a room to cook up and their language emphasizes “the people,” “national service,” “greater good” and “volunteerism.”
With so much talent—and money—between them, the leaders of Trump Trade are mindful of prioritizing community—in this case, the nation—over personal credit.
Of course, cryptocurrency is a place where community reigns supreme, with decentralization, collective ownership, and group identity, if one considers only the example of its masked founders.
To hear Ramaswamy tell it, he and Musk are not in the business for their personal scorecards.
“Elon and I aren’t in this for the credit,” he said on X on Nov. 15. “But I think we’re gonna build the consensus to make the kind of deep cuts that haven’t been made for most of our history.”
Furthermore, their prospective super-IQ recruits will not be paid for their work, which somewhat boils down to hints of national service. The self-denying requirement is meant to give the department a virtuous edge over federal agencies accused of milking taxpayers.
Ramaswamy has previously advocated new ways of soliciting national service from a detached younger generation. If his calls for military service as a requirement for enfranchises pointed youths to old-fashioned fields of service, DOGE should provide a more appealing means to deny oneself for the country.
The Problem of the Deep State
The GOP, headed by Trump, is the party of small government and, by extension, the party of business. Without redundant departments, business flows smoother and faster. Essentially, DOGE is framed as the war of the people against the deep state.
A stylometric crack at Trump’s announcement is informative. Vices like “Government Bureaucracy,” “Federal Agencies” and “6 Trillion Dollars of Government Spending” are all written with word caps.
This is to personify them as entrenched entities that have taken a life of their own. Monsters, that is, which have necessitated resistance, in the form of DOGE, into existence.
As Musk puts it, DOGE is about removing “the mountain of choking regulations that do not serve the greater good.”
Endorsing DOGE, Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong, observed that government spending speaks to a flaw in traditional government structure.
“The founding fathers were geniuses but (with humility) may have missed the adverse incentives which grow the size of democratic government over time (winning elections by promising more free stuff),” he said.
Conflict of Interest
Leadership ethicist Ann Skeet broaches potential conflict of interest as Musk’s businesses, including Space X, Tesla, the Boring Company and X, brush shoulders with regulators and also take revenue from federal agencies.
Skeet, who directs a leadership department at Santa Clara University’s Markkula Center, said:
“There are direct conflicts between his businesses and the government’s interest. He’s now in a position to try and curry favor for those enterprises.”
DOGE will advise and guide the White House and partner with the Office of Management and Budget in reducing expenditure and downsizing the government.
Its positioning outside the cabinet makes it potentially a consulting firm with a fancy name. In this limited form, Trump and Vivek can avoid accusations of conflict of interest.
They will also be able to bypass typical Congressional procedures required by bona fide government agencies to reach the president’s ear.
High Risk and Quick Turnaround
A meme coin, of which Dogecoin is the foremost, is a digital currency that creates a community of investors around an internet trend.
Memecoins can be themed around anything, from celebrities and pets to election candidates and crypto in-jokes. Memecoins have an unpredictable shelf life but Dogecoin, in particular, has weathered storms and gone for the moon.
Dogecoin has a long digital history, from the widely shared “meme of the year” 2013, a Shiba Inu caught in thought in a snowy background. In the same year, an altcoin emerged with a Shiba Inu as its logo.
Trump’s choice of risk-loving individuals speaks to the kind of government he is willing to preside. Crucially, it also embraces the crypto value of high risk for big returns. More specifically, the memecoin aspect of quick turnaround.
Neither Musk nor Ramaswamy are well-known for their groundedness or level-headedness. They are about facing up high stakes and getting the job done.
For the record, former presidential candidate Ramaswamy is the only Republican who can “out-Trump Trump.” In the election campaign, Ramaswamy espoused a series of alt-right positions that exceeded Trump’s conservatism in some cases.
The only reason he was contesting Trump, whose ideas he shared, was that he considered the comeback president as not having the right built for the tough job required.
Among Ramaswamy’s “greatest hits” are his proposals to scrap the Department of Education, remove the provision for companies to hire skilled foreigners for a six-year professional residence in the country, as well as the disenfranchisement of people under 25.
For his part, Musk directly foreshadowed DOGE with his calls for the downsizing of government expenditure by $2 trillion. His unpredictable and highly individual style of leadership has also been on display with his X takeover.
Trump stated that the work of DOGE will conclude by July 4, 2026, to coincide with the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, keeping with the memecoin principle of quick turnaround.
In contrast, federal bureaucrats have all the time to kill as they are a permanent fixture of government, unlike elected officials.
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