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Trump transition live updates: President-elect raises prospect of pardons for Jan. 6 crimes

Saul Martinez

Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy are interviewing job candidates and seeking advice from experts in Washington and Silicon Valley — pushing a sweeping vision for the <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/11/13/department-of-government-efficiency-musk-ramaswamy/" target=_blank>“Department of Government Efficiency”</a> past the realm of memes and viral posts into potential real-world disruption.

<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2024/11/12/elon-musk-trump-doge-vivek-ramaswamy/" target=_blank>Tapped by President-elect Donald Trump</a> to lead an advisory panel to find “drastic” cuts to the federal government, the billionaire “DOGE” leaders have spent the past week in Washington and at Mar-a-Lago, seeking staff and interviewing seasoned Washington operators, legal specialists and top tech leaders, according to five people familiar with the matter, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to reflect private deliberations.

Both lobbied for Russell Vought, Trump’s pick to run the White House budget office, who is close with Ramaswamy, several people said. The men see Vought, who is enthusiastic about their arguments to rely on an expansive and boundary-pushing view of executive power to reform the government, as a key potential ally.

Follow <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/12/02/trump-administration-transition/" target=_blank>live updates on the transition</a> to Trump’s second presidency. We’re <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/interactive/trump-administration-appointees/" target=_blank>tracking the people Trump has picked or is considering to fill his Cabinet</a> and key positions in his administration.

Top Musk surrogates from his business empire — including private equity executive Antonio Gracias and Boring Company President Steve Davis — are involved in planning, the people said, along with a coterie of Musk friends and Silicon Valley leaders, including Palantir co-founder and investor Joe Lonsdale, who funds a libertarian-leaning nonprofit dedicated to government efficiency; investor Marc Andreessen; hedge fund manager Bill Ackman; and former Uber chief executive Travis Kalanick. Ramaswamy, Musk and the Silicon Valley cohort plan to work on technical challenges to collecting data about federal employees and programs, which they believe is siloed in antiquated systems. Andreessen is acting as a key networker for talent recruitment, one person said. Those executives did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

<a href="https://www.wsj.com/opinion/musk-and-ramaswamy-the-doge-plan-to-reform-government-supreme-court-guidance-end-executive-power-grab-fa51c020?mod=opinion_trendingnow_article_pos1" target=_blank>In a Wall Street Journal op-ed</a>, Musk and Ramaswamy, a former GOP presidential candidate, outlined their vision for using executive powers and the legal system to push cuts to federal regulations, spending and personnel — a vision that they expect to be tested in court. The men also are launching a podcast, called “Dogecast.” And they backed a new House subcommittee aimed at supplementing their efforts in Congress, where some Republicans have enthusiastically welcomed their initiative.

“President Trump, Elon Musk, and Vivek Ramaswamy are at the forefront of a spending paradigm shift that is sidelining K Street and defense contractors, while empowering the average American,” Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas), a longtime proponent of cutting government spending, told The Washington Post. “I look forward to relentlessly fighting alongside them to deliver.”

Despite the flurry of activity, the effort is regarded as far-fetched by many budget and legal experts who for decades have seen similar efforts founder. In the op-ed published Wednesday, Musk and Ramaswamy said they plan to have Trump rescind “thousands” of government regulations, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2024/11/20/musk-ramaswamy-government-cuts/">gut the federal workforce</a> and <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2024/11/16/trump-musk-ramaswamy-doge-program/?itid=ap_jacobbogage">slash hundreds of billions of dollars</a> in federal spending, with or without congressional consent.<b> </b>It remains unclear how much the DOGE panel will cost or what its source of funding will be.

Even if it falls short of its goals, budget experts say the effort could prove hugely disruptive to workers and businesses that rely on certainty in federal regulation and spending.

Still, every step faces legal and practical roadblocks. Richard J. Pierce, a George Washington University professor who specializes in administrative law, said the Wall Street Journal piece shows Musk and Ramaswamy are “utterly ignorant” of the realities of federal law, which mandates strict procedures for repealing existing regulations.

For example, Trump has said the panel’s work will be completed by July 4, 2026, but getting rid of a single federal rule typically requires two or three years of effort, Pierce said. That includes cumbersome cost-benefit analyses to provide a basis for contradicting prior agency work. Musk and Ramaswamy have said Trump could sign an executive order to stop enforcement of such rules, but that, too, probably would be defeated in the courts, Pierce said.

Musk and Ramaswamy are actively planning to face the obstacles, dividing them into three buckets — legal, technical and administrative — and interviewing candidates with expertise in each area, one of the people said.

The effort also remains clouded by a lack of clarity about its ambitions. During the campaign, Musk spoke of cutting spending by $2 trillion, but even Trump-aligned experts are unclear whether he means to cut that amount in a single year — a goal that would be virtually impossible without touching popular programs like Medicare and Social Security — or over a longer period. Last year, total federal spending amounted to nearly $7 trillion.

Even if the cuts took place over a decade, they would be difficult to reconcile with Trump’s campaign promises to protect Social Security and Medicare. Some people who have met with the DOGE team have returned from Mar-a-Lago unsure of the targets, according to two people briefed on the conversations.

“One person will say they want to do $2 trillion [in cuts] annually and immediately. One will say they want to do this as a more long-term thing,” said Adam Brandon, a senior adviser to advocacy group Independent Center and former leader of the conservative spending policy group FreedomWorks. “They don’t really know yet, it seems.”

In their op-ed, Musk and Ramaswamy cited recent Supreme Court rulings on federal regulations, saying the decisions could clear a path for their work. But Pierce said it would be shocking if the court fully backed their theories.

“There is nothing in the statute that comes anywhere close to authorizing what they want to do, and no permission in the Constitution,” Pierce said. “I can’t even imagine what the argument would be beyond, ‘Gee, there are a lot of regulations, and we want to get rid of them.’”

Instead, the panel’s most immediate impact could be to demoralize the federal workforce and increase attrition, several critics said — an outcome that could hinder critical government functions such as approving permits for businesses.

“It could be a very chaotic situation if they try to mass-nullify regulations,” said Tobin Marcus, head of U.S. politics and policy at Wolfe Research, who advised the Obama administration. “Their ‘move fast and break things’ ethos suggests they’ll do something sweeping. But, to me, creating multiple years of legal limbo for many industries is not a great recipe for driving business investment.”

Avik Roy, founder of the Foundation for Research on Equal Opportunity, a think tank that supports free markets, argued that nascent DOGE plans to cut regulations may fare better in the courts than some suspect. The executive branch is “obligated” to abandon regulations the Supreme Court has found unconstitutional, Roy said, and DOGE leaders could work to issue new rules if old ones were frozen.

Besides cutting regulations, the DOGE leaders said in their op-ed that they’re eager to slash the federal payroll, including by urging federal employees who work remotely to return to the office. At Tesla, his electric car company, and X, his social media platform, Musk took a stern attitude toward employees who did not want to abide by the company’s return-to-office policy, welcoming their resignations.

Some of the people who have helped Musk implement cost-cutting and workforce policies are expected to aid his work at DOGE, including Gracias and Davis, according to people familiar with the planning. Gracias, a former Tesla board member who runs an <a href="https://www.valorep.com/team/antonio-gracias">equity investing</a> group, was called in at key moments at X, where he helped carry out a sweeping overhaul of company culture. Davis, president of the Boring Company, Musk’s tunneling firm, oversaw sharp spending cuts at X — then called Twitter — after Musk bought the business and reduced its workforce by 80 percent. Within Musk’s orbit, Davis is known for his creativity but also a rapid pace and ambitious goals.

Musk, Gracias and Davis did not immediately reply to requests for comment.

In recent weeks, other Musk friends have passed him names of other potential DOGE hires and advisers as the initiative ramps up at Musk’s typical breakneck pace. Some longtime experts on government waste and red tape say they hope Musk and Ramaswamy take the advice of civil servants who have already been pushing for change.

“The problem they’re identifying is a real one: There is a need to make the government more effective by clearing out the clutter and procedural inflation that has frustrated mission-driven public servants,” said Jennifer Pahlka, a senior fellow at the Niskanen Center, a center-right think tank, and the founder of the U.S. Digital Service.

And “government workers do have knowledge and ideas about where to point the sledgehammers they’re bringing to get rid of the things that are holding us back,” Pahlka said. “But DOGE leadership will need to listen to some public servants to do that.”

This past week, Republicans in Congress mobilized to assist Musk and Ramaswamy, tapping firebrand Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Georgia) to lead a government efficiency oversight subcommittee. Meanwhile, Rep. Stephanie Bice (R-Oklahoma) introduced the “Decreasing Overlapping Grants Efficiently” Act — a different DOGE — which aims to track and eliminate duplicative federal grant applications.

Key congressional budget leaders said they had yet to be consulted; House Appropriations Chairman Tom Cole (R-Oklahoma), a leading deficit hawk, said he had not spoken to Musk or Ramaswamy but was eager to discuss their plans.

Meanwhile, Senate appropriators insisted DOGE leaders would consult with Congress.

“I think we’ll play a role here, but I think it’ll be sort of a mutual role,” said Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-West Virginia), a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee. “We will be able to identify some things to help them, and they’re going to be able to look at some other things to help us.”

More clarity is likely to emerge in the coming days. In their op-ed, Musk and Ramaswamy highlighted funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and contracts with Planned Parenthood. Though the savings would be small, those ideas dovetail with Trump’s campaign rhetoric.

“Anybody who is trying to throw a wet towel on DOGE and write its obituary is going to be dead wrong,” said James Fishback, co-founder of Azoria Partners, an investment firm, and a longtime friend of Ramaswamy’s. “Vivek and Elon are getting ready to hit the ground running.”

Winner of the 2017 Overseas Press Club Bob Considine Award for "Behind the Firewall" Series on Silicon Valley China

 2010 Finalist, Livingston Award for Young Journalists

 2009 Finalist, Livingston Award for Young Journalists 

Columbia University, BA. 

Columbia Graduate School of Journalism, MS.

Lizza joined The Washington Post as Silicon Valley correspondent in 2016, becoming the paper's eyes and ears in the region. She focuses on social media and the power of the tech industry in a democratic society. Before that, she was the Wall Street Journal's first full-time beat reporter covering AI and the impact of algorithms on people's lives. 

Elizabeth Dwoskin

New York State Associated Press Young Journalist of the Year

Cornell University, BA in history

Jeff Stein is the White House economics reporter for The Washington Post. He was a crime reporter for the Syracuse Post-Standard and, in 2014, founded the local news nonprofit the Ithaca Voice in Upstate New York. He was also a reporter for Vox.

Jeff Stein

James Beard Award for Investigative Reporting,  finalist, 2023

Toner Prize for Excellence in National Reporting, finalist, 2021

Washington-Baltimore News Guild Headline Awards, first prize for sports reporting, 2020

Associated Press Sports Editors, first prize for breaking news, 2015

Associated Press Media Editors, first prize for sports feature writing, 2015

Missouri Press Association, first prize for business reporting, 2014

University of Missouri, BA in history

University of Missouri, BA in journalism

Jacob Bogage covers economic policy in Congress for The Washington Post, where he's worked since 2015. He previously covered business and technology and wrote for the Sports section.

Jacob Bogage

University of Nebraska-Lincoln

Faiz Siddiqui is a technology reporter with The Washington Post's Business Desk covering companies such as Tesla and Twitter. His area of coverage has also included ride-hailing and the race to build autonomous cars. Prior to that, he covered the D.C. Metro and local transportation scene.

Faiz Siddiqui

washpost

Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy ready 'DOGE' for war with Washington

the-washington-post

A photo of Elon Musk in a tuxedo addressing a gala with the headline: Musk and Ramaswamy race to build a 'DOGE' team for war with Washington

Saul Martinez for The Washington Post

Musk and Ramaswamy race to build a 'DOGE' team for war with Washington

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