Sen. Shelley Moore Capita, R-Virginia, discusses Vivek Ramaswamy and Elon Musk’s meeting with lawmakers to discuss government spending, the latest decisions by President-elect Trump’s administration and the GOP’s preference for extending Trump’s tax cuts.
Trump’s former White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney said the work to be done by billionaire Elon Musk’s DOGE could be the “most important” part of President-elect Trump’s second term.
Musk and former Republican presidential candidate and biotech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy have been tapped to head the so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). Despite being named after Musk’s beloved memcoin, the Tesla and SpaceX chief insists his quasi-agency will cut government spending and cut trillions in the federal deficit.
Mulvaney, who also served as director of the White House Office of Budget and Management under Trump, told Piers Morgan that he wants Musk to succeed where he himself “failed miserably.”
In an interview with Piers Morgan Uncensored, Mulvaney said the American people re-elected Trump to “fix Washington” and that the effort led by Musk and Ramaswamy “may be the most important part.”
MUSK AND RAMOSWAMY VISIT CAPITOL HILL TO DISCUSS DOGE TRUMP’S VISION TO CUT GOVERNMENT SPENDING
Former White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney speaks during the Milken Institute Global Conference in Beverly Hills, California, May 3, 2023. (PATRICK T. FALLON/AFP via Getty Images)
“I don’t think they can do much on their own. They don’t have much legislative power. By the way, I was the last person to lead the restructuring of the government, and I failed miserably because everyone was against it. me,” he added. “The House of Representatives, the Senate, even most of the agencies. I remember the secretary of defense was against what the president wanted me to do.”
If Morgan asked how Musk can overcome the difficulties he has faced, Mulvaney replied: “First of all, Elon Musk is a lot smarter than me.”
ERNST VOWS TO WORK WITH DOGE TO REVERSE BIDEN ADMINISTRATION RAISES FOR DALIFERAL SERVANTS
Trump and Musk watch the launch of the sixth test flight of the SpaceX Starship rocket on November 19, 2024. in Brownsville, Texas. (Brandon Bell/Getty Images/Getty Images)
He went on to say that Musk has a “bigger footprint” and “movement” behind his efforts to bring fiscal sanity to Washington.
“When I did it, I did it because I looked at the government that was put in place in the 1920s and I said, ‘We’ve got to fix this.’ That’s not very sexy, Piers,” Mulvaney continued.
DOGE CONFIRMS HOW MUCH ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION IS COSTING US TAXPAYERS
Ramaswamy speaks at the Nixon Library on Thursday, Aug. 17, 2023, in Yorba Linda, California. (Francine Orr/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images/Getty Images)
“Vivec and I believe that Elon Musk has the opportunity to make this a cause celebre to the point that ordinary people will care about what happens when they fix the government.”
Musk and Ramaswamy visited Republican lawmakers on Capitol Hill Thursday morning to pitch their ideas for saving taxpayers money.
They waste no time in laying out their vision of how to reduce government bloat through DOGE. The couple wrote an article published in The Wall Street Journal last month, explaining how an outside government agency would work to determine cutback proposals.
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The entrepreneurs have promised to liquidate entire government institutions through the DOGE initiative, which they intend to complete by July 4, 2026.
It remains to be seen whether their efforts will be taken seriously by lawmakers or viewed as proposals that appropriators should ignore.
Brooke Syngman of Fox Business contributed to this report.
