Elon Musk said in a post on the social platform X on Thursday that the brand new Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) — an advisory group under President-elect Trump focused on slashing government costs and restructuring federal agencies — will require “tedious work” with “zero” compensation.
“Indeed, this will be tedious work, make lots of enemies & compensation is zero. What a great deal!” Musk wrote in the post.
Musk’s post comes as the advisory group, which will also be led by former Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, made a post on X on Thursday seeking potential employees for DOGE.
“We are very grateful to the thousands of Americans who have expressed interest in helping us at DOGE. We don’t need more part-time idea generators. We need super high-IQ small-government revolutionaries willing to work 80+ hours per week on unglamorous cost-cutting. If that’s you, DM this account with your CV. Elon & Vivek will review the top 1% of applicants,” the post from DOGE read.
Trump announced earlier this week that Vivek Ramaswamy and Elon Musk are set to take the reigns of DOGE, which will “provide advice and guidance from outside of Government.”
Though some experts warned that it could face some obstacles.
“There’s the executive branch that might be in their way. The Congress might be in their way. The Constitution is a bit of an obstacle,” Douglas Holtz-Eakin, president of American Action Forum, had said. “Other than that, clear sailing.”
Darrell West, a senior fellow at the Center for Technology Innovation at the Brookings Institution, added that government groups such as DOGE typically have a large staff and budget and produce formal reports with recommendations for Congress.
“But since this was not created by Congress, we don’t know what its authority is and what status it has,” West said. “I mean, any American can make suggestions on ways to cut the government budget, but the question — is anybody going to pay serious attention to this?”
Any major budget cuts would have to be approved by Congress, West said. Though both the House and Senate are GOP-controlled, they are likely to have a narrow majority in the House and lack a filibuster-proof majority in the Senate.
However, West added that, “Musk has the ear of the president, so people have to take it seriously just for that reason.”
Musk has said that the panel will focus on misuses of federal spending.
