US president-elect Donald Trump announced that Tesla Motors CEO Elon Musk and former Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy will lead a newly created Department of Government Efficiency.
The two “will pave the way for my administration to dismantle government bureaucracy, slash excess regulations, cut wasteful expenditures, and restructure federal agencies”, Trump said in a statement.
“This will send shockwaves through the system and anyone involved in government waste,” added Musk.
Read: Why are gold prices falling after Trump’s election win?
What will the department do?
The department will become, potentially, ‘The Manhattan Project’ of the new administration. To drive the drastic change, the department will provide advice and guidance from outside the government, and will partner with the White House and Office of Management & Budget to drive large scale structural reform.
Most importantly, the department will help drive out the “waste and fraud which exists throughout the annual $6.5 trillion dollars of government spending”, Trump said.
Gains for Musk
Elon Musk, ranked by the Bloomberg Billionaires Index as the world’s richest person, is currently worth $319 billion. More importantly, his wealth has climbed $90 billion since the beginning of the year. Over the past five days, the stock price of Tesla has risen nearly 14 percent, while gaining nearly 49 percent over the month.
Read: 10 cryptocurrencies that saw massive surge after Donald Trump’s election win
It was widely believed that Musk stood to benefit from Trump’s victory, with the billionaire entrepreneur expected to wield extraordinary influence to help his companies and secure favorable government treatment.
Musk also gave millions of dollars to support Trump’s presidential campaign and made public appearances with him. Trump had earlier said he would offer Musk a role in his administration promoting government efficiency.
Interestingly, the acronym of the new department DOGE is the same as that of the cryptocurrency that Musk promotes.
Crypto surges
Bitcoin surged to a record high on Monday, rising over the $81,000 level on bets that the cryptocurrency market will flourish in a favorable regulatory environment following the election of Trump as U.S. president.
The world’s biggest cryptocurrency has now more than doubled from the year’s low of $38,505.
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