The billionaire Elon Musk at the head of the new Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE, in English) is perhaps the most striking face of the cabinet that the US president-elect is beginning to form, donald trumpaccording to the advertisements that the Republican released this Tuesday.
The richest man in the world will share with the businessman and former candidate for the Republican nomination Vivek Ramaswamy the address of this new department, whose acronym alludes to the cryptocurrency based on the meme of the same name and to which Musk has referred so many times.
The new department, Trump said, will boost “structural reforms on a large scale” that could have strong repercussions on the federal Administration.
“Together, these two wonderful Americans will pave the way for my Administration to dismantle the government bureaucracyreduce excess regulationscut unnecessary expenses and restructure federal agencies,” highlighted the former president (2017-2021).
Both Musk, who donated more than $118 million to Trump’s campaign, and Ramaswamy have advocated for spending cuts in the federal administration, which could mean reducing staff.
Musk’s proximity to the future White House Administration, however, has raised concerns given that his businesses in the automotive sector and the space industry maintain contracts with the federal government.
The CIA, DHS and Defense already have nominees
This Tuesday, the Republican announced other notable appointments for his next administration, among which the war veteran and Fox network presenter stands out. Pete Hegseth as the new Secretary of Defense.
Hegseth, a decorated soldier in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars and a graduate of Princeton University, will head the Pentagon and lead more than 1.3 million active soldiers. Trump has also announced John Ratcliffe, former director of National Intelligence, to lead the Central Intelligence Agency (INC).
Former congressman and Texan, Ratcliffe was between 2020 and 2021, that is, during the first Trump administration (2017-2021) and in the first year of the covid pandemic, the director of national intelligence and, as such, was the Republican’s main advisor on this matter.
The future president also proposed the governor of South Dakota, Kristi Noemas the secretary of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) of his Administration.
With the election of Noem to the DHS and the recent announcement of the appointment of Tom Homan to return to direct the ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement Service), Trump makes up the executive core of his immigration policy with very like-minded people and defenders of the mass deportation of undocumented immigrants promised by the president-elect.
Trump also promised during this election campaign to invoke martial law to detain undocumented immigrants and sentence to death those who murder police officers.
Other notable appointments announced this Tuesday were that of the former governor of Arkansas Mike Huckabee as the new ambassador to Israel, who he said “will work tirelessly to achieve peace in the Middle East.”
Huckabee’s appointment cements Trump’s pledge to more closely align foreign policy with Israel’s interests as it wages wars against Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon.
The future president also announced that the businessman and philanthropist Steve Witkoffone of his closest friends, will be his future special envoy for the Middle East.
Another war veteran, in this case Republican Congressman Mike Waltz, has been proposed by Trump as his National Security Advisor, a key decision-making position to navigate geopolitical conflicts such as the war between Russia and Ukraine and the Gaza war.
Trump indicated in a statement that the lawmaker and former Green Beret is “an expert on the threats posed by China, Russia, Iran and global terrorism.”
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