Business Tycoons React to Musk’s Wild Proposal to Expose ‘Insanely Dumb’ Spending!

Elon Musk has been tapped to co-lead the newly established Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), which aims to reduce federal spending. The announcement came late Tuesday evening from President-elect Donald Trump, who revealed that Musk will work alongside businessman Vivek Ramaswamy in this ambitious initiative. Their task is clear: trim the federal budget and make government spending more efficient.

In a post shared on X (formerly Twitter), Musk revealed plans to create a “leaderboard” that will track what he refers to as the “most insanely dumb spending of your tax dollars.” He stressed that DOGE would operate with “maximum transparency,” allowing the public to see exactly what’s being done to cut waste and improve efficiency in government spending.

All actions of the Department of Government Efficiency will be posted online for maximum transparency.

Anytime the public thinks we are cutting something important or not cutting something wasteful, just let us know!

We will also have a leaderboard for most insanely dumb… https://t.co/1c0bAlxmY0

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 13, 2024

By Wednesday morning, Musk’s post had already attracted significant attention, amassing more than 26 million views, 18,000 comments, and 50,000 retweets. The announcement sparked a wave of responses from business leaders and others, some offering their thoughts on where cuts could be made.

One of the first to react was Ryan Petersen, CEO of Flexport, a supply-chain management company. On X, Petersen suggested that the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) might be wasting money by teaching Chinese at a language school. He wrote, “The US Department of Agriculture runs a foreign language school. I took a Chinese class there. Why does the department of agriculture need to teach Chinese? We have community colleges for that right?” However, the USDA doesn’t actually offer Chinese classes, but instead provides language-learning tools through an internal platform for its employees.

Others in the business world also weighed in, including Bill Ackman, the billionaire hedge fund manager and strong Trump supporter. Ackman reposted Musk’s announcement, adding, “It’s becoming exciting again to be an American.” Meanwhile, venture capitalist Shaun Maguire, also a Trump supporter, expressed his enthusiasm by retweeting the announcement, calling Musk’s new role “one of the greatest things I’ve ever read.”

The reaction to Musk’s new role crossed party lines. Aaron Levie, CEO of Box, a cloud computing company, and a supporter of former President Harris, also commented on the plan. He noted that making government more efficient could lead to lower costs in the long run. “There’s a significant opportunity to make the government more capable of delivering for Americans, and ironically it will actually cost less not more,” Levie wrote on X.

There’s significant opportunity to make the government more capable of delivering for Americans, and ironically it will actually cost less not more. pic.twitter.com/k1upRPDQ6v

— Aaron Levie 🇺🇸 (@levie) November 13, 2024

On the other hand, not everyone is on board with the idea. Senator Elizabeth Warren, a Democrat, poked fun at the creation of DOGE. She tweeted, “The Office of Government Efficiency is off to a great start with split leadership: two people to do the work of one person. Yeah, this seems REALLY efficient.”

The federal government spent a staggering $6.75 trillion in the 2024 fiscal year, with the majority of that amount allocated to federal programs, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. A significant portion of the budget—nearly a quarter—goes to health-insurance programs like Medicare and Medicaid. Social Security accounts for 21%, and defense spending takes up another 13%.

Despite the excitement surrounding Musk’s appointment, it remains unclear how much influence he will have on the federal budget. There’s also uncertainty about how much he will be able to reshape government spending in a way that aligns with his business-focused approach. Trump’s transition team and Musk have not yet responded to requests for comment from Business Insider.

As the new Department of Government Efficiency begins its work, all eyes will be on Musk to see how much impact he can have on the U.S. federal budget and whether he can live up to the ambitious goal of eliminating wasteful spending.