Billionaire Elon Musk joined President Donald Trump in the oval office Tuesday as the president signed an executive order requiring federal agencies to work with Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, known as DOGE.
The order will require federal agencies to work with DOGE to significantly reduce their labor force.
A White House fact sheet, first reported by Semafor, says the order requires agencies hire “no more than one employee for every four employees” that are fired, with some exceptions, including for public safety and law enforcement.
DOGE and Musk have dominated the news cycle since Trump took office by exposing an onslaught of controversial federal spending, most notably as USAID, an agency that has been all but destroyed since Trump took office.
While with his young son Lil X, Musk spoke to reporters about DOGE’s efforts to instill what he calls “common sense controls” on federal spending.
“If the people cannot vote and have their will be decided by their elected representatives, by the form of the President, the Senate, and the House, then we don’t live in a democracy,” Musk said. “We live in a bureaucracy.”
The national debt is on track to hit $37 trillion this year, and interest payments on the debt are now one of the largest federal expenses.
Trump touted the cuts to corruption and “kickbacks” in the government when speaking to reporters.
“The public gets it,” Trump said.
Musk responded to criticisms that the agency cuts are a “hostile takeover.”
“The people voted for major government reform and that’s what the people are going to get,” Musk said. “That’s what democracy is all about.”
