Why is Elon Musk becoming Donald Trump’s efficiency adviser?

Billionaire Elon Musk has been tasked with leading incoming President Donald Trump’s new Department of Government Efficiency (Doge).

In an announcement on social media, the US president-elect mentioned Musk – together with former Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy – would “dismantle government bureaucracy, slash excess regulations, cut wasteful expenditures, and restructure federal agencies”.

It is a task that the tech entrepreneur has arguably ready for by his enterprise management, and one he has spent months arguing for.

But it’s also one that’s anticipated to garner him affect over authorities coverage – and the regulatory surroundings his enterprises exist in.

Musk instructed a Trump rally in October that he believed the US authorities’s price range may very well be lowered by “at least” $2tn from round $6.5tn. He has additionally steadily steered the variety of authorities staff may very well be considerably lowered.

Ramaswamy in the meantime has put ahead plans to scrap a number of federal departments together with the Department of Education, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the Internal Revenue Service and the FBI.

The manner Musk has run his personal corporations might trace at what Americans can anticipate when he begins trying to slash authorities waste.

In October 2022, Musk took over social media platform Twitter – which he rebranded as X – in a $44bn (£38.1bn) deal.

He mentioned he had determined to purchase the location so he might take away its insurance policies of moderating content material and banning customers who had deemed to have violated its guidelines on hate speech and disinformation.

Among the customers he reinstated was Trump, who had been banned following the Capitol riot in January 2021 after persevering with to assert the 2020 election had been rigged towards him.

Musk’s takeover noticed radical modifications to the corporate.

He lowered X’s workforce from round 8,000 to 1,500. In April 2023, he told the BBC that his reasoning for doing so was that “if the whole ship sinks, then nobody’s got a job”.

Facing a mass exodus of advertisers over his rest of the platform’s consumer speech insurance policies, the entrepreneur additionally monetised components of the location to lift income.

He turned its blue ticks – which beforehand denoted {that a} high-profile account was bona fide – right into a subscription mannequin, and tied promoting funds to “verified” customers to the variety of interactions they obtain. Musk additionally tied interactions to those customers’ prominence, that means their posts that did nicely had been extra prone to be seen by different customers.

And he launched Grok, a paid-for synthetic intelligence chatbot that may very well be used to generate content material.

But these modifications had some unintended penalties.

X has now given gold or silver ticks to manufacturers and official accounts to keep away from them being confused with fakes after a number of, including the BBC, opted to not pay for them – successfully that means blue ticks solely signify that an account is paid-for.

Incentivising customers with a share of promoting revenues additionally gave an avenue for so-called bot farms to become profitable by posting auto-generated content material to realize extra interactions. Musk has mentioned his staff has repeatedly purged bot accounts.

Critics argue his changes have given prominence to hate-speech and misinformation – although he has argued the location is politically impartial.

“As a serial entrepreneur, Musk has been relentless in trying to improve institutional efficiency at his own enterprises, most notably, Tesla and X,” says Thomas Gift, a professor of US politics at University College London.

He provides that although Musk’s main function might be “slashing through the thicket of red tape that is the US federal government”, his place can even give him affect within the new administration.

“While his role in the Department of Government Efficiency will be a more informal one, there’s no doubt that he’s got Trump ear – at least for the moment.”

Musk’s requires a Doge are themselves a reference to a meme featuring a Shiba Inu dog, which then gave its identify to the cryptocurrency Dogecoin. Both of which have been steadily referred to by him on-line.

But the calls might come partially from frustrations he has had together with his different enterprise ventures: electrical car firm Tesla and rocket agency SpaceX.

Tesla has repeatedly been accused by the US authorities of attempting to stop its staff unionising – which in some instances might be towards the legislation. Tesla is considered one of 13 automotive producers the place the auto staff’ union is just not recognised.

Musk – who has an estimated net worth of $290bn (£228bn) – has beforehand mentioned he’s “not against all unions”, however that the auto staff’ union “has a track record of destroying productivity so a company can’t compete”.

In September Musk threatened to sue the Federal Aviation Administration over its plans to advantageous his SpaceX firm $633,000 for alleged license infringements associated to a few of its rocket launches from Cape Canaveral in Florida. He accused the company of “regulatory overreach”.

He has additionally repeatedly mentioned he needs to colonise Mars, and AreaX’s Starship programme is an attempt to make that possible.

But in September, he wrote that this was solely a chance “so long as it is not smothered by bureaucracy” and claimed Doge was “the only path to extending life beyond Earth”.

So is a part of his motivation for taking up the function his numerous US-based enterprise pursuits?

“There’s no doubt that Musk has significant vested interests in the US regulatory landscape as a result of his many business enterprises,” says Prof Gift.

“At the same time, it’s hard to make the case that this is the only impetus driving him.

“Musk has undertaken large private and political dangers in popping out for Trump, and lots of of his actions and rhetoric appear to mirror a person ideologically dedicated to causes he believes in.”

Musk donated a reported $200m (£157m) to Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign, and appeared to speak at several of his rallies.

As the South African-born billionaire is just not a US citizen by beginning, he can not grow to be president – one thing that has frustrated other famous faces who became involved in politics in the past.

But Musk can have an influence on US policy, and Trump will have a sympathetic adviser to call upon.

“Trump is trying to encompass himself with loyalists in his new administration, and there’s nobody who’s been extra loyal than Musk since he introduced his endorsement for Trump,” says Prof Gift.

“Not solely did Musk go ‘all in’ in supporting Trump personally and financially throughout the marketing campaign, however he’s additionally advanced right into a trusted adviser on subjects as various as expertise coverage to the struggle in Ukraine.”

In an early signal of the affect the tech entrepreneur could also be rewarded with for his loyalty, Musk was party to a call between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky following the election. The struggle in Ukraine might be a significant international coverage concern when Trump takes workplace.