Many Americans don’t trust the federal government, and Elon Musk — an eccentric billionaire business tycoon tasked by President-elect Donald Trump with helping slay the unwieldly bureaucratic leviathan — thinks that’s just the right attitude.
“I think we should not trust the government,” Musk has previously declared.
Apparently, people are way ahead of him.
“As of April 2024, 22% of Americans say they trust the government in Washington to do what is right “just about always” (2%) or “most of the time” (21%),” Pew Research Center noted earlier this year.
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Elon Musk, Co-Chair of the newly announced Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), arrives at Capitol Hill on Dec. 5, 2024 in Washington, D.C.; Vivek Ramaswamy, chairman and co-founder of Strive Asset Management, arrives to meet with lawmakers on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, US, on Thursday, Dec. 5, 2024. (Left: Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images; Right: Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Trump tapped Musk and self-identified “small-government crusader” Vivek Ramaswamy to helm the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), an effort that puts Washington D.C.’s profligate spending in the crosshairs.
“We will serve as outside volunteers, not federal officials or employees. Unlike government commissions or advisory committees, we won’t just write reports or cut ribbons. We’ll cut costs,” the dynamic duo declared in a Wall Street Journal opinion piece last month.
Ramaswamy appears to share similar views to Musk on public trust in government.
“The reason the people don’t trust the government is that the government doesn’t trust the people. In God we trust and government we distrust,” Ramaswamy declared in a post on X last year.
MUSK, RAMASWAMY VISIT CAPITOL HILL TO DISCUSS TRUMP’S DOGE VISION FOR CUTTING GOVERNMENT WASTE
Trump and Musk watch the launch of the sixth test flight of the SpaceX Starship rocket on Nov. 19, 2024 in Brownsville, Tx. (Brandon Bell/Getty Images)
But in order to realize their cost-cutting ambitions, Musk and Ramaswamy will need to get government figures on board with their plans.
Lawmakers met with the two entrepreneurs in D.C. on Thursday.
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United States Capitol building is seen in Washington D.C. on Dec. 2, 2024. (Celal Gunes/Anadolu via Getty Images)
“Under President Trump, we will take a blowtorch to the administrative state and reduce the size and scope of government. House and Senate Republicans look forward to hosting Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy tomorrow to discuss how the Department of Government Efficiency can help us get it done,” House Speaker Mike Johnson said in a Wednesday post on X.
