Musk, Ramaswamy Prepare for DOGE Fight

Will DOGE fly? The Washington Post reports on how Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy are ramping up efforts to launch their Department of Government Efficiency with the goal of instituting drastic cuts to the federal government. The big question seems to be whether they'll be able to follow through on their pledge to cut through red tape and make sweeping changes as fast as they think.

• The challenge: President-elect Trump has said the work will be finished by July 2026, but the Post notes that shedding even a single federal rule usually takes two or three years. Trump has often cited a goal of reaching $2 trillion in cuts, but he has not specified over how long a period such cuts might be phased in. Even stretching it out over a decade would make it difficult to avoid touching Social Security and Medicare, notes the Post.
• Their op-ed: In a Wall Street Journal op-ed, Musk and Ramaswamy argue that Trump can take executive action to implement changes quickly and that the Supreme Court will back them. "We are prepared for the onslaught from entrenched interests in Washington," they write. "We expect to prevail."

• Skepticism: "They want to go in with a blow torch, and really it's going to take a pair of tweezers to really unravel what the bureaucratic infrastructure is in Washington," Joann Needleman of the law firm Clark Hill tells the Hill. Musk and Ramaswamy dispute that in the op-ed, citing two recent Supreme Court rulings on government overreach. But another expert quoted by the Hill—University of Michigan law professor Nicholas Bagley—says the op-ed "reflects a misunderstanding" of the court action.
• Skepticism II: Similarly, a George Washington University law professor who specializes in this kind of thing tells the Post that the op-ed shows the two are "utterly ignorant" of federal law. "There is nothing in the statute that comes anywhere close to authorizing what they want to do, and no permission in the Constitution," says Richard Pierce. "I can't even imagine what the argument would be beyond, 'Gee, there are a lot of regulations, and we want to get rid of them.'"

• More players: Meanwhile, the two are assembling some familiar names to help with their DOGE planning. The Post lists investor Marc Andreessen, hedge fund manager Bill Ackman, former Uber chief executive Travis Kalanick among them. Musk also has drawn execs from his business orbit, including Boring Company President Steve Davis.
• Podcast: Musk and Ramaswamy also plan to launch a podcast—called DOGEcast—to explain their work, per Fortune.

(They will be getting help from Marjorie Taylor Greene in Congress.)