The Ministry of Magic can be found in the fictional universe of Harry Potter. Nonetheless, a nation may occasionally build intriguing ministries. For example, Japan created a Minister of Loneliness in 2021 to alleviate social isolation, while Venezuela introduced a new Ministry of Supreme Social Happiness in 2013.

Maybe it’s America’s turn now. For the Trump 2.0 administration, a new Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) has been created with the goal of cutting federal bureaucracy by around one-third. A “complete financial and performance audit of the entire federal government and making recommendations for drastic reforms” is what Trump stated the agency will be doing.

A department to cut red tape may seem fantastic, but it’s really more about cutting government budget, one perceives. In actuality, Trump has chosen Elon Musk, the richest man in the world who has thrown his weight behind Trump in his reelection, and Vivek Ramaswamy, a wealthy American biotech entrepreneur who competed in the 2024 Republican primary but abandoned his campaign in January 2024 and endorsed Trump, to head the department. Trump had to give these two some sort of award, of course.

Crony capitalism

However, how would that benefit America? Although neither John Rockefeller nor Bill Gates accepted such a direct government assignment, some are questioning if this is the beginning of a new kind of crony capitalism.

It’s, however, remarkable how many billionaires themselves run for and occupy official political positions, even though they also indirectly influence politics “behind the scenes” through media manipulation, campaign contributions, and social connections with politicians. According to a 2023 study by Northwestern University academics, the rate of political entry for American billionaires is 3.7 per cent, whereas it’s 11 per cent for billionaires worldwide.

In fact, Trump stated during a campaign event in August 2024 that he would be open to offering Musk an advisory position if elected. Musk responded by posting on X, “I am willing to serve,” with an AI-generated picture of him facing a lectern that read “Department of Government Efficiency.” Now, Trump has created exactly that – what he has called “the perfect gift to America.”

According to Musk, a commission of this kind could cut the US federal budget by $2 trillion, or around 30 per cent. And the concept has received backing from the likes of Jamie Dimon, the CEO of JPMorgan Chase.

Musk’s Twitter experience

To be fair, Musk has demonstrated this level of efficiency when he laid off 6,000 employees at Twitter following his 2022 acquisition of the company, a move that some estimates reduced Twitter’s value by 80 per cent.

Following his takeover of Twitter, Musk sent a series of sobering warnings to his employees: Workers need to prepare for 80-hour work weeks; free meals and office perks will be reduced. Additionally, he eliminated the flexibility of working from home. But even in a capitalist economy, is such a strategy appropriate for the public sector? The department’s name is a backronym that alludes to the online meme Doge as well as Dogecoin, a crypto asset that bears the meme’s name and is publicly supported by Musk. And is there any conflict of interest?

The New York Times, for instance, questioned whether Musk’s anticipated employment at DOGE would be in conflict with his companies’ status as federal government contractors. And Vox said that the organisation is “unlikely to have any regulatory teeth on its own, but there’s little doubt that it can have influence on the incoming administration and how it will determine its budgets.” But Musk wrote in X: “Threat to democracy? Nope, threat to BUREAUCRACY!!!”

Donald Trump asserted that this effort would upend long-standing government structures by introducing an “entrepreneurial approach to government never seen before.” Ramaswamy may have been referring to the last lines of the 1996 action film Independence Day when he tweeted, “We will not go gently,” in response to Trump’s statement.

We’ll see if such a ministry eventually becomes the ministry of magic and a new norm in other countries too.

The writer is Professor of Statistics, Indian Statistical Institute, Kolkata