‘How dumb is that?’: Former Republican National Committee chair ruthlessly blasts Trump’s post-election plans

The Trumpian horrors persist, and even a former member of the of the Republican National Committee is mortified. The ex-chair of the RNC Michael Steele lambasted Trump’s post-election plan to create a new department of government to be led by Elon Musk and Vivek Ramiswami. The Department of Government Efficiency, aka the “DOGE” department, is named after Musk-approved cryptocurrency, which is itself named after a meme. I really, really wish that I was making this up.

Despite Trump’s claims that the DOGE Department will be the “Manhattan project of our time” (responsible for fiery destruction and untold loss of life? Possibly) Steele isn’t buying it. “An agency to get rid of agencies? How dumb is that?” he said, mocking the agency with The Weekend co-hosts Symone Sanders-Townsend and Alicia Menendez. He’s not wrong. The name of the agency itself is the ultimate oxymoron. The fact that an agency devoted to efficiency has two people running it is only icing on the cake.

So what exactly will DOGE due? Besides cause a collective groan of exasperation to escape from the lips of workers across all branches of government, it’s not exactly clear. According to a statement made by Trump himself, the agency’s goal is to “dismantle Government Bureaucracy (sic), slash excess regulations, cut wasteful expenditures, and restructure Federal Agencies”. He called the agency “essential to the ‘Save America’ Movement”. What is the same America movement? Like many of Trump’s worst laid plans, it is similarly nebulous. “A smaller Government, with more efficiency and less bureaucracy, will be the perfect gift to America on the 250th Anniversary of The Declaration of Independence,” Trump went on. “I am confident they will succeed!” Ever the grammarian, Trump is apparently celebrating America’s 250th Anniversary by continuing to capitalize non-proper nouns like an 18th man of letters.

Speaking at a Mar-a-Lago gala hosted by the America First Policy Institute, Vivek Ramiswami quipped that he was thankful to Trump “for making sure that Elon Musk and I are in a position to start the mass deportations of millions of unelected federal bureaucrats out of the D.C. bureaucracy.” Like Trump’s exorbitantly expensive “mass deportation” dream of undocumented immigrants, this scope of this bureaucratic “deportation” is unlikely to be realized in full. Of his DOGE co-chair Elon, Ramiswami said “he doesn’t bring a chisel, he brings a chainsaw, and we’re going to be taking it to that bureaucracy… it’s going to be a lot of fun”. Vivek, your idea of “fun” could not be further from the norm.

Despite Trump’s frequent campaign promises to slash government spending, Elaine Kamarck, a senior fellow in governance studies at the Brookings Institution is skeptical that DOGE will be able to help the incumbent president achieve that goal. Elon Musk has stated that he wants to cut $2 trillion from the U.S. government budget. Yes, trillion with a “t”. That is one third of a U.S. government’s $6.7 trillion annual budget. “That’s insane” said Kamarck “this is the first warning sign that this is going to be a failed operation”. Two thirds of the U.S. government budget is mandatory, and finances Social Security and Medicare. The Washington Post reported that such a drastic budget cut could result in “economic turmoil,” and would require “decimating” social programs dedicated to food and housing.

Does this mean that social services are on the chopping block? Hardly. Despite the high hopes of the unholy trinity that is Trump, Musk and Ramiswami, DOGE would need to jump through some serious hoops to make that happen. If stubby little legs of the meme dog from which DOGE owes its name are to be considered, I don’t think hoop jumping is something this agency will be able to do any time soon. The first hoop? DOGE would have to become an actual government agency, meaning that Congress would have to approve its creation. Considering that millions of their constituents depend on government funded social services, it’s unlikely that any member of Congress will want to appear as a benefits slashing bad guy to their voters. Elon Musk and Vivek Ramiswami will learn soon enough that not even a “chainsaw” is capable of cutting through the red tape.