Department of Government Efficiency co-chief Vivek Ramaswamy has vowed to eliminate federal government agencies and fire civil servants as part of the Trump administration’s radical cost-cutting operation.
Ramaswamy, who will lead the newly-created department alongside the billionaire Elon Musk, told Maria Bartiromo on Fox News’ Sunday Morning Futures that he would slash the size of the government in the U.S.
“We expect mass reductions,” he said. “We expect certain agencies to be deleted outright. We expect mass reductions in force in areas of the federal government that are bloated. We expect massive cuts among federal contractors and others who are over billing the federal government.”
“I think people will be surprised by how quickly we’re able to move with some of those changes. Given the legal backdrop the Supreme Court has given us.
“President Biden has made a lot of changes, trying to entrench the administrative state. The Supreme Court has slapped them on the wrist numerous times. So we’re working with the legal landscape here. That is historic. You think about a President of the United States like Donald Trump, elected with the mandate he’s been given both chambers of Congress belonging to Republicans, a six to three conservative majority in the Supreme Court. Maria, if we don’t downsize the federal government now, it’s never going to happen in the future.”
The pharmaceutical company founder said his work with Musk would involve evaluating the work of up to four million civil servants whose jobs are now at risk.
“There’s just too many of them. We don’t need four million. We shouldn’t have four million civil servants who can’t be elected or can’t be removed from their positions.”
“President Trump’s talked extensively about areas like the Department of Education. Obviously, those kinds of agencies shouldn’t even exist and should be returned to the States. But it’s a culture that’s pervaded the entire federal government: of hiring people who have no accountability to everyday Americans.”
He also revealed that there were plans to move several agencies out of Washington as Bartiromo asked him whether the Energy Department could be taken to Pennsylvania or Texas.
“Many of these agencies should be downsized wherever they are and for whatever does remain, move many of them out to be where they’re more accountable to the people. And by the way, if you have many voluntary reductions in force of the workforce in the federal government along the way, great, that’s a good side effect of those policies as well.”
Ramaswamy did not comment on whether having two chiefs for the newly-created department was an example of managerial efficiency, but he did pledge to close the department down within fewer than two years.
“It’s not just about cutting cost, but increasing effectiveness, from defense to health care. A lot of that is a failure of the administrative state itself, that rests under the executive branch. I’m optimistic it’s part of why we’ve set an end date on this,” he said.
“Our work is done by July 4, 2026. Unlike every other government project, we don’t want this one to last. We want to go and fix the problem, dissolve and move on and set an example for how our federal government should run.”