Vivek Ramaswamy, the biotech entrepreneur who has been tapped by tech billionaire Elon Musk to lead President-elect Donald Trump’s proposed government efficiency division, promised Sunday that many government agencies will soon be “deleted.”
“Elon and I are not in this to take credit,” Ramaswamy said on Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures.” “But I think we’re going to build consensus to make deep cuts of the kind that haven’t been made for most of history.”
After host Maria Bartiromo questioned whether the two companies were planning to “shut down the entire agency”, Ramaswamy said there would be a “massive downsizing”.
“I expect that some agencies will be deleted completely,” he said. “We expect major cuts in bloated areas of the federal government. “We expect major cuts among federal contractors and others who overcharge the federal government.”
“Given the legal background that the Supreme Court has given us, I think people will be surprised at how quickly we can make these changes,” Ramaswamy added.
The founder of pharmaceutical company Roivant Sciences, who is running for the Republican presidential nomination in 2024, told Bartiromo that he and Musk would evaluate the roles of America’s 4 million civil servants, saying “there are too many of them.”
“We don’t need $4 million. There shouldn’t be 4 million public officials who can’t be elected or removed from office. “It’s anti-democratic,” he said. (Ramaswamy owns stock in HuffPost’s parent company, BuzzFeed.)
When Bartiromo asked him, “Which agency is the most bloated,” he replied, “It’s a tough competition.”
“President Trump has talked extensively about areas like the Department of Education,” Ramaswamy added. “Clearly that type of institution should not exist and should be returned to the state. “But it is a pervasive culture throughout the federal government of hiring people who have no responsibility to ordinary Americans.”
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“It’s not just about cutting costs,” Ramaswamy said. “Our work is due to be completed by July 4, 2026. Unlike all other government projects, we do not want this project to continue. We need to go and fix the problem, dissolve it, and move forward with the changes to how the federal government should operate. “I want to set an example.”
The Department of Government Efficiency is not expected to be a government agency requiring congressional action. It is likely to be an advisory group.
Watch a clip from Ramaswamy’s appearance on “Sunday Morning Futures.”
