OK, we're following more breaking Trump transition news at this
hour.
president-elect Trump tapping Tesla CEO Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswami
to lead a quote, department of Government efficiency.
He's also confirmed just moments ago what we would have
been reporting that he will name South Dakota Governor Christie
Noam to be secretary of Homeland Security.
NBC's Vaughn Hillier joins us tonight now with the latest
on all this fun.
Obviously, the big news right now that just happened moments
ago, Elon and Vivek Ramaswamy.
What do we know about this new government, the government
agency, and how will it work?
Exactly?
A lot has developed since the start of the show,
Tom, if for Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswami, this idea
of the Department of Government efficiency #1 exactly I was
it created.
What does it actually look like?
Is there a budget and a staff behind it?
These details are very unclear.
What I can tell you, though, is that Elon Musk,
over the course of the last week, has been a
consistent presence at Mar a Lago.
Ever since Donald Trump's election, but even before Election Day,
Elon Musk have been on the campaign trail behalf of
Donald Trump.
And Elon Musk had talked about the fact that the
US annual federal budget is about $6 trillion.
And he had been telling crowds that he would be
able to cut $2 trillion out of the federal budget,
which would be slashing it by 1/3 annually.
And Donald Trump himself had echoed this on the campaign
trail, saying that he would put Elon Musk in charge
of government efficiency and bring him in his administration to
do just that.
And now, one week after his election, he is now
promising to go forward with that campaign promise.
And then when we're talking about $2 trillion out of
the federal budget, we're talking about staggering numbers that Elon
Musk even himself admitted would be causing hardships for Americans
on the outset, but that it would be financially beneficial
for the country in the long term.
Of course, we're talking about the federal budget.
You're talking about defense spending, immigration spending, you're talking about
Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid.
There's no details that have been provided here at this
time.
But Donald Trump's suggesting that the two men, Ramaswamy and
Musk, will have until mid 2026 to figure this out
and bring efficiency to the federal government.
Again, very little details is exactly what that means at
this point, though, You know, Vaughn, do you think and
and I know you would, you would be speculating here,
but do you think Elon Musk and Vivek maybe are
I don't want to I don't know if the word
is disappointed, right?
But they were such staunch supporters of president-elect Trump And
I I know, you know, Elon Musk spoke about this
agency.
This is a big thing for him.
But for Vivek, I mean, weren't there other ideas and
plans for him?
That was the question mark as to where Vivek Ramoswami
would potentially go.
But though he was also in discussion as potentially an
appointment to fill JD Vance's Ohio U.S.
Senate seat, he's Ohio resident himself.
And so I think for Vivek Ramoswami, he'd actually be
tied to the world's richest man, Elon Musk.
Not necessarily a bad gig depending on exactly where it
goes and how long of a leash that they have.
But again, so much of the budget is going to
also rely on lawmakers and the Republican majorities on Capitol
Hill to sign off on budget.
So this is this is going to be complicated in
intense few months I think we should expect in Washington
DC.