Elon Musk is looking to play a significant role in the upcoming Donald Trump administration, having been active during the campaign in his social media platform, X, and several rallies throughout the country. He reportedly spent over $100 million to help Trump get elected, a massive sum, though a tiny fraction of his estimated $300 billion fortune.
Musk is also moving forward with the quest to slash government spending, an initiative that he seeks to conduct through the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE, a wordplay with the crypto memecoin he has repeatedly propped up) along with Vivek Ramaswamy.
The group, created by President-elect Donald Trump, is not an official government department and will be providing "advice and guidance from outside." Regardless, DOGE is already taking resumes, according to its new account on X.
We are very grateful to the thousands of Americans who have expressed interest in helping us at DOGE. We don’t need more part-time idea generators. We need super high-IQ small-government revolutionaries willing to work 80 hours per week on unglamorous cost-cutting. If that’s…
— Department of Government Efficiency (@DOGE) November 14, 2024
The account, which on Friday morning had over 1.4 million followers, did not mention any specific education background or prior job experience. It did say it wants "super high-IQ small-government revolutionaries willing to work 80+ hours per week on unglamorous cost-cutting."
The post added that Musk and Ramaswamy themselves will review the "top 1% of applicants." It did not indicate a salary range, but Musk said in a separate publication that the job pays "zero." "Indeed, this will be tedious work, make lots of enemies & compensation is zero. What a great deal!"
The publication said applicants could send their CVs through a direct message, but it encountered a series of snags. It initially did not allow messages and then only did so for verified accounts. It now appears to be open to all on the platform.
Musk said before the election that DOGE would slash $2 trillion from the federal budget. With Musk's businesses all having varying degrees of interactions with US and foreign governments, his new position has also raised concerns about conflict of interest.
It also remains to be seen how two notoriously egocentric personalities like Musk and Trump will get along in the long term.
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