Live updates: Controversial Trump cabinet pick visits Senate in charm offensive

Mike Wendling
US digital reporter

Writing in the Wall Street Journal, businessmen and Trump
allies Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy have set out a few more details about
their plans to slash government spending.

Donald Trump has enlisted the pair in an effort called named
after a cryptocurrency, Doge – Department of Government Efficiency.

Contrary to the name, it’s not an official government department
but an outside advisory panel. Musk and Ramaswamy write that they will “hire a
lean team of small-government crusaders, including some of the sharpest
technical and legal minds in America.” Musk has previously hinted that the
positions would be unpaid.

They’ll focus, they say, on slashing regulation, reducing the
number of federal employees and cutting government spending.

Previously Musk has suggested cutting $2tn (£1.6tn) out of
the nearly $7tn (£5.5tn) US federal budget. In their newspaper piece today, external, a relatively
more modest sum of $500bn (£395bn) – “annual federal expenditures that are
unauthorized by Congress” – is mentioned.

However, a large proportion of US government spending is on mandatory
welfare programs known as “entitlements”, including health care and pension
payments for the elderly, which Trump has pledged to protect.

And Congress and cabinet picks such as Robert F Kennedy Jr –
who wants more regulation of food and the pharmaceutical industry – may balk at
chopping rules and budgets.

“We expect to prevail,” the pair write, “Now is the moment
for decisive action.”