The Blubber

Elon Musk's newly announced Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) task force is now accepting applications, ahead of President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration in January.

Dubbed “DOGE” after the cryptocurrency popularized by Musk, the initiative aims to drastically reduce the size of the federal government by cutting bureaucracy, eliminating jobs, and slashing up to one-third of the $6.75 trillion federal budget.

DOGE’s recruitment call is highly selective, seeking only the nation’s brightest minds committed to small-government ideals. According to a statement issued by DOGE on Thursday, applicants should be prepared for an intense workload with little reward. “We need super high-IQ, small-government revolutionaries willing to work 80+ hours per week on unglamorous cost-cutting,” the statement read.

Co-led by Musk and entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, the task force invites interested candidates to apply via its official social media account, which is verified with the grey government checkmark on Musk’s X platform. However, applying requires an active X subscription, adding a barrier to entry. Exceptional candidates will be handpicked by Musk and Ramaswamy: “Elon & Vivek will review the top 1% of applicants,” the announcement promised.

A Vision to Dismantle the Administrative State

The idea of shrinking federal bureaucracy has been a hallmark of conservative ideology since Ronald Reagan’s famous 1986 declaration, “The nine most terrifying words in the English language are, ‘I’m from the government, and I’m here to help.’” Many conservatives view government expansion as an infringement on individual sovereignty.

“Republican politicians have dreamed about the objectives of DOGE for a very long time,” Trump said in a recent statement.

The initiative aligns with Project 2025, a policy framework created by the Heritage Foundation, which emphasizes dismantling the so-called Administrative State. Advocates of the project argue that federal spending and regulatory oversight should be shifted back to Congress to ensure legislators are directly accountable to the public, rather than influenced by corporate lobbyists and federal agencies.

DOGE represents a bold push toward these goals, with Musk and Ramaswamy at the helm of what they anticipate will be a transformative—and highly controversial—restructuring of government operations.