US President-elect Donald Trump has picked Elon Musk to lead a newly created Department of Government Efficiency (Doge) for his incoming administration.

He announced that Vivek Ramaswamy, a biotech investor, will work with the SpaceX and Tesla founder on the project – whose acronym refers to Musk’s favourite cryptocurrency Dogecoin – to “dismantle” bureaucracy.

The pair will provide external advice to the White House on how to “drive large scale structural reform”, said Trump.

Earlier, Trump announced the nomination of the Fox News host and combat veteran Pete Hegseth to be his defence secretary and named John Ratcliffe – a former Texas congressman and federal prosecutor – to lead the CIA.

Musk – a mega-donor to the Trump campaign – has been hotly tipped for a role in the administration. Ramaswamy ran as a Republican candidate for president earlier this year against Trump, before dropping out and endorsing him.

In Tuesday night’s announcement, Trump said the Doge initiative would help the administration “dismantle Government Bureaucracy, slash excess regulations, cut wasteful expenditures and restructure Federal Agencies”.

The Doge is not an official government department – such agencies have to be established through an act of Congress and typically employ tens of thousands of staff.

Trump said Musk and Ramaswamy would work with the White House and Office of Management & Budget to tackle “massive waste and fraud” in $6.5tn (£5.1tn) of annual government spending.

Musk recently called for at least $2tn in cuts to federal spending, nearly a third of the government’s budget, without offering specifics. He has also proposed eliminating hundreds of federal agencies, arguing that many of them have overlapping areas of responsibility.

Trump has likened the new Doge initiative to the Manhattan Project, a top-secret World War Two programme to develop the first nuclear weapons.

The president-elect said Musk and Ramaswamy would complete their work no later than 4 July (American Independence Day) 2026.

“A smaller Government, with more efficiency and less bureaucracy, will be the perfect gift to America on the 250th Anniversary of The Declaration of Independence,” Trump wrote.

In a press release from Trump’s campaign, Musk said: “This will send shockwaves through the system, and anyone involved in Government waste, which is a lot of people.”

After the announcement, Musk posted on his social media platform, X: “Threat to democracy? Nope, threat to BUREAUCRACY!!!”

Ramaswamy reposted Trump’s announcement on social media saying “we will not go gently”. He also said he was withdrawing from consideration to fill incoming US Vice-President JD Vance’s soon-to-be-vacated Ohio Senate seat.

Last year, while running for president, Ramaswamy said he would fire more than 75% of the federal work force and close down several major agencies, including the Department of Education, the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

Since Trump’s election victory last week, Musk has reportedly spent every day with Trump at his estate in Palm Beach, Florida.

He also took part in a recent phone call Trump had with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

Meanwhile, the Musk-boosted cryptocurrency Dogecoin has been soaring in value over the past week.

Trump announced the appointments of Musk and Ramaswamy amid a flurry of press releases on Tuesday evening, which also saw several senior national security positions filled.

John Ratcliffe, slated to lead the CIA, previously served as Trump’s director of national intelligence and oversaw US intelligence agencies. South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem has been nominated to serve as secretary of homeland security.

Meanwhile, some eyebrows have been raised at the nomination of Fox News host Pete Hegseth to lead the Pentagon. A veteran of the Iraq war, he has limited experience of government but has been a vocal supporter of Trump’s for several years.