Vivek Ramaswamy: Trump’s DOGE to “delete” many federal agencies

Indian American co-leader of Trump’s Department of Government efficiency warns of ‘mass reductions’

By Arun Kumar

Suggesting that many bureaucrats don’t even show up to work like most hardworking Americans, Vivek Ramaswamy, Indian American co-leader of Donald Trump’s new Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), has warned that it may “delete” entire federal agencies if those are doing nothing.

“Here’s a dirty little secret in the federal bureaucracy today: most people don’t even show up to work,” he told Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures.” And if they are asked to come to work like most hardworking Americans five days a week, they won’t do that, he added.

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“We expect mass reductions in force in areas of the federal government that are bloated, said Ramaswamy, the co-leader of DOGE along with Tesla CEO Elon Musk, vowing to make recommendations on “a real-time basis.”

“We expect certain agencies to be deleted outright,” he said. “We expect massive cuts among federal contractors and others who are overbilling the federal government,” he continued. “I think people will be surprised by, I think, how quickly we’re able to move.”

“We want to go right in through executive action…the dirty little secret is that the people we elect to run the government, they are not the one who actually run the government. It’s the unelected bureaucrats in the administrative state that was created through executive action– it’s going to be fixed through executive action. Think about the Supreme Court’s environment over the last several years… ” Ramaswamy said.

‘We are not going to cutting ribbons, we are going to cutting costs,” Ramaswamy said when asked what happens next after they make their recommendations on downsizing. “Over half a trillion dollars that’s spent every year right now was not even authorized by Congress in the first place. The Pentagon has just failed its seventh consecutive audit, nearly a trillion dollars of budget. They can’t even tell you where it goes,” he said.

Asked if they were expecting to close down entire agencies like education department, Ramaswamy said, “We expect mass reductions, we expect certain agencies to be deleted outright.”

On whether some departments like energy, agriculture, education would be moved out of Washington, he said that would be done to make the bureaucrats more accountable.

“The bigger picture is many of these agencies should be downsized wherever they are and for whatever does remain move many of them out to where they are more accountable to people,” Ramaswamy said.

The DOGE will be cruel in handling these civil servants who probably are good people individually, but the government does not need so many unelected staff who can’t be removed from their positions, it’s anti-democratic, he said.

Ramaswamy contended that the Nov 5 election results gave Trump a mandate for dramatic change.

“They haven’t voted for incremental change here this time,” he argued. “We have voted for sweeping change, and the voters actually deserve to get it. And we’re focused on how to do that as early and as quickly as possible.”

Citing the Supreme Court’s past rulings on federal overreach, Ramaswamy stressed that this is an opportunity to downsize.

“Rescind those regulations, pull those regs back, and then that gives us the industrial logic to then downsize the size of that administrative state,” he said. “And the beauty of all of this is, that can be achieved just through executive action without Congress.”

“I think the public is on our side. Most of the public understands their taxpayer dollars are not being well spent,” he said. “Elon and I aren’t in this for the credit. But I think we’re going to build the consensus to make the kind of deep cuts that haven’t been made for most of our history.”

Meanwhile, critics such as Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-NY) argue that eliminating entire agencies will require Congress, the New York Post reported.

“Government 101: No federal agencies will be ‘deleted’ without an Act of Congress. The President cannot [undo] by executive order what Congress has done by statute. Congress, not the President, is the final word on the fate of federal agencies,” Torres wrote on X.