bureaucracy

The incoming president, who takes office Jan. 20, 2025, said the two businessmen — among his most vocal surrogates during the presidential campaign — will operate outside of the federal bureaucracy.

Experts in the federal bureaucracy emphasized that the most successful past reorganizations — particularly one driven by President Clinton and Vice President Al Gore — have relied on those inside the bureaucracy to figure out how to maintain services while cutting staffing and saving money.

The Pentagon bureaucracy is deeply entrenched; it can wear out far more agile players than Hegseth.

Of course, Trump is one of that show’s regular viewers, and, to the surprise of his advisers, he picked Hegseth to run the Department of Defense—the country’s largest bureaucracy, with 2.8 million employees and a budget this year of $841 billion—because he liked a lot of what the rugged-looking co-host was saying.

Donald Trump has said that Musk - and his co-head at the new Department of Government Efficiency, Vivek Ramaswamy - will achieve the savings from dismantling government bureaucracy, slashing excess regulations and restructuring government agencies.