expenditures

That tactic could enable him, for example, to stop parts of President Biden’s clean energy program from being implemented, even though Congress has already approved the expenditures.

Michelle Jacobs, a former Florida law professor, said that even purchases for equipment and furnishings were used to increase the rankings, by increasing expenditures per student.

The department was announced by Trump as a cost-cutting bureau focused on slashing "wasteful expenditures," with few details about how his administration intends to make the department an official government body.

He said the initiative would help his administration "dismantle government bureaucracy, slash excess regulations, cut wasteful expenditures and restructure federal agencies".

In a statement on social media, the US president-elect said Musk - along with former Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy - would "dismantle government bureaucracy, slash excess regulations, cut wasteful expenditures, and restructure federal agencies".