Musk and Ramaswamy are correct: unelected bureaucrats passing “rules and regulations” have detracted America from what the Founders framed in the Constitution.

DOGE is there to stop it.

“The entrenched and ever-growing bureaucracy represents an existential threat to our republic, and politicians have abetted it for too long,” the entrepreneurs wrote. “That’s why we’re doing things differently. We are entrepreneurs, not politicians. We will serve as outside volunteers, not federal officials or employees. Unlike government commissions or advisory committees, we won’t just write reports or cut ribbons. We’ll cut costs.”

And before Trump was a politician, he was a real estate developers and TV personality.

Musk and Ramaswamy say that they want to concentrate on three areas: regulatory rescissions, administrative reduction, and cost savings. They also plan to help transition the workers whose jobs are eliminated into the private sector.

It’s nothing if not ambitious, and also needed. Will they succeed? I haven’t a clue.

In the weeks since the election, it occurs to me that Trump and the people he’s recently surrounded himself with must have thought there was an excellent chance he would win. They seem to be ready with Cabinet appointments and lots of plans.

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“He will be a strong Advocate for our Nation, a true friend to our Allies, and a fearless Warrior who will never back down to our adversaries,” Trump added. “I look forward to working with Marco to Make America, and the World, Safe and Great Again!”

And Tulsi Gabbard has been named Director of National Intelligence:

Gabbard, a former vice chair of the Democratic National Committee who endorsed Trump and joined the Republican party late in the 2024 campaign, will oversee America’s 17 intelligence agencies in the powerful post.

Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy are joint directors of the Department of Government Efficiency (or DOGE, which is some sort of meme about a Japanese dog and crytopcurrency). Although “government efficiency” sounds like a classic oxymoron, perhaps Musk and Ramaswamy – two unusual guys with very high intelligence – might be able to change that.

Moving right along!

ADDENDUM: And wow, I see that Matt Gaetz will be AG. That’s certainly a bold pick.

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And I’m not. I think Ramaswamy is callow, arrogant, and unaware of the many things he doesn’t know and yet thinks he knows. That doesn’t mean I disagree with everything Vivek proposes – not by a longshot. But I agree with some part of all the GOP candidates’ proposals.

However, I’m posting this link to Cornhead’s report on his most recent attendance at a Vivek event.

I also think there’s zero chance that Vivek will get the nomination; I’ve said many times that I think it will be Trump. But might Vivek become his VP choice? I doubt it. Two egos that big probably couldn’t get along.

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Last night I decided to watch a long video interview of him with Tucker Carlson. Here it is:

I find myself lukewarm about him. I wasn’t as impressed by him as I expected to be. It may have been partly because Tucker Carlson was interviewing him. I have mixed feelings about Carlson, too (I’ve written about that before, for example in this post), mostly disagreeing with him on foreign policy and agreeing with him on many other issues of the domestic variety.

But this post isn’t about Carlson; it’s about Ramaswamy. What was my problem with him? He seemed to – as Carlson often does – oversimplify the problems, especially on foreign policy. My impression is that he sees no reason whatsoever to intervene in a place such a Ukraine, even by arming them, and is perfectly fine with abandoning them to Russia’s tender mercies. Same for Taiwan, once we manage to get our dependence on Taiwan for semiconducters remedied – then it’s bye-bye Taiwan. At least, that’s my impression of his position.

It’s not that those positions are crazy. It’s that they are clean and simple, and don’t take into consideration the possible effects of what would be perceived as weakness and American withdrawal from the international field. Ramaswamy is all for strengthening our nuclear defenses, and I’m in agreement with that.

Tucker and Vivek (especially Carlson) spend some time from minutes 32:47 to 33:30 in snarky laughter at neocons, of whom they use Bill Kristol as an example. Kristol was never a neocon in the classic sense of changing from left to right, although he certainly did (and still does) support armed intervention in various foreign conflicts. But since 2016, Kristol has been no sort of “con” – no sort of conservative, that is – at all. If anything, he’s been a neo-leftist for the past seven years, a changer from right to left. I don’t think he’s an example of much of anything except the mind of Bill Kristol.

The video reminded me that Vivek Ramaswamy is only 38 years old. He’s a man of very high achievement, but that can give a person the idea that he can fix anything and that the solutions are rather simple. That’s the impression I got, anyway – of a certain low-key arrogance. None of this means I wouldn’t vote for Ramaswamy if he was the Republican nominee. I definitely would. But it means I was somewhat disappointed when I got a large dose of him. Your mileage may differ.

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