Where do you think the rubber hits the road from the perspective of Washington? Because we all know Elon Musk demon mode. We know how focused he can be on stripping out costs, how we can really focus in and hone a particular issue and manage to ultimately provide whether it be cars or whether it be rockets. But what about efficiency cuts in $2 trillion worth? Well, it's a great question, Caroline, and it really cuts to the heart of whether this effort will actually produce the kind of results that Elon Musk expects and may be seeding with Donald Trump and expectation of his own, that he would be able to replicate what he has done in the private sector here in the public sector. And the truth is, every expert who understands government spending and government performance sees a vast difference between how an agency operates and how a corporate entity is run. In many ways, the differences are so stark when it comes to how employees are

contracted, paid, what they're judged on, but also just simply what kind of service or good or product they're trying to provide. Michael, I want to be clear with our Bloomberg Technology audience that the Department of Government efficiency, per the details that President elect Trump's team put out, is not a department. It acts outside of government, which is interesting, right? There are lots of questions about whether Musk continues as CEO of Tesla. But what is it that he's going to target from outside of government? Well, and again, there are so many questions about this initiative that still have to be answered, the structure of it, how many people will be working on this effort to see it through? Who will write the recommendations? Will Musk be pulling in people and Vivek Ramaswamy be pulling in people from their own ventures and entities and maybe structuring some of these quests for efficiency in a way that benefits the companies that they work at? For instance, Tesla and SpaceX are

heavily, heavily regulated and overseen by agencies, including NETA and the FAA. And these are things that Elon Musk has complained about, and he has said, Look, if I want to get to Mars, I need the shackles of regulation removed. But at the same time, people out there in the countryside really do benefit from those regulations when it comes to environmental protections, when it comes to other things that may break some misbehavior in the markets, for example. So, some of what he is seeking in terms of efficiency could actually create harms for people who don't have the same degree of insulation from some of life's inconveniences that the world's richest man does enjoy. Mike. It was said that Peter, too, reminded us to not take President-elect Trump literally, but to take him seriously. Now, do we take literally a cut of at least $2 trillion that Elon Musk said

while out on the campaign stage? Or is that more we take it seriously the direction of travel? The direction of travel certainly is something to to watch. But in terms of taking it seriously or literally, that is going to be a very difficult number to reach. And here's why that is. More than the government spends annually on operations, they simply can't find enough savings at all the agencies to be able to hit that number. You would have to start cutting into benefits that are considered sacred here, really, Medicare, Social Security, veterans aid, all of those things. And people out, the voters who put Donald Trump in office would very quickly see the pain and feel the pain back home in their own lives. So it's more a direction of travel, more a notional target. And again, that was something he said at Madison Square Garden. Now, putting that onto paper and making it a goal and over how long to I mean, $2 trillion, maybe over ten years might

be something a little bit more achievable, depending on what they decide to go after.

Musk's New Efficiency Role Under Trump

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