Elon Musk’s understanding of the so-called deep state comes off as rather shallow. The Tesla CEO reckons $2 trillion can be slashed from the U.S. bureaucracy, echoing decades of arm-waving over wasteful spending in Washington.

The department wouldn't be a department at all, but an outside group that can likely only make suggestions — unless Trump tries to axe current laws.

Musk—the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, and owner of X (formerly Twitter)—was quoted in Trump's announcement as saying that DOGE "will send shockwaves through the system, and anyone involved in Government waste, which is a lot of people!"

U.S. President-elect Trump has tasked billionaire businessman Elon Musk with making the government cost-efficient. That may be an admirable objective, but the ideology driving it is wrong-headed... and dangerous.