President-elect Donald J. Trump has appointed Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy to lead the Department of Government Efficiency, aiming to drive major cuts and new efficiencies in bloated agencies in the federal bureaucracy by July 4, 2026. The initiative, called the 'Manhattan Project' of this era, aims to create a smaller government with more efficiency and less bureaucracy. However, major questions remain unanswered, such as the lack of an existing department and the potential conflicts of interest for Musk, whose companies have received billions of dollars worth of federal contracts. Musk has previously pledged to help cut $2 trillion from the federal budget, but has not provided details on how this will be accomplished.