From the New York Times, I'm Sabrina Tavernisi, and this is The Daily.

Your money is being wasted, and the Department of Government of Divisancy is going to fix that.

Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy have called the federal bureaucracy a, quote, existential threat to our republic.

We're going to get the government off your back and out of your pocket vote.

Now, President-elect Trump is empowering them to drastically shrink it, by whatever means necessary.

America is going to reach heights that it has never seen before.

The future is going to be amazing.

Today, my colleague David Farrenthold examines their plans and what it would look like if they actually carried them out.

It's Wednesday, December 4th.

So, David, you've been doing some reporting on plans by Elon Musk and Vivek Ramoswamy to cut government to the tune of $2 trillion.

You're trying to understand exactly what this effort is and how it would work.

Tell me what you're finding.

Well, we're talking about this thing called the Department of Government Efficiency.

Those of you who are on the internet may

know that that's a meme. It's named after a funny dog meme that Elon Musk likes.

And a cryptocurrency, apparently. And a cryptocurrency that's named after the funny dog meme.

Now, there's no thing in the government called the Department of Government Efficiency. But it is

something that President Trump has pledged to set up once he takes office. And what they're talking about

is kind of a hybrid setup where there would be people outside the government, Vivekramaswami

and Elon Musk, these sort of advisors on the outside, taking no government salary, holding no

government position. And then a bunch of folks on the inside, people who actually would work for

the government, Musk has described them as sort of committed, the inside, people who actually would work for the government,

...