Elon Musk Puts Out Call for ‘Caring’ Applicants to Slash Government Spending
A post from DOGE also said it was seeking applicants ready to work “long hours.”
Amanda Perobelli/Reuters
The Department of Government Efficiency, Donald Trump’s commission aiming to slash federal spending, says it’s looking for “caring people” to join its ranks.
The Elon Musk-led DOGE said in an X post that it is “looking for world-class talent to work long hours identifying/eliminating waste, fraud, and abuse.” It added that the vacancies are for “full-time, salaried positions for software engineers, InfoSec engineers, financial analysts, HR professionals, and, in general, all competent/caring people.”
The DOGE Team is looking for world-class talent to work long hours identifying/eliminating waste, fraud, and abuse. These are full-time, salaried positions for software engineers, InfoSec engineers, financial analysts, HR professionals, and, in general, all competent/caring…
— Department of Government Efficiency (@DOGE) January 26, 2025
The post included a link to an application page where candidates are invited to provide details of their “exceptional ability.” The page also includes a disclaimer explaining that applicants are applying for an “in-office, full-time opportunity” based in Washington, D.C., and that only U.S. citizens are eligible for consideration.
X users responding to the post variously questioned why the jobs are only open to citizens, asked about what pay they can expect in return for working long hours, and argued that allowing staffers to work remotely would be more efficient.
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The latest recruitment post comes after DOGE said in November that it was seeking “super high-IQ small-government revolutionaries willing to work 80+ hours per week on unglamorous cost-cutting,” enticing candidates with the promise that “Elon & Vivek will review the top 1% of applicants.”
Indeed, this will be tedious work, make lots of enemies & compensation is zero.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 14, 2024
What a great deal! 😂 https://t.co/16e7EKRS6i
That would be Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, the former Republican presidential candidate who has since dropped out of co-leading the venture ahead of an expected run for governor of Ohio. His departure from DOGE came after a “deep philosophical rift” developed between Ramaswamy and Musk about how the group should operate, according to The Washington Post.
The organization—which shares its name with a cryptocurrency created as a joke and subsequently championed by Musk—was formally announced by Trump in November. The president said it would “pave the way” for his administration to “dismantle government bureaucracy, slash excess regulations, cut wasteful expenditures, and restructure federal agencies.”
Musk also confidently asserted during Trump’s campaign that DOGE would lead to “at least $2 trillion” in cuts from the federal budget, though he later tempered his claim by calling that a “best-case outcome.”
Trump established DOGE in an executive order last week that renamed the U.S. Digital Service as the “U.S. DOGE Service.” It also did not mention dramatic cuts to federal spending, instead tasking the group with “modernizing federal technology and software.”
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