We’ve been covering a tranche of Trump team announcements over the last week as the president-elect names his team.
The appointment of Elon Musk – the world’s richest man – to a new advisory body called the Department of Government Efficiency has been the focus this morning.
But aside from Musk, there have been plenty of other significant manouveres:
- Former Arkansas governor and Baptist minister Mike Huckabee has been named US ambassador to Israel
- Fox News commentator and army veteran Pete Hegseth is Trump’s pick to be the next US secretary of defence
- John Ratcliffe, a former Texas congressman and former director of national intelligence, has been nominated as the next CIA director
- Kristi Noem, the governor of South Dakota, has been confirmed as Trump’s pick for secretary of homeland security
- Trump’s long-time golf partner Steve Witkoff, a property investor, has been named as his envoy to the Middle East
It’s no coincidence that the team announced to slash government spending is called the Department for Government Efficiency, or Doge.
Doge started off as a meme featuring a Shiba Inu dog, which then gave its name to a crypto currency – Dogecoin – both of which have been frequently referred to by Elon Musk online.
Now these internet in-jokes are being referenced in something much more serious – an advisory body that intends to make hugely important decisions about public spending.
Dogecoin has increased in value by 250% over the past month, buoyed by Donald Trump’s pledges to deregulate cryptocurrency during the election.
Reflecting the enduring unpredictability of crypto, however, the coin’s value actually went down overnight, dropping around 10% at one point.
As Doge, the government “department”, gears up, it could point to the kind of instability that many other bodies and institutions will also have to brace themselves for.
Pete Hegseth: We ‘Brexit’d before it was cool’published at 10:46
A vest worn by Pete Hegseth in a TikTok advocating for “Veteran-owned, American-made, anti-woke companies” earlier this year caught the eyes of some viewers.
In reference to America’s independence from Britain in 1776, Hegseth’s vest shows an illustration of George Washington – one of the country’s Founding Fathers and the first US president – holding up a “peace” sign and surrounded by text reading “Brexit’d before it was cool”.
