Trump makes the Fox News presenter minister of defense, Musk also gets a ministry

Donald Trump’s new ‘government efficiency’ ministry is led by Tesla boss Elon Musk and American entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy.

“Together, these two great Americans will pave the way for my administration to end government bureaucracy and over-regulation,” Trump said in a statement.

‘Shockwaves throughout the system’

Musk immediately responded: “This will send shock waves through the system and everyone involved in government waste, that’s a lot of people,” he said. The billionaire called the new ministry “the Manhattan Project of our time,” a reference to the project that developed atomic bombs during World War II.

It is not clear whether Musk will become a minister, says journalist Erik Mouthaan. “The question is whether the Senate will approve this, the conflict between interests is very clear if Musk is appointed as minister. In addition to owning Tesla and X, the billionaire also runs the space company SpaceX.

“Trump often talks a lot about Musk. The billionaire fired almost everyone when he bought X, but the site stayed on his feet. Trump seems to think that he knows at the entrepreneur Musk exactly how to cut unnecessary workers and make the government more efficient,” said Mouthaan .

‘Our army will be good again’

Another notable role last night was 44-year-old Fox News host Pete Hegseth. He will be the Secretary of Defense under Trump. “With Pete at the helm, America’s enemies have been warned. Our military will be great again and America will never surrender,” Trump said in a statement.

Although Hegseth is a war veteran, he has never held a high position in the military. Erik Mouthaan expects opposition to his resignation could rise among Republican senators. “This is very surprising, because what qualification does this man have? He does not have the right knowledge, for example, he did not study international relations, but he was a TV presenter.”

Hegseth is not the only Fox News employee to land a job in the Trump administration. Also Tom Homan, that Trump A ‘border czar’ has already been appointedworking at the right-wing broadcaster. Homan must implement Trump’s strict immigration policy.

Trustees

“Trump hires people from his circle that he trusts personally,” says Mouthaan. “They are all people who have supported him around the world. That is important to him.”

It is not surprising that he has been pouring out the names of the people Trump wants in his government in recent days, Mouthaan explains. “In total, Trump needs to hire about 1,200 people, from high to low in the US government.”

We are still waiting for one of the most important applications: who will be the new Minister of Justice? The person who gets that job is also the head of the FBI. Entrepreneur Ramaswamy has in the past called for the entire FBI to be abolished. Trump has regularly accused the current Minister of Justice of a ‘witch hunt’ against him in recent years.