Close to Donald Trump, Elon Musk has just been appointed head of a Department of Government Effectiveness in the United States whose objective could be to make $2,000 billion in clear cuts in a federal government budget from 6,500 to 7,000 billion.
Freshly re-elected President of the United States, Donald Trump will not be inaugurated until January 20. A return to the White House that the Republican is already preparing, listing the names of those who will govern alongside him. Recently, the name of billionaire Elon Musk came out. Close to Donald Trump and fervent defender of his cause throughout the American presidential campaign in recent months, the boss of Telsa and X will soon be entrusted with a new ministry called “Government Effectiveness”.
With Republican businessman Vivek Ramaswamy, also appointed on the night of Tuesday to Wednesday by Donald Trump, Elon Musk “will trace the path for [l’]administration [Trump] to dismantle government bureaucracy, slash excessive regulations, cut unnecessary spending, and restructure federal agencies,” Donald Trump said in a statement. The ultimate goal would be to implement no less than $2,000 billion in clear cuts in the federal government budget estimated to date between 6,500 and 7,000 billion dollars, points out Le Figaro.
An announcement which did not fail to be emulated on the other side of the Atlantic. While France must itself consider cutting its budget, several right-wing figures have congratulated Elon Musk for his promotion. “I dreamed of it, Musk is going to do it,” reacted on X Valérie Pécresse, the president of the Île-de-France region. More surprising, the Minister of the Civil Service, Guillaume Kasbarian, also congratulated Elon Musk “for having accepted this great challenge”. And added: “I look forward to sharing with you best practices to combat excess bureaucracy, reduce paperwork, and rethink public organizations to improve the effectiveness of public officials.”
Congratulations on accepting this great challenge @elonmusk ! I look forward to sharing best practices for dealing with excessive bureaucracy, cutting red tape and rethinking public organizations to benefit the efficiency of public employees. https://t.co/CgHsNSxqRj
— Guillaume Kasbarian (@guillaumekasba) November 13, 2024
Remarks which quickly aroused indignation from the left. And all the more so since these comments come while the 2025 Budget is currently being discussed in Parliament, with numerous savings on the civil service announced. “We thought that Trumpism in France was limited to the far right. We were wrong. We have G. Kasbarian the French Elon Musk without electricity,” criticized the head of the Socialists, Olivier Faure, on. “Better and better, we clearly have aficionados of the actions of Trump and the libertarian Musk in government. A Michel Barnier comment on this praise in English from a supporter of the total destruction of the State?” also reacted the rebellious MP, Éric Coquerel on. “We have never experienced this, it is incredibly violent,” we reacted to the AFP on the side of the UFFA-CFDT. Same story among other unions.
Faced with the outcry, government spokesperson Maud Bregeon wanted to put the ministers’ comments into perspective on Wednesday, denying any “convergence” between the French government and President Donald Trump. “There is no overinterpretation to be made. My colleague Guillaume has been extremely mobilized for years on the need to simplify and debureaucratize the French administration. He congratulated his counterpart and that ends there,” he said. -she assured