Trump picks Musk to lead 'efficiency' team

WASHINGTON — US President-elect Donald Trump announced on Tuesday that the world's richest man, Elon Musk, will lead a new US government efficiency group tasked with cutting federal waste, as he added a series of figures to his incoming administration.

Musk became a key ally to Trump during his campaign, reportedly spending more than $100 million to help Trump win and repeatedly boosting Trump's candidacy on X, the platform he owns.

Trump said Musk and another stalwart ally, businessman Vivek Ramaswamy, would co-lead a "Department of Government Efficiency".

Trump said the new department will realize long-held Republican dreams and "provide advice and guidance from outside of government", signaling the roles of Musk and Ramaswamy would be informal, without requiring Senate approval and allowing Musk to remain the head of electric car company Tesla, social media platform X and rocket company SpaceX.

In a post on X, Musk said the department's actions would be published online "for maximum transparency" and would include a "leaderboard for most insanely dumb spending of your tax dollars".

Musk already stands to benefit from Trump's victory with the billionaire entrepreneur expected to wield extraordinary influence to help his companies and secure favorable government treatment.

Adding a government portfolio to Musk's plate could benefit the market value of his companies and favored businesses such as artificial intelligence and cryptocurrency.

"It's clear that Musk will have a massive role in the Trump White House with his increasing reach clearly across many federal agencies," equities analyst Daniel Ives of Wedbush Securities said in a research note.

With just over two months until he takes office, Trump is moving quickly to consolidate a comeback.

Governments worldwide are scrutinizing Trump's picks for signs of how closely the incoming administration will stick to his foreign policy and harsh crackdowns on immigration.

TV host gets job

Late on Tuesday, Trump named military veteran and Fox News host Pete Hegseth as his incoming defense secretary.

Trump separately named Congressman Mike Waltz, a former special forces officer, as his incoming national security adviser. Trump also announced he was choosing his former director of national intelligence John Ratcliffe to lead the Central Intelligence Agency.

On the domestic front, Trump has signaled he will support his extreme election campaign rhetoric aimed at stirring fear and anger among illegal immigrants ahead of promised mass deportations.

After Trump's election win, the Senate's Democratic majority began a crusade on Tuesday to confirm as many new federal judges nominated by President Joe Biden as possible to avoid leaving vacancies that Republican Trump could fill after taking office.

With Republicans set to take control of the chamber on Jan 3, the Senate on Tuesday held a confirmation vote on one of Biden's judicial nominees, former prosecutor April Perry, for the first time since Trump won the election. The Senate voted 51-44 in favor of her becoming a US district court judge in Illinois.

In another development, the judge overseeing Trump's criminal hush money case has put off ruling on whether the president-elect's conviction should be thrown out on immunity grounds, enabling prosecutors to weigh the next steps following his election victory.

Justice Juan Merchan had been due to rule on Tuesday on Trump's argument that the US Supreme Court's decision in July that presidents are immune from prosecution involving their official acts meant the New York state case should be dismissed.

Instead, Merchan granted a request by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg's office to have until Nov 19 to consider how to approach the case in light of Trump's looming inauguration in January 2025, email correspondence made public on Tuesday showed.

Trump's scheduled Nov 26 sentencing is now widely expected to be postponed.

Trump in May became the first US president, former or sitting, convicted of a crime when a jury in Manhattan found him guilty on 34 felony counts. Trump, who pleaded not guilty, vowed to appeal the verdict after sentencing.

Trump, 78, was set to make a triumphant return to Washington on Wednesday, meeting Biden in the Oval Office.

Agencies Via Xinhua