The breakdown of labor between Musk and Ramaswamy, according to one person familiar, was that Musk focused on the big picture while Ramaswamy focused on deregulation; the rest of the staff will focus on implementation. Steve Davis, Musk’s right hand man at SpaceX, functions as his DOGE lieutenant, while Brad Smith, a healthcare entrepreneur and Rhodes Scholar, is Ramaswamy’s main point of contact.
Privately, some in Trump’s world see Ramaswamy’s nascent gubernatorial campaign as a way to clear a path for Musk to do his own work at the agency without him. “Elon basically runs the show,” said an informal adviser to Trump. This person added, “Time is their biggest enemy. We’ll see.”
People close to Musk have privately undermined Ramaswamy for weeks, frustrated by his lack of involvement in heavy lifting, according to resources familiar with internal dynamics. There has been friction between DOGE’s new core and Ramaswamy, sources said, and Ramaswamy has been “Vivek has worn out his welcome,” a Trump source said.
Miller, Trump’s incoming White House deputy chief of staff for policy, briefed a small number of senior GOP leaders Sunday afternoon about the administration’s plans. They include declaring a national emergency on the U.S.-Mexico border, rescinding Biden administration directives on diversity, equity and inclusion and unwinding President Biden’s limits on drilling offshore and on federal land, Miller told the lawmakers, according to Capitol Hill Republicans briefed on the call.
Part of Trump’s effort to reform the federal government will aim to rewrite regulations for hiring workers and create a new firing process. The president-elect will re-sign an executive order, known as Appendix F, that he issued in October 2020 to impose protections on federal workers, Republicans said. Biden’s leadership has blocked this order in the past. …
In addition to immigration orders focused on the border, Trump aides have also planned immigration raids in several major cities in the early days of the new administration, according to other people familiar with the matter. The cities that deserve to be attacked are Chicago, Boston, Washington, D. C. , Miami, Los Angeles, Denver, New York and San Antonio. The scale of the raids and the number of cities that will see increased enforcement activity continue to constantly evolve.