CNN host Fareed Zakaria surprisingly praised entrepreneurs Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy as “brilliant” and admitted he was excited about their plan to cut government spending.
The complimentary comment is in stark contrast to other experts on the network who are skeptical of Donald Trump’s recently announced Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).
The agency will be co-led by Tesla CEO and former Republican presidential candidate (Ramaswamy).
The agency will be tasked with rooting out wasteful government spending, and Musk has said he aims to wipe out $2 trillion in spending during the first years of DOGE.
“Of Donald Trump’s recent announcements, the creation of DOGE is the one that intrigues and even excites me the most,” Zakaria said during his weekend show.
“Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, who will be in charge of DOGE, are both brilliant and the federal government has clearly become too expansive and its tenure too cumbersome,” he continued.
In Trump’s announcement unveiling the agency’s creation, the president-elect mocked frivolous spending tied to the $6.5 trillion spent annually to run the federal government.
“The duo will also force the country, and especially the Republican Party, to face the reality it has been dancing around for decades,” Zakaria said. “The moderate Republican Party was founded in opposition to Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal.”
President-elect Donald Trump greets Elon Musk as he arrives to attend a viewing of the launch of the sixth test flight of the SpaceX Starship rocket on November 19, 2024. Zakaria graciously called the SpaceX founder “brilliant” this week during his show
Vivek Ramaswamy speaks during a Trump campaign rally on October 27, 2024 in New York. Ramaswamy ran against Trump in the Republican primaries before endorsing the president-elect
SpaceX’s billionaire owner Elon Musk, a Trump confidante, has been tapped to lead the new Department of Government Efficiency alongside former presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy
Republicans have pledged to cut spending for most of the last century; Calls to eliminate major government programs began shortly after President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal was passed.
“Since the 1930s, the party’s strongest ideologues have pledged to repeal the New Deal and dismantle the architecture of the federal government built largely by FDR.”
“But they never did,” the host added.
Now that the federal debt has surpassed $36 trillion—by far the largest debt serviced by any entity in the history of human civilization—the decades-old call for austerity is finally being heeded.
Still, Zakaria noted that certain areas of federal spending will likely remain untouched.
Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and more could prove too important to cut, the CNN host argued.
But there are plenty of other places to prevent waste.
“What’s left now is about 15 percent of the federal budget, including certain veterans benefits, agricultural subsidies, road and highway spending, etc.”
President-elect Donald Trump speaks alongside Elon Musk (C) and members of the Senate, including (L-R) Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX), Senator Kevin Cramer (R-ND) and Representative Ronny Jackson (R-TX) before he attended a viewing of the launch of the sixth test flight of the SpaceX Starship rocket
“Of Donald Trump’s recent announcements, the one that even intrigues me the most is the creation of DOGE,” Zakaria said.
“To achieve the $2 trillion cuts that Musk has often talked about, he would have to cut all the spending and all the Pentagon spending, and he would still have work to do.”
“But I support the push for reform, and not just because I think it will impose greater control and efficiency on the government, which needs it.”