By David Shepardson
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President-elect Donald Trump on Wednesday named a former White House aide to serve as counsel to an effort co-led by Elon Musk to slash government regulations and the workforce.
Trump said in a social media post he had picked William McGinley, who had served in his first presidential term as White House cabinet secretary, to serve as counsel to a new Department of Government Efficiency, an effort led by Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy.
Trump had said last month that McGinley would serve as White House counsel, but on Wednesday said he was naming lawyer DavidWarrington to serve in that job.
Tesla CEO Musk and Ramaswamy, a former Republican presidential candidate, will be on Capitol Hill Thursday to discuss the effort, according to an invite sent to lawmakers last week.
In a Wall Street Journal opinion piece published on Nov. 20, Musk and Ramaswamy said they and “a lean team of small-government crusaders” embedded at federal agencies will review regulations to identify ones they deem invalid.
Musk and Ramaswamy said the effort will also recommend mass layoffs across federal agencies and identify billions of dollars in government spending that is invalid because it was not authorized by Congress. They said they are aiming to complete the panel’s work by July 4, 2026, the 250th anniversary of the country’s founding.
Federal employee unions have called the planned actions illegal and in violation of contractual rights and vowed to fight them.
Trump in September announced the plan, including Musk’s role, and said he wanted to see recommendations for “drastic reforms,” starting with hunting down fraud and improper payments, that would target “the entire federal government.”
(Reporting by David Shepardson; editing by Diane Craft)
