Donald Trump appointee Vivek Ramaswamy is somewhat less known outside the US than Elon Musk.

Ramaswamy is an American entrepreneur, who ran for the Republican nomination for president against Trump, dropping out of the race early in 2024.

His parents moved to the US from Kerala, and he has attended Harvard and Yale. The 39-year-old lives in New York and has a house in Ohio, and is married with two children.

Forbes has stated he is one of the 20 youngest billionaires in the US, and his business interests have included biotech firm Roivant Sciences, Chapter Medicare and he also worked at hedge fund QVT.

Ramaswamy also notoriously appeared to broadcast himself urinating during a live X talk that featured Elon Musk, Alex Jones, Andrew Tate, Matt Gaetz and others.

US politics website the Hill is reporting that the hardline Trumpist Republican Freedom caucus in the House is to drop its objection to the re-election of speaker Mike Johnson, and will not be putting up an alternative candidate.

Instead it is believed the group will force an on the record vote on Johnson’s role, which will allow them to register their onjection to his reappointment. The caucus is unhappy with proposed rule changes intended to enforce better party discipline on the more rebellious Republican members of the House.

Joe Biden will host Donald Trump later today at the White House as part of transition efforts between the current administration and the incoming one.

Yesterday White House spokesperson Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters “[Biden] believes in the norms, he believes in our institution, he believes in the peaceful transfer of power. That is what is the norm. That is what is supposed to happen.”

Reuters reports that Brian Vance, a spokesperson for the Trump transition, said “The Trump-Vance transition lawyers continue to constructively engage with the Biden-Harris administration lawyers regarding all agreements contemplated by the Presidential Transition Act.”

In an analysis piece for CNN, Stephen Collinson has described Donald Trump’s flurry of announcements as “a night of Maga shock and awe.”

He writes:

The selection of people such as Elon Musk, Kristi Noem and Pete Hegseth are partly designed to honor the aspirations of Trump’s voters and epitomize the president-elect’s own outsider brand — as well as his deeply developed craving for loyalty.

His choice of ultra-loyalists is borne out of Trump’s frustration that establishment military officers, officials and conventional Washington operators reined in his own most extreme impulses in his first term.

But Trump is also taking a risk. While it makes sense to pick outside revolutionaries to tear down governance, many of his picks lack the kind of in-depth experience and knowledge of the departments they will run.

In its coverage of the controversial appointment of Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy to lead a non-governmental commission to cut government spending, the Washington Post reminds readers of something the latter said earlier in the year.

It quotes Ramaswamy saying “We have a fourth branch of government – the administrative state – that our Founding Fathers didn’t envision. Removing the excess bureaucracy is going to be good for our economy and for our national spirit.”

The Washington Post goes on to say:

A person familiar with the effort, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe sensitive negotiations, said that details of the organization’s funding would emerge soon. The [Republicans] had talked about reducing waste for many years, but had not been effective, the person added, leading the campaign to the conclusion ‘outsiders with a much more entrepreneurial approach’ were better suited to the task.

Some Trump advisers see Musk’s commission as an opportunity to implement long-sought goals to reduce federal spending and regulation. They have pointed to the Grace Commission, a Reagan-era panel that recommended billions of dollars in spending cuts. Under that model, which some Trump advisers hope the Musk plan will emulate, the commission identified hundreds or thousands of examples of wasteful government programs and regulations, and called on Congress to approve the recommendations, backed by the president.

The constitution gives Congress authority over taxation and spending, meaning any federal budget changes recommended by Musk’s commission would have to be approved by the House and Senate.

Philip Wen

Ramaswamy and Musk to lead 'government efficiency' department sparking conflict of interest concerns

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