DOGE Loses Ramaswamy, Faces Lawsuit Challenging Its Transparency

WASHINGTON, Jan. 20, 2025 – The new Department of Government Efficiency will be losing one of its founding members just hours after its official foundation.

The White House announced Monday that Vivek Ramaswamy, a founding member of DOGE, will not be serving on the commission. The department was conceived by Donald Trump, Elon Musk, and Ramaswamy in November to dramatically cut back government spending.

Trump said in his inaugural speech Monday that DOGE will be founded “to restore competence and effectiveness to our federal government.”

“Vivek Ramaswamy played a critical role in helping us create DOGE,” Anna Kelly, a spokesperson for the commission, said. “He intends to run for elected office soon, which requires him to remain outside of DOGE, based on the structure that we announced today.”

It was reported that Ramaswamy will be stepping down to join the 2026 Ohio gubernatorial race, which is expected to be announced later this month. 

DOGE was also sued minutes after President Trump’s inauguration Monday by the public interest law firm National Security Counselors.

The group says that DOGE’s agenda breaks the 1972 Federal Advisory Committee Act (FACA) that requires advisory committees to follow specific rules on disclosure, hiring, and other practices. FACA also requires relatively balanced representations, publicly available meetings, and public records of meetings.

However, according to Semafor, Trump is expected to sign an executive order that would designate DOGE as primarily working within the U.S. government, absolving the commission from these FACA rules. 

Kel McClanahan, executive director of National Security Counselors, said in a statement to the Washington Post that by making DOGE a government entity, Trump “would subject Musk and others to a whole bunch of ethics laws I don’t think they want to be subject to.”

“We’re not trying to say DOGE can’t exist. Advisory committees like DOGE have been around for decades. We’re just saying that DOGE can’t exist without following the law.” McClanahan said.