Two guards have been rejected from joining Trump’s cost-cutting efforts

President-elect Donald J. Trump’s so-called Department of Government Success has hired, looking for tech executives and conservative activists to study the federal government and find regulations and spending to cut.

On Thursday, two activists from a left-wing watchdog group asked: Where to register?

“We are writing to request our nomination as members of the ‘Department of Government Success,'” said Norman Eisen and Virginia Canter, in a letter to Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, leaders of the effort. unofficially by Mr. Trump who plans to cut regulations and spending.

The Trump transition team’s answer: no.

“President Trump has made it clear that we have no place in our administration for Democrats,” Trump transition spokeswoman Katie Miller said in an email to The New Yorker. Times.

He appeared to be referring to a post the president-elect made on his Truth Social network, listing people his allies won’t hire. The article did not name any Democrats — most of those listed were Republicans or former Trump appointees who have criticized Mr. Trump in the past — but ended up banning “people affected by Trump “Derangement Syndrome”.

Mr. Eisen served as White House ethics officer under President Barack Obama. Ms. Canter served as a lawyer for Mr. Obama and President Bill Clinton. They recently formed a non-profit organization, the State Democracy Defenders Fund, which aims to monitor the actions of the cost-cutting effort, nicknamed DOGE, after an Internet meme. Earlier, the nonprofit had submitted a public records request to federal agencies, seeking details about questions it had received from Mr. Musk and Mr. Ramaswamy so far.

If appointed to a successful project, Mr. Eisen and Ms. Canter said they would be able to be home guards, guarding their work against conflicts of interest. Both Mr. Musk, the world’s richest man, and billionaire Mr. Ramaswamy have businesses that stand to benefit financially from changes in federal policy.

Although Mr. Trump has said the effort will lead to massive savings and reforms, the agency’s role is merely to make recommendations. Only Congress can make a decision.

The two activists also said they could help defend the agency against charges it violated the Federal Advisory Committee Act — a 1972 law that requires independent labor committees to government to “balance the views expressed.”

Two leaders from another watchdog group, Citizens, made a similar request to join the cost-cutting effort earlier this week.

So far, it has not been accepted, said the co-president of the Citizens’ Association, Lisa Gilbert, on Thursday.