WASHINGTON, Nov 12 (Reuters) - U.S. President-elect

Donald Trump said on Tuesday Elon Musk and former Republican

presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy will lead the newly

created Department of Government Efficiency.

Musk and Ramaswamy "will pave the way for my Administration

to dismantle Government Bureaucracy, slash excess regulations,

cut wasteful expenditures, and restructure Federal Agencies,"

Trump said in a statement.

Trump said their work would conclude by July 4, 2026, adding

that a smaller and more efficient government would be a "gift"

to the country on the 250th anniversary of the signing of the

Declaration of Independence.

The appointments reward two Trump supporters from the

private sector.

Musk leads electric car company Tesla, social media

platform X and rocket company SpaceX, while Ramaswamy is the

founder of a pharmaceutical company who ran for the Republican

presidential nomination against Trump and then threw his support

behind the former president after dropping out.

Musk gave millions of dollars to support Trump's

presidential campaign and made public appearances with him.

Trump had said he would offer Musk, the world's richest person,

a role in his administration promoting government efficiency.

The acronym of the new department - DOGE - coincides with

the name of the cryptocurrency Dogecoin that Musk promotes.

"This will send shockwaves through the system, and anyone

involved in government waste, which is a lot of people!" Musk

said, according to Trump's statement, which called the new

government initiative "potentially 'The Manhattan Project' of

our time," referring to the U.S. plan to build the atomic bomb

that helped end World War Two.