WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Donald Trump has tasked Elon Musk with setting up a panel to streamline the U.S. government. Although the president-elect has said little about how this group would operate, Musk has previously set an ambitious goal of cutting $2 trillion of spending.

Former Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy will co-lead the newly created department that Trump indicated will operate outside the confines of government.

Among a blizzard of announcements on Tuesday, the president-elect said he had chosen Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, two of his most prominent wealthy backers, to lead what is being called the Department of Government Efficiency.

Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy — the pharmaceutical mogul and former Republican presidential hopeful — have been picked to lead a brand new agency tasked with "large scale structural reform" of the federal government.

U.S. President-Elect Donald Trump said on Thursday that a government efficiency panel headed up by billionaire Tesla CEO Elon Musk will issue reports in its work to streamline the U.S. government. "They will be coming out with individual reports and a big one at the end,

Donald Trump has announced that Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, a former presidential candidate and ally of Trump, will lead a new "Department of Government Efficiency."

Trump and Musk are first known to have met privately last year when they discussed a potential buyout of the Truth Social platform, according to The Washington Pos