Trump wants to bring small government back: Will it be with a bang or whimper?

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Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. The idea of ‘small government’ has long held totemic appeal on the American Right, especially after Ronald Reagan ran a charm offensive in the 1980s to reposition government as a problem rather than solution.

But could it be in for ‘huuuge’ action, to borrow a favourite word of Donald Trump, once US leadership goes Republican again in 2025? It was typical of Trump, who’s set to take charge as US president on 20 January, to give his downsizing agenda the sound and fury of an atomic explosion. A proposed Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), co-led by billionaire Elon Musk and biotech success Vivek Ramaswamy, is expected to help “dismantle government bureaucracy, slash excess regulations, cut wasteful expenditures and restructure federal agencies" in what Trump called the Manhattan Project of our time, citing Musk as saying it’ll send “shockwaves through the system." This comparison with America’s 1940s scramble for nukes may seem over-the-top, but where this scale-back of the state leads the US would be of interest to policymakers around the globe.

Especially in India, where the ideal size of government remains an unsettled debate. In Musk’s view, $2 trillion can be shaven off the US federal budget, estimated at $6.8 trillion for the year till 30 September.

Can it? Even though DOGE wants to hire “super-high-IQ small-government revolutionaries," it looks like a pie-in-the-sky ambition—a Mars-shot of sorts. After all, America’s welfare outlay of nearly $3 trillion can hardly be squeezed without a social upheaval, $950 billion must go into debt pay-backs, and the rest—the discretionary part—includes $850 billion for Uncle Sam’s defence, which enjoys exalted status too.