Rahm Emanuel, who currently serves as U.S. ambassador to Japan, advised that Democrats should “welcome” President-elect Trump’s newly created “Department of Government Efficiency” (DOGE).
“I would say welcome it. And I would say 100 percent ready to meet with you, so let’s go and have a full agenda that puts them on their back foot,” Emanuel told New York Times columnist Ezra Klein in an interview Monday.
“And they have to make a choice between what they say they’re for and what their actual interests are,” he added.
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Emanuel, whose name has been floated as a potential candidate in the upcoming race for Democratic National Committee (DNC) chair, also referenced a quote from baseball star Yogi Berra.
“The part of a political strategy is you put people in, as Yogi Berra used to say, where you get to the fork in the road, take it,” The former Chicago mayor said, per the Times report. “And so that’s what would be my approach. Not fight it.”
“People want to reform something, change something. I’m 100 percent for it. Let’s go. Couldn’t be more excited. Ready to meet today,” said Emanuel, former President Obama’s ex-chief of staff, adding that he would have a “full agenda, 10 items, that is proactive” prepared.
Biotech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy and Tesla CEO Elon Musk, tapped by Trump to lead DOGE, have said the panel will identify “thousands” of regulations for the president-elect to eliminate, which they argue will justify “mass head-count reductions” across government. Trump has also said that it will “provide advice and guidance” from outside of government.
However, some experts have signaled that the panel could face an uphill battle given its seemingly advisory role.
Earlier in the interview, Emanuel pointed to former Vice President Al Gore’s 1993 commission in the Clinton administration, dubbed the National Partnership for Reinventing Government, as an example of how Democrats could approach government reform.
“It worked on reforming government. It also worked on funding public safety and other initiatives that Democrats cared about,” he said. “We should be against government rules.”