Member-only story

Trump Administration, Government

Trump Proposes a New Federal Agency

Has he cleared this with President Musk?

John Dean
Dean’s List
Published in
2 min readJan 14, 2025

--

Photo by Captain Albert E. Theberge, NOAA via Wikimedia Commons.

Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy are hard at work identifying ways to reduce government spending by $2 trillion (now $1 trillion, says Mr. Musk). The effort is a top priority of Donald Trump, who has created the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), a non-governmental entity.

With Musk and Ramaswamy in mind, I was surprised to see a post by Donald Trump announcing his intention to create a new federal agency, the “External Revenue Service.”

Screen Capture Truth Social

What would the new agency cost? Is it necessary? And most importantly, will Donald Trump’s tariff proposal work?

Donald Trump has suggested that his tariff proposal could raise sufficient revenues to allow for the repeal of personal income taxes. That is unlikely to happen, says Erica York, senior economist and research director at the right-leaning Tax Foundation.

York told CNN:

Imports are a much smaller tax base than taxable income, and there’s no way to…

--

--

Dean’s List
Dean’s List

Published in Dean’s List

Dean’s List publishes information and opinion on politics, culture, the arts and life. Civility is a requirement. We cherish diversity, empathy, honesty, and kindness.

John Dean
John Dean

Written by John Dean

Writing on politics, photography, nature, the environment, dogs, and, occasionally, humor. Editor of Dean’s List.

Responses (18)