Washington | Billionaire Elon Musk and former presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy rushed through the Capitol’s crowded corridors on Thursday (Friday AEDT) where they held closed-door “brainstorming” sessions with powerful Republicans on how to slash $US2 trillion ($3.1 trillion) in government spending.

While the two men who will co-lead a Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) in the next administration took aim at electric vehicle subsidies and worked on other cost-cutting plans, another billionaire, Palmer Luckey, was also in the building to advance his quest to reduce government regulation.