What Elon Musk could learn from Roosevelt’s Keep Commission

President-elect Trump has appointed billionaire businessman Elon Musk to lead a federal efficiency commission with former presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy. And Musk sees inefficiency everywhere.

“Fire in any direction,” he told an online town hall meeting weeks before the election, “and you’re going to hit a target.”

But austerity need not be the recipe for reform. In 1905, after Theodore Roosevelt won re-election, he appointed the first presidential commission on efficiency. It, too, was led by a wealthy businessman, and its recommendations offer a reasonable blueprint for Musk and Trump.

After his 1904 landslide victory, Theodore Roosevelt asked New York banker Charles Keep to investigate government waste, personnel management, procurement, accounting practices, and inter-agency communication. Better known as the Keep Commission, it uncovered widespread inefficiencies.

Nearly every government department had different procedures. Audits became overly complicated. No one took responsibility for government failures. Costs ran wildly over budget. Lax oversight led to profiteering or nepotism and unproductive staff stayed in jobs they were unfit to hold.

The Keep Commission made hundreds of improvements. Technology hastened the work of government employees. Accountants were issued calculators and introduced bookkeeping methods that conformed to best practices in the private sector.

Telephones made inter-agency communication easier. The administration standardized procurement procedures, printing restrictions, and record keeping. This made departments more transparent and slashed expenditures. It saved the government millions.

Perhaps most importantly, the Keep Commission utilized a carrot-and-stick approach to personnel management. Older staff were offered retirement options to make way for younger, innovative wonks. Departments set productivity quotas and efficiency ratings that allowed managers to reassign or terminate employees unable to meet the targets.

The commission called for mobility within government agencies, to transfer staff with high proficiency to underperforming offices. Finally, it recommended higher salaries to attract labor from the private sector.

The commission had itself been organized for efficiency. Hundreds of experts voluntarily joined dozens of panels to redesign government operations. Several worked for no compensation, attending meetings in their free time. They did so with a steadfast belief in the government’s power to serve the American people.

The Keep Commission also offers a few historical warnings to Trump and Musk.

Deep cuts to government programs like Social Security and Medicare risk public backlash. These programs did not exist in Roosevelt’s time, but his administration managed public relations in such a way as to make a virtue of efficiency measures. Social Security and Medicare have overwhelming support among voters and Trump could see his coalition diminish overnight with an outright attack on these programs.

Second, the Keep Commission found powerful enemies within Congress. Roosevelt attempted to bypass the legislature by implementing reforms by executive order.

Senators and representatives reacted by cutting funding to the commission and restricting experts from volunteering their time. Agency bureaucrats who were embarrassed by the commission’s reports also balked. They ignored the president’s executive orders and stonewalled on reform.

All of this should sound familiar. Project 2025, and the Republican platform have made bureaucratic reform a priority. And although efficiency is not a sexy topic, it almost certainly played a small role in Donald Trump’s 2024 victory. It unites Americans and could have significant benefits. Everyone wants the federal government to cut red tape, operate economically, and deliver services reliably. Both sides of the aisle can agree on that.

But in the quest for efficiency, a Musk-led commission could take aim at beloved programs like Social Security. It could run afoul of democratic traditions like the separation of powers. The Trump administration should avoid overstepping. As Roosevelt discovered, the sweet spot is somewhere in the middle.

Michael Patrick Cullinane is the Lowman Walton Chair of Theodore Roosevelt Studies at Dickinson State University and a public historian of the Theodore Roosevelt Association.