Small government: Back with a bang or whimper?

Trump's push for a drastic scale-back of the American state could be a test case for others. Get it right, the economy booms. Get too radical, and big-bang reforms could backfire badly

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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 a solution. But could it be in for 'huuuge' action, to borrow a favorite 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 aroun