Republican presidential hopeful Donald Trump on Thursday unveiled a plan to install tech billionaire Elon Musk as head of a government efficiency commission to eliminate “trillions” of dollars in unnecessary spending.
The Tesla and SpaceX CEO has become a prominent voice in American politics but is accused of turning the social media platform Twitter, now known as X, into a megaphone for right-wing conspiracy theories since he acquired it in 2022.
Trump told business executives in a speech in New York that Musk, the world's richest man according to Forbes, would oversee a “complete financial and performance audit of the entire federal government” in a second Trump administration.
“As a first task, this commission will draw up an action plan to completely eliminate fraud and improper payments within six months. This will result in savings of billions of dollars,” he said.
The former president is in a tight race against Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris, who has been laying out her own economic vision ahead of a high-stakes televised presidential debate between the two on Tuesday.
Trump, whose administration oversaw an $8.2 trillion increase in the national debt — nearly double that of President Joe Biden — has not publicly identified any of the savings, and experts are skeptical about their size.
'Serving the United States'
“By definition, this would mean Trump supports cutting Social Security, Medicare or veterans benefits,” wrote Bharat Ramamurti, a former White House economic official under Joe Biden.
“At the same time, Trump is proposing trillions of dollars in tax cuts for the wealthy. That's his fundamental goal: more money for his rich friends, less for everyone else.”
Trump promised sweeping tax cuts, vowed to make the U.S. the cryptocurrency capital of the world and said he would repeal Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act, which lowers the costs of clean energy and drugs while cracking down on tax evaders.
Musk, who endorsed Trump in July, is one of the fiercest critics of the Biden-Harris administration and frequently spreads far-right misinformation about undocumented immigrants and voter fraud.
He resigned from two White House business boards in 2017, during Trump's presidency, after the Republican withdrew the United States from the Paris climate agreement.
The efficiency commission was initially Musk's idea, but this is the first time Trump has confirmed he would adopt the plan and choose Musk to lead it.
“I look forward to serving the United States if the opportunity arises. No salary, no title, no recognition required,” Musk posted on his social media platform, X.
'Disgusting'
As Trump was delivering his remarks, Harris arrived in the crucial state of Pennsylvania, where she will spend five days preparing for next week's presidential debate.
He has no publicly scheduled campaign events and will divide his time between strategizing with advisers, honing his lines of attack and engaging in informal meetings with voters.
Harris' entry into the race six weeks ago boosted enthusiasm among Democrats who were disheartened about Biden's chances against Trump, but both parties are bracing for a close election on Nov. 5.
Pennsylvania, Georgia and a handful of other key states are expected to be decisive, and polls show most of those contests are within the margin of error.
The debate will be the first meeting between Harris and Trump, as the former president refused to attend Biden's inauguration after falsely claiming he had been cheated in the 2020 election.
Harris' meeting in Pennsylvania mirrors Biden's weeklong preparation at Camp David, Maryland, for his calamitous June 27 debate with Trump that effectively ended his presidential campaign.
He has hired consultant Karen Dunn, who led debate prep for Barack Obama in 2012 and Hillary Clinton in 2016, as well as consulting for the TV political thriller “House of Cards.”
Trump, 78, has said he is preparing, as he did against Biden, through talks on the campaign trail and policy discussions with a small circle of advisers.
During an interview with Fox News on Wednesday in Pennsylvania, the Republican baselessly accused the ABC debate host of bias, called the network and one of its star hosts “disgusting” and made unsubstantiated claims that Harris would be shown debate questions in advance.
