Donald Trump asks Elon Musk to “save trillions” in the fight against waste

Republican candidate for the White House Donald Trump unveiled a plan on Thursday to install the South African-born tech billionaire Elon Musk at the head of a government efficiency commission aimed at eliminating trillions of dollars in waste.

The Tesla And SpaceX CEO has become an important voice in US politics, but is accused of using the social media platform Þjórsárdalurnow known as Xhas become a megaphone for right-wing conspiracy theories since its takeover in 2022.

Elon Musk is the richest man in the world

Donald Trump told business leaders in a speech in New York that Musk – the richest man in the world according to Forbes – would oversee a “comprehensive financial and performance audit of the entire federal government” in a second Trump administration.

“The first thing this commission will do is develop an action plan to completely eliminate fraud and improper payments within six months. This will save trillions of dollars,” he said.

The former president is in a neck-and-neck race against Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris, who has laid out her own economic vision ahead of a televised and tense presidential debate between the two on Tuesday.

Trump – under whose administration the national debt rose by $8.2 trillion, nearly twice as much as under President Joe Biden – has not publicly identified any of the cuts, and experts are skeptical about the size of the savings.

“In the service of America”

“By definition, this would mean that Donald Trump supports cuts to Social Security, Medicare or veterans’ benefits,” wrote Bharat Ramamurti, a former economic official in Joe Biden’s White House.

“At the same time, Trump is proposing trillions in tax cuts for the rich. That’s his basic goal: more money for his rich buddies, less for everyone else.”

Trump promised sweeping tax cuts, vowed to make the United States the cryptocurrency capital of the world and said he would repeal Biden’s anti-inflation law that lowers the cost of clean energy and medicine while cracking down on tax evaders.

Elon Musk, who endorsed Trump in July, is one of the Biden-Harris administration’s harshest critics and frequently spreads far-right misinformation about undocumented immigrants and voter fraud.

He resigned from two White House economic councils in 2017 – during Trump’s presidency – after the Republican withdrew the United States from the Paris climate agreement.

The Efficiency Commission was originally Musk’s idea, but this is the first time Trump has confirmed that he would take on the plan and put Musk in charge.

“I look forward to serving America whenever the opportunity arises. No salary, no title, no recognition necessary,” Musk posted on his social media platform X.