Trump backs plan that would give Elon Musk broad role in US policymaking

New York: Former president Donald Trump formally endorsed a government spending commission that could give corporate executive Elon Musk broad responsibilities for auditing federal spending and regulations, in a move that reflects a tightening political alliance between the two men with less than nine weeks before election day.

Trump’s advisers have discussed the commission for months, and Musk has publicly expressed interest in it on X, the social media platform he owns. Trump, the Republican presidential nominee, expressed his support during a speech in New York on Thursday.

Former president Donald Trump and Tesla and X chief executive Elon Musk.Credit: AP

“This commission will develop an action plan to totally eliminate fraud and improper payments within six months,” Trump said.

Trump said the new commission would save “trillions of dollars – trillions. It’s massive. For the same service we have right now.” Budget experts have said it is possible a commission could identify tens of billions or possibly hundreds of billions of dollars in government spending cuts, but that it is not credible to imagine the commission cutting trillions of dollars without severely affecting federal services.

Trump said Musk had “agreed to head the taskforce” and credited him for recommending the panel. Musk didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

Musk, who is also a Tesla and Space X executive, endorsed the former president after Trump was wounded in an attempted assassination in Butler, Pennsylvania in July. Musk has used his social media platform to try to help Trump in ways that have prompted concern from some critics.

Trump and Musk at the White House in 2017 when the former was president.Credit: AP

He recently attacked Trump’s rival, Vice President Kamala Harris, and posted a fake image depicting Harris as a communist, echoing Trump’s disparaging nickname for her: “comrade Kamala”. Musk falsely claimed in a message accompanying the fabricated image: “Kamala vows to be a communist dictator on day one. Can you believe she wears that outfit!?”

The image appeared to violate X’s own policies on manipulated content, which state that any “media that is significantly and deceptively altered, manipulated, or fabricated” must either be labelled or removed. Days after sharing the image, however, Musk’s original post was still circulating, with nearly 83 million views Thursday.

The close alliance between a major-party presidential nominee and the owner of an influential social media platform stands out, particularly this close to an election and with Musk embroiled in recent controversies. Musk’s allies have also poured millions of dollars into America PAC, a pro-Trump political action committee or fundraising arm.

Musk helped create the super PAC, which had raised $US8.7 million by June 30, according to public filings. Donors include wealthy business executives, such as former Tesla board member Antonio Gracias, Palantir co-founder and Austin-based tech investor Joe Lonsdale, and Sequoia Capital investor Shaun Maguire.

Trump’s team says Musk “has literally made history-changing work”, by building more efficient systems.Credit: Getty Images

Musk’s growing role in Trump’s orbit reflects his broader move to the right, a tack that has sometimes involved promoting fringe conspiracy theories. This past week, Musk posted and then deleted a post referencing an interview that Tucker Carlson did with podcaster Darryl Cooper. That interview received widespread backlash after Cooper promoted falsehoods about World War II and the Nazis.

Now, the growing ties between Musk and Trump are set to be cemented through a proposed governing body that would likely put Musk at the centre of US policymaking if Trump wins a second term. Despite potential conflicts of interest with his sprawling business empire, Musk would either chair or help lead an independent commission that would comb through thousands of federal programs and formally recommend which ones to cut, according to the plan long discussed by Trump and many of his top advisers.

Cuts to government spending would likely need congressional approval, but cuts to government regulations could often be at least attempted by Trump unilaterally, should he win the 2024 election.

Trump advisers have for months eyed the commission as a way to publicly identify billions of dollars of unnecessary federal spending, reprising an idea from the Reagan administration.

The plan has gained traction among Trump advisers as the former president has embraced increasingly aggressive plans to approve trillions of dollars in new tax cuts with no clear proposal for how to pay for them. (Budget experts say the commission could identify hundreds of billions of dollars in cuts, but the former president’s tax cuts would likely still increase the national debt, even with new revenue from his plan to massively increase tariff duties.)

Trump aide Brian Hughes told reporters before Trump’s speech on Thursday that Musk “has literally made history-changing work”, by building more efficient systems and that the former president was excited by the possibility of appointing the Tesla CEO to the position.

“How that commission ultimately gets staffed and directed is yet to come but what I think you’ll hear today is a reaffirmation that [former] president Trump loves the idea and will work with Mr Musk and others to ensure that we have it in place and really analyze the functionality of our government,” Hughes said.

In a post on X on Thursday, Musk said he looked forward to “serving America if the opportunity arises”.

“No pay, no title, no recognition is needed,” he said in a message to his 196 million followers, referencing the commission.

But Musk’s companies have received billions of dollars in federal contracts and other subsidies, and he has been critical of the regulatory push from federal agencies under President Joe Biden. Under Biden, the Justice Department and the Securities and Exchange Commission have advanced investigations into Tesla’s marketing of its driver-assistance technologies. Musk has also been critical of Biden’s electric vehicle subsidies, which the Tesla boss has said benefit his competitors more than company.

Steve Moore, who pitched the former president on the idea, said Musk would be “absolutely perfect” to run the commission. Among the other names that could be considered for the commission are Fred Smith, the former CEO of FedEx, and Robert Nardelli, the former CEO of Home Depot, said two people familiar with the idea, who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

Last month, Musk hosted a conversation with Trump on X that was initially marred by technical errors.

The conversation, described as “unscripted with no limits on subject matter” mainly stuck to topics that Trump appeared comfortable with. Musk praised the former president for his response to the attempted assassination, telling him, “You can’t fake bravery under such circumstances.”

Trump asked Musk last year if he was interested in purchasing Truth Social. Musk reinstated Trump on the X platform in 2022, after the former president was banned following the January 6, 2021 attack on the US Capitol. While Trump has posted on X occasionally, he still primarily uses Truth Social.

Washington Post

Get a note directly from our foreign correspondents on what’s making headlines around the world. Sign up for the weekly What in the World newsletter here.