Donald Trump says he would tap Elon Musk to lead US government ‘efficiency’ panel
Elon Musk would lead an audit of US government spending under a Trump administration, the Republican presidential candidate says, as Hunter Biden offered a guilty plea in a tax evasion case.
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Donald Trump has announced that if elected president he would appoint billionaire Elon Musk to lead an audit of government spending and implement “drastic” reform.
Mr Trump said that at Musk’s suggestion, he would “create a government efficiency commission tasked with conducting a complete financial and performance audit of the entire federal government,” with the Tesla CEO as its chief.
The 78-year-old, who is known for hyperbole and at times outright fiction, told the Economic Club of New York the effort could save “trillions and trillions of dollars.”
Picture: AFP
“This commission will develop an action plan to totally eliminate fraud and improper payments within six months,” Trump claimed.
Musk – who has said he previously voted for Democratic candidates – has thrown his weight and considerable wealth behind Mr Trump since a gunman tried to assassinate the former president at a rally in July.
He took to X to confirm Trump’s announcement, saying: “This is badly needed”.
This is badly needed https://t.co/H9AKYbDssZ
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) September 5, 2024
Musk has a history of sparring with regulators, as when the Securities and Exchange Commission required vetting of his Twitter posts following 2018 tweets that the agency characterised as “false and misleading.”
Other Musk initiatives, such as his pursuit of autonomous driving technology, also face oversight by government agencies.
Jordan Libowitz, a spokesman for Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics, an NGO, said Mr Trump’s proposal to appoint Musk was still too vague to really know if there is a conflict of interest.
But he said Musk should recuse himself from policy influence on decisions that directly affect his businesses, such as government contracts for SpaceX or policy actions on autonomous driving.
Libowitz also thought it was likely that Musk would need to disclose his financial holdings, which would be made public under US regulations.
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ELECTION NOSTRADAMUS PREDICTS NEXT US PRESIDENT
A historian dubbed the ‘Election Nostradamus’ after correctly predicting nine of the last 10 US presidential elections has forecast Kamala Harris will beat Donalds Trump on November 5.
American University professor Dr Allan Lichtman told Fox 5 that Ms Harris has the advantage in eight “keys”, while Mr Trump has three.
The Keys to the White House is a prediction system for determining the outcome of the US presidential elections, developed by the professor.
It encompasses a 13-point checklist, as per the New York Post:
- Whether the sitting president’s party gained seats in the House during the midterms (Trump)
- Whether the incumbent is running for re-election (Trump)
- Whether the party in the White House is facing a primary (Harris)
- Whether there’s a third-party contestant (Harris)
- The state of the short-term economy (Harris)
- The state of the long-term economy (Harris)
- Whether the sitting president’s party has made adjustments to national policy (Harris)
- Whether there’s social unrest (Harris)
- Whether the president faced major scandals (Harris)
- The charisma of the challenger (Harris)
- The charisma of the incumbent (Trump)
- Whether there were any major fiascos in foreign policy (N/A)
- Whether the sitting president had successes in foreign affairs (N/A)
PUTIN SAYS HE ‘SUPPORTS’ HARRIS FOR US PRESIDENT
Vladimir Putin said he supported Kamala Harris in the upcoming US presidential election just a day after Washington accused Moscow of pampering with the vote.
“Firstly, (US President Joe) Biden recommended all his supporters support Mrs Harris,” the Russian president said during a Q&A session at Russia’s Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok.
“Here, we are going to do that too, we’re going to support her,” he added with a wry smile.
“She laughs so contagiously that it shows that everything is fine with her,’” he said, sparking laughter among those in attendance.
“(Former US President Donald) Trump has imposed as many sanctions on Russia as any president has ever imposed before, and if Harris is doing well, perhaps she will refrain from such actions.”
His comments come a day after the US accused two employees of Russia’s RT of seeking to influence the election and imposed sanctions on top editors of the state-funded news outlet.
HUNTER BIDEN OFFERS GUILTY PLEA TO TAX EVASION
Joe Biden’s son Hunter offered to plead guilty in his tax evasion trial, as jury selection was about to get under way in a case that has been an embarrassment and a distraction for the US president.
The 54-year-old is accused of failing to pay $1.4 million in taxes over the past decade, splurging the money instead on luxury living, sex workers and a drug habit.
A trial had been expected to re-hash sordid details of a life that the defendant and his family – including the president – have long acknowledged had gone off the rails.
But on Thursday morning local time as US District Judge Mark Scarsi was readying to oversee the selection of a jury, Biden’s lawyers said their client was prepared to plead guilty.
Lawyer Abbe Lowell said Biden was willing to enter a guilty plea, although he would continue to maintain his innocence.
A so-called “Alford Plea” is offered when a defendant acknowledges a trial would likely result in a guilty verdict, even while he insists he is not culpable.
It was not immediately clear if the plea would apply to all nine tax-related counts – three felonies and six misdemeanours – of failing to pay taxes.
Scarsi declared a recess that will allow prosecutors to discuss the move, and the court is expected to reconvene later Thursday.
Biden has already spent a chunk of 2024 in court, having been convicted in Delaware of lying about his drug use when he bought a gun – a felony.
‘LIKE 1929’: TRUMP’S DIRE ECONOMIC WARNING
Donald Trump has warned the US is headed towards “WWIII territory” and a depression “like 1929” if Kamala Harris is elected president.
“We’re heading into WWIII territory, and because of the power of weapons, nuclear weapons in particular, but other weapons also, and I know the weapons better than anybody because I’m the one that bought them,” the 78-year-old Republican presidential candidate said during a town hall in the battleground state of Pennsylvania.
Mr Trump claimed Hamas’s attack October 7 attack on Israel in which 1200 people were killed and triggered Israel’s assault on Gaza “would have never happened if I were the president”.
The 78-year-old also warned the US would suffer a depression “like 1929” if Ms Harris becomes president.
“So I gave you the biggest tax cuts in the history of our country. If you let them. If you let the Trump tax cuts expire, which she wants to do, she wants to terminate them. If you do that, you will suffer the biggest tax increase in history,” he said.
“There’s never been a tax increase like it on top of which she wants to add a lot of tax. This country will end up and I’ve said this a lot and I mean it. This country will end up in a depression if she becomes president. Like 1929, this will be a 1929 depression. She has no idea what the hell she’s doing,” he added.
Mr Trump blasted Ms Harris on immigration arguing “she was in charge of the border” as illegal immigration spiked to record levels.
“She wants open borders. Now she’s all of a sudden said, oh, I think we’re closing the borders. She was the border czar, whether you like it or not, but even if you don’t want to use that term. She was in charge of the border,” he said.
He added: “It’s the worst border in the history of the world, not just here. There’s never been a country that allowed 21 million people to come in over a three-year period. There’s never been. And 21 million people, many of whom are from prisons, many of whom are murderers and drug dealers and child traffickers.”
The former US president labelled Ms Harris “dangerous” after she switched her position on fracking.
“She wants no fracking. And she said it 100 times there will be no fracking. There will be no fracking. There will be no fracking. Then just recently she said yes, I could prove fracking. Look, this is this is a woman who is dangerous,” Trump said.
When asked about a high school shooting in Georgia earlier in the day which left two students and two teachers dead, Mr Trump said he would “heal our world”.
“It’s a sick and angry world for a lot of reasons and we’re going to make it better,” he said, adding, “We’re going to heal our world. We’re going to get rid of all these wars that are starting all over the place because of incompetence … we’re going to make it better.”
HARRIS AGREES TO DEBATE RULES
Ms Harris agreed to the final rules for an ABC News Debate against Mr Trump while reportedly receiving a few “assurances” from the network.
ABC News released the official rules for the debate, set to take place September 10, which includes a rule that microphones will be muted while the other candidate is speaking.
According to a CNN report, Ms Harris agreed to the rules after receiving “assurances” that mics could be turned on during the debate and that moderators would be able to explain unheard exchanges.
“ABC News has offered assurances to the Harris campaign that if there is significant cross talk between Harris and Trump, the network may choose to turn on the mics so that the public can understand what is happening, the moderator would discourage either candidate from interrupting constantly and the moderator would also work to explain to viewers what is being said, according to the source familiar,” CNN reported.
RUSSIA ACCUSED OF RECRUITING US INFLUENCERS TO SWAY VOTES
The United States indicted two employees of Russia’s RT and imposed sanctions on top editors of the state-funded news outlet, accusing them of seeking to influence the 2024 US presidential election.
Attorney General Merrick Garland also announced the seizure of 32 internet domains that were part of an alleged campaign “to secure Russia’s preferred outcome,” which US officials have said would be Donald Trump winning the November vote.
“We have no tolerance for attempts by authoritarian regimes to exploit our democratic system of government,” Garland said at a meeting of the Justice Department’s Election Threats Task Force.
“We will be relentlessly aggressive in countering and disrupting attempts by Russia and Iran – as well as China or any other foreign malign actor – to interfere in our elections,” he said.
The 10 individuals and two entities sanctioned by the Treasury Department include RT editor-in-chief Margarita Simonyan and her deputy Elizaveta Brodskaia.
Simonyan was a “central figure in Russian government malign influence efforts,” the Treasury Department said, while Brodskaia “reported to Russian President (Vladimir) Putin and other government officials.”
Garland said two Russia-based RT employees – Kostiantyn Kalashnikov, 31, and Elena Afanasyeva, 27, have been indicted in New York for money laundering and violating the Foreign Agents Registration Act.
They are accused of funnelling $10 million to a Tennessee-based company that used social media influencers “to create and distribute content to US audiences with hidden Russian government messaging,” Garland said.
The US firm, which was not identified, published English-language videos on multiple social media channels, including TikTok, Instagram, X, and YouTube, according to the indictment.
“The company never disclosed to the influencers – or to their millions of followers- its ties to RT and the Russian government,” Garland said.
RT, in a reaction on its Telegram channel, dismissed the US allegations calling them “hackneyed cliches.”
“Three things in life are inevitable: death, taxes and ‘RT’s interference in American elections,’” said RT, formerly known as Russia Today.
‘WEARS A GIRDLE’: FORMER STAFFER SPILLS ON TRUMP
Donald Trump’s former communications director has revealed the Republican presidential nominee wears a girdle, puts lifts in his shoes to appear taller and won’t be photographed from the side to hide his weight.
Speaking to ABC’s 7.30, Anthony Scaramucci, who lasted just 11 days in the job before being fired by Mr Trump, said the former US President’s “hypermasculinity is a tell for how insecure the guy actually is”.
Asked by journalist Sarah Ferguson whether rumours Mr Trump wore a girdle were true, Mr Scaramucci said, “On certain days, yes.”
“You know, he’s an image-oriented guy, he’s a television entertainer, he hates taking pictures of him from the side because he just looks too fat from the side – he likes to take pictures head on,” Mr Scaramucci said.
“He spends a lot of time on his hair – it’s sort of a weave-thing that he does up there, and he’s got a certain orange warpaint that he wears, he’s got two inch heels, lifts in his shoes even though he’s a reasonably tall person.
“There’s an insecurity there, and the hypermasculinity is a tell for how insecure the guy actually is.”
Mr Scaramucci said the upcoming US election had been turned on its head since US President Joe Biden stepped down as the Democratic candidate and Vice President Kamala Harris took his place, with Ms Harris a genuine chance of defeating Mr Trump, forcing the former president to pivot his attack plan.
“I think he’s been shaken by her but I think he’s a very adaptive guy,” Mr Scaramucci said.
“He hasn’t been able to find that yet because he was fixated on Joe Biden. He was fixated at being the younger of the two candidates in the race, and he’s also been imperilled by the demography.
“You’ve had this great demographic recirculation, so when he calls [Kamala Harris] stupid and he says she turned Black, and all this sort of nonsense, baby boomers were conditioned to deal with that, but the generation Zs, they don’t like it at all.”
Mr Scaramucci said he’s afraid a second Trump term will not only see his former boss pull out of NATO, he would do much more to enable Russian President Vladimir Putin, saying the former president’s “malevolence” and “cruelty” could be costly to the United States and the world.
“There are three big dangers,” Mr Scaramucci told 7.30. “The first danger is that he wants to destabilise the current world order, so he’ll roll back the WWII rules-based society, which, at least in North America and in Europe, is NATO,” he said, saying what Mr Trump stands for and represents is dangerous.
“You can’t have the Statue of Liberty in New York Harbour, and you can’t have Lincoln talking at the Lincoln Douglas debates about it being the last best place for all mankind and the need for all of us to suppress our tribal instincts and unify, and then have Trump,” he said.
“He’s an anti-American presidential candidate.”
A self-described lifelong Republican, Mr Scaramucci has described it as now being “a Trumpist party”, with the Trump having a group of hard right acolytes.
“He’s not an ideological person himself, but he’s now adhered to ideological people.”
Mr Scaramucci said the Republican Party would one day face a day of reckoning over the Trump era.
“What I don’t understand and I think people will write about 50 years from now, is that we just had a group of political cowards who couldn’t stand up to the guy, I don’t understand, what were they fearful of?” Mr Scaramucci said.
“Maybe it’s just they want to stay in power more than they wanted to serve the public – maybe that’s what it is.”
– with AFP
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Originally published as Donald Trump says he would tap Elon Musk to lead US government ‘efficiency’ panel