During a speech at the Economic Club of New York, 2024 Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump announced that billionaire Elon Musk would serve as chairman of the Government Efficiency Commission if he is elected to a second term in November.
Trump told the audience that Musk had agreed to lead a new committee charged with auditing and reforming finances and performance across the federal government.
“I'm thrilled with the proposal from Elon Musk, who has my full support. He's a smart guy. He knows what he's doing. He knows what he's doing! I'm very, very grateful,” Trump said. “I'm going to create a Government Efficiency Commission tasked with conducting a full financial and performance audit of the entire federal government and recommending fundamental changes. We need to do that. We can't continue as we are.”
“Elon's not that busy,” Trump joked, “so that would be interesting. If he had the time! He'd be well-suited to do it. But he agreed to do it.”
It's happening – Trump Elon Musk “A Government Efficiency Commission tasked with conducting a full financial and performance audit of the entire Federal Government and recommending fundamental reforms.”
Elon fired 90% of Twitter and now he'll help fire… pic.twitter.com/Te2hrWoHJQ
— DC_Draino (@DC_Draino) September 5, 2024
Trump claimed that Musk's government efficiency commission would crack down on “fraud and improper payments” within six months. The former president said the commission would go after wasteful spending, tackle inflation and bring down prices. (Related article: ABC clashes with major networks, millions could miss Trump-Harris debate)
“Fraud and improper payments alone will cost taxpayers an estimated hundreds of billions of dollars in 2022. As a first step, this committee will develop an action plan within six months to completely eliminate fraud and improper payments. This will save trillions of dollars. Trillions of dollars. A huge amount of money. Trillions of dollars wasted on the same services we have today and no one knows where they went. We will further reduce inflation and significantly lower prices,” Trump said.
Trump told Reuters on August 19 that he would consider bringing Musk into his cabinet or as an adviser, praising the man who bought and revamped the company after Trump was banned from Twitter as “brilliant” and “a very smart guy.”
“I'd be happy to oblige,” Musk wrote in response to President Trump's Aug. 19 remarks about X.
I am ready to serve pic.twitter.com/BJhGbcA2e0
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 20, 2024
mask Approved Shortly after the assassination attempt at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, in which former President Trump was grazed by a bullet in his ear, the Tesla CEO reportedly said he plans to donate about $45 million per month to American PAC, a super political action committee (PAC) formed to advance Trump's election prospects.
