NEW YORK \u2014 Former president Donald Trump formally endorsed a government spending commission that could give Elon Musk broad responsibilities for auditing federal spending and regulations \u2014 a move that reflects a tightening political alliance between the two men with less than nine weeks left until Election Day.<\/p>\n
Trump\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis commission will develop an action plan to totally eliminate fraud and improper payments within six months,\u201d Trump said.<\/p>\n
Trump said the new commission would save \u201ctrillions of dollars \u2014 trillions. It\u2019s massive. For the same service we have right now.\u201d 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.<\/p>\n
Trump said Musk has \u201cagreed to head the task force\u201d and credited him for the recommendation of the panel. Musk didn\u2019t immediately respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n
Musk, who is also a Tesla and Space X executive, endorsed the former president after he was slightly wounded in an attempted assassination in Butler, Pa. Musk has used his social media platform to try to help Trump in ways that have prompted concern from some critics. He recently attacked Trump\u2019s rival, Vice President Kamala Harris, and posted a fake image depicting Harris as a communist, echoing Trump\u2019s disparaging nickname for her, \u201cComrade Kamala.\u201d He falsely claimed in a message accompanying the fabricated image: \u201cKamala vows to be a communist dictator on day one. Can you believe she wears that outfit!?\u201d<\/p>\n
The image appeared to violate X\u2019s own policies on manipulated content, which state that any \u201cmedia that is significantly and deceptively altered, manipulated, or fabricated\u201d must either be labeled or removed. Days after sharing the image, however, Musk\u2019s original post was still circulating, with nearly 83 million views Thursday.<\/p>\n
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\u2019s allies have also poured millions into America PAC, a pro-Trump super PAC.<\/p>\n
Musk helped create the super PAC, which had raised $8.7 million as of 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.<\/p>\n
Musk\u2019s growing role in Trump\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n
Now, the growing ties between Musk and Trump are set to be cemented through a governing body that would likely put Musk at the center of U.S. 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.<\/p>\n
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\u2019s tax cuts would likely still increase the national debt, even with new revenue from his plan to massively increase tariff duties.)<\/p>\n
Trump aide Brian Hughes told reporters before Trump\u2019s speech on Thursday that Musk \u201chas literally made history-changing work,\u201d building more efficient systems and that the former president is excited by the possibility of appointing the Tesla CEO to the position.<\/p>\n
\u201cHow that commission ultimately gets staffed and directed is yet to come but what I think you\u2019ll hear today is a reaffirmation that 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,\u201d Hughes said.<\/p>\n
In a post on X Thursday, Musk said he looks forward to \u201cserving America if the opportunity arises.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNo pay, no title, no recognition is needed,\u201d he said in a message to his roughly 196 million followers, referencing the commission.<\/p>\n
But Musk\u2019s 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\u2019s marketing of its driver-assistance technologies. Musk has also been critical of Biden\u2019s electric vehicle subsidies, which he has said benefit his competitors more than Tesla.<\/p>\n
Steve Moore, who pitched the former president on the idea, said Musk would be \u201cabsolutely perfect\u201d 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.<\/p>\n
Last month, Musk hosted a conversation with Trump on X that was initially marred by technical errors. The conversation, described as \u201cunscripted with no limits on subject matter\u201d mainly stuck to topics that Trump appeared comfortable with. Musk praised the former president for his response to the attempted assassination, telling him, \u201cYou can\u2019t fake bravery under such circumstances.\u201d<\/p>\n
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 Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol. While Trump has posted on the site occasionally, he still primarily uses Truth Social.<\/p>\n
Stein reported from Washington and Thadani from San Francisco.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
NEW YORK \u2014 Former president Donald Trump formally endorsed a government spending commission that could give Elon Musk broad responsibilities for auditing federal spending and regulations \u2014 a move that reflects a tightening political alliance between the two men with less than nine weeks left until Election Day. Trump\u2019s advisers have discussed the commission for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":9042,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9041","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9041","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9041"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9041\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9042"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9041"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9041"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9041"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}