WASHINGTON – Former President Donald Trump said Thursday he would create a government efficiency commission to audit the entire federal government, an idea suggested by billionaire Elon Musk, who would lead it.
The commission is the latest attention-grabbing alliance between Trump and Musk, who leads companies including Tesla and SpaceX and has become an increasingly vocal supporter of Trump's bid to return to the White House.
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The Republican presidential nominee claimed that in 2022, “fraud and improper payments alone cost taxpayers an estimated hundreds of billions of dollars.” He said the commission would recommend “drastic reforms" and develop a plan to eliminate fraud and improper payments within six months, which he said would save trillions of dollars.
“We need to do it," Trump said. “Can't go on the way we are now.”
Trump also promised to cut 10 government regulations for every new regulation implemented if he's elected in November.
He announced the plans in a speech to the Economic Club of New York, a group of executives and industry leaders, where he also unveiled proposals to slash regulations and boost energy production, embrace cryptocurrencies and drastically cut government spending as well as corporate taxes for companies that produce in the U.S.
“I look forward to serving America if the opportunity arises,” Musk wrote on X, the social media platform he owns. “No pay, no title, no recognition is needed.”
The former president and Musk discussed a role for the entrepreneur in a second Trump administration during a streamed conversation on X last month.
“You’re the greatest cutter,” Trump told Musk then. “I need an Elon Musk — I need somebody that has a lot of strength and courage and smarts. I want to close up the Department of Education, move education back to the states.”
Trump and Musk, two of the world’s most powerful men, have shifted from being bitter rivals to unlikely allies over the span of one election season.
Musk, who described himself as a “moderate Democrat” until recently, suggested in 2022 that Trump was too old to be president again. Still, Musk formally endorsed Trump two days after his assassination attempt last month.
Presidents have made various efforts to reform government over the years, including the National Partnership for Reinventing Government created during Bill Clinton's presidency, which was headed by then-Vice President Al Gore. It aimed to simplify the federal bureaucracy, cut costs and make agencies more responsive to the public.