Trump Embraces Musk Plan for Commission to Cut Government Spending

During his interview with Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump last month, Tesla CEO Elon Musk suggested he could serve in a potential Trump administration on a "government efficiency commission" that would be tasked with cutting government spending.

On Thursday, the former president publicly said he would give Musk what he'd asked for, announcing at the New York Economic Club that he would set up a commission that would conduct "a complete financial and performance audit of the entire federal government and making recommendations for drastic reforms."

He said Musk had agreed to lead the commission "if he has the time," and added that the panel would develop plans to eliminate "fraud" and "wasteful" spending.

Trump detailed several other economic proposals—including drastically lowering the corporate tax rate to 15% after cutting it to 21% from 35% in his first term—and eliminating 10 existing federal regulations for every regulation his administration introduced.

But the former president didn't provide specifics about how the government efficiency commission would identify inefficiencies and waste, or determine what government spending needed to be cut.

Trump suggested the commission would provide a course correction following President Joe Biden's administration, saying, "We have an economy in crisis, a failing nation, and a nation in serious decline under the radical policies of my former opponent, Joe Biden, and my new opponent, [Vice President] Kamala Harris."

Biden's signature actions including the signing of the Inflation Reduction Act, which has provided 3.4 million Americans with $8.4 million in tax credits to lower the cost of clean energy; negotiated down the costs of popular medications for Medicare beneficiaries; and recovered over $1 billion from wealthy people who had avoided paying their taxes. The administration has also recently invested $76 million in cleaning up pollution and $7.3 billion in electrifying rural communities.

Washington Post reporter Jeff Stein noted that budget experts across the political spectrum have expressed skepticism that Trump could cut "trillions" of dollars in government spending "without hurting millions of Americans."

"If Trump is so confident he can do this," said Stein, "why punt to a commission that only gets formed after the election? One way to convince the country that a Trump-Musk commission could identify trillions of federal programs to cut would be to publicly identify... any of them? Trump has been running for election or president for eight years. Where are the trillions of dollars in 'waste' to cut that he believes exist?"

Everett Kelley, national president of the American Federation of Government Employees, said the real goal of Trump and Musk—a major backer of the former president's campaign—is to "get rid of the apolitical civil service, fire hundreds of thousands of dedicated public servants, and replace them with a corrupt spoils system where government workers are hired and fired based on their loyalty to Donald Trump."

“Elon Musk and Donald Trump care about one thing: lining their own pockets. Not government efficiency, and certainly not making things better for everyday Americans," said Kelley, noting that Musk has been found guilty of violating federal labor laws at Tesla and that both men in their recent interview "bragged about firing striking Americans fighting for a better life."

Musk and other billionaires are backing Trump, said the pro-labor media organization More Perfect Union, because "he plans to give them what they want."