Elon Musk is a Trump win away from serious federal power

“At the suggestion of Elon Musk,” Trump said, “I will create a government-efficiency commission tasked with conducting a complete financial and performance audit of the entire federal government and making recommendations for drastic reforms.”

This idea partly stems from a conversation Musk and Trump recently had on Spaces, a livestream service hosted on X. Musk said he’d “be happy to help out” on a government-efficiency commission, to which Trump responded that he’d “love it” for that to happen.

On Tuesday, in a response to a post on X that said Trump was considering the Tesla CEO for a role in auditing government agencies, Musk said: “I can’t wait. There is a lot of waste and needless regulation in government that needs to go.”

Musk has clashed with the government on several issues, including a Securities and Exchange Commission investigation into his purchase of Twitter.

It’s unclear how big of a role Musk would actually have should Trump win the election — Trump said on “The Shawn Ryan Show” last week that Musk most likely couldn’t serve in the Cabinet given that he’s “running big businesses and all that.”

However, Trump said on Thursday that “Elon, because he’s not very busy, has agreed to head that task force,” adding, “He’ll be a good one to do it.”

Still, Trump has favored the idea of tackling government spending. The Washington Post recently reported that Trump’s advisors wanted to bring in corporate leaders to help identify excess spending.

While details of what Trump’s commission would look like are minimal, the Post reported that Steve Moore, a former Trump advisor, said it used former President Ronald Reagan’s Grace Commission as a framework. Established in 1982, that commission focused on “draining the swamp” — in other words, eliminating government inefficiency.

The commission released a report in 1984 saying that if the government followed its recommendations it could save $424 billion in three years, but Congress didn’t end up adopting many of those recommendations.

Trump also described policies to address inflation and economic issues, including imposing broad tariffs on China and ensuring Social Security benefits aren’t taxed.

“I am promising low taxes, low regulations, low energy costs, low interest rates, secure borders, low, low, low crime, and surging incomes for citizens of every race, religion, color, and creed,” Trump said.

The event deepened Trump’s ties to Musk

Musk and Trump have had a rocky relationship, though the tech titan has grown closer to the former president in recent months.

Before the 2016 election, Musk told CNBC that Trump was the wrong fit for the presidency. He later served on economic advisory councils but resigned in protest of Trump’s environmental views. By 2020, the pair were growing closer as Trump expressed support for Musk amid the Tesla CEO’s fight with California public-health officials over COVID-19 policies.

After purchasing Twitter in 2022, Musk signaled that he would welcome Trump back to the platform that had paved his way to the presidency but barred him in the wake of the Capitol riot. Trump and Musk exchanged barbs throughout that year, but the Tesla CEO asserted increasingly conservative views. Just before the 2022 midterm elections, Musk encouraged people to vote for Republicans.

Musk and other Silicon Valley titans initially lined up behind Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida ahead of the 2024 GOP primary season. But after DeSantis flamed out, it became clear Trump would once again be the GOP’s nominee. Musk, the world’s richest man, claimed he wouldn’t donate to either candidate. Later it was revealed that he had seeded millions of dollars to help set up a pro-Trump super PAC. Musk endorsed Trump after the former president survived an assassination attempt in July.

Trump has since hinted that Musk could join his administration. Musk has also teed off on Vice President Kamala Harris, sharing an AI-generated image that showed her in communist garb.