Former President Donald Trump announced Thursday that if re-elected, he plans to adopt billionaire Elon Musk’s plan for a government efficiency commission to cut federal spending, adding that Musk has agreed to lead the commission “in time.”
The former president announced the seven-pillar economic plan while addressing members of the Economic Club of New York in Midtown Manhattan.
“I will create a commission on government efficiency to conduct a full financial and performance audit of the entire federal government and recommend drastic reforms,” Trump said.
The former president continued: “As a first step, this commission will develop an action plan within six months to completely eliminate fraud and improper payments. This will save trillions of dollars.”
Trump did not specify the size of the commission or how it would be funded. Both the promised benefits and the timeline are wildly optimistic: the federal government employs millions of people and annual costs exceed 6 trillion dollars.
But the idea is mixed Trump’s long-standing plans making it easier to lay off civil servants and get rid of some federal agencies.
Trump and Musk had a strained relationship, but the pair have since reconciled, and Musk supported the former president after an assassin opened fire on Trump and rally attendees in Butler, Pennsylvania, this summer.
In 2022, shortly after Trump called him a “vain artist,” Musk wrote on X: “I don’t hate the man, but it’s time for Trump to hang up his hat and ride off into the sunset.”
On August 12 Musk interviewed Trump at X Spacesdelayed the event by about 40 minutes after encountering technical difficulties.
Additional components of the economic plan Trump outlined during his speech on Thursday included cutting federal regulations, imposing higher tariffs and making permanent the 2017 tax cuts he signed as president, among other items.