Speaking to supporters Thursday in New York, GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump hinted at a new plan to cut inflation and save taxpayers billions of dollars: let the world’s richest person audit the government.
“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,” said Trump. “In 2022, fraud and improper payments alone cost taxpayers an estimated hundreds of billions of dollars. As the first order of business, this commission will develop an action plan to totally eliminate fraud and improper payments within six months. This will save trillions of dollars…Further taming inflation and bringing prices way down.”
The idea to audit the government was posed to Trump last month by billionaire tech mogul Elon Musk, who of course has agreed to lead the commission if Trump wins the election in November.
Musk claims there is “a lot of waste and needless regulation in government that needs to go” and says the commission will “unlock tremendous prosperity for America.” Following Trump’s speech about economic reform in New York, Musk wrote on X that he ‘looks forward to serving America if the opportunity arises’ and expects ‘no title, no pay, and no recognition.’
Author’s Note: Elon Musk is undeniably intelligent, but it remains unclear how he could serve in a public position without risking a conflict of interest. I doubt he would be willing to divest his shares of Tesla, SpaceX, X, and other companies just to serve in Trump’s cabinet.
Sources:
Trump says Musk has agreed to run proposed ‘government efficiency commission’
