WASHINGTON — Former President Donald Trump will commit Thursday to adopting a government efficiency commission proposed last month by billionaire Elon Musk.
The Republican presidential nominee will tell the New York Economic Club that he will deploy Musk’s plan to try to balance the budget if victorious Nov. 5.
The efficiency panel will conduct “a complete financial and performance audit of the entire federal government” and make “recommendations for drastic reform,” Trump, 78, is prepared to say, according to excerpts first reported by the Wall Street Journal.
Musk floated the idea in an interview with Trump broadcast on X Aug.12.
“I think we need a government efficiency commission to say like, ‘Hey, where are we spending money that’s sensible. Where is it not sensible?’ We need to live within our means,” Musk told Trump in that conversation.
“I think it would be great to just have a government efficiency commission that takes a look at these things and just ensures that the taxpayer money, the taxpayers’ hard-earned money is spent in a good way. I’d be happy to help out on such a commission.”
Trump responded that “I’d love it” and added that “I need an Elon Musk — I need somebody that has a lot of strength and courage and smarts.”
The ex-president said his own ideas for shrinking government included: “I want to close up [the] Department of Education [and] move education back to the states.”
The national debt soared by almost $8 trillion to $27.75 trillion during Trump’s term of office — including final-year emergency spending during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Under President Biden, the national debt has jumped more than $7.5 trillion to $35.3 trillion.
