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Donald Trump’s plot to virtually hand control of the government to his rich financiers if he’s elected came into clearer view Thursday when he said he would tap Elon Musk (of all people) to run a new agency focused on government “efficiency.”
“I will create a government efficiency commission tasked with conducting a complete financial and performance audit of the entire federal government,” he said during a speech at the Economic Club of New York, adding Musk has “agreed to head that task force.”
Musk — the billionaire head of several companies, including Tesla and SpaceX — pitched the commission to Trump last month during their conversation on X, Musk's social media platform, and said he would be interested in serving on it.
“I think it would be great to just have a government efficiency commission that ensures that the taxpayer money is spent in a good way,” Musk said. (Note: Tesla and SpaceX has received billions in taxpayer dollars, according to CNN, which I presume he considers a “good” use of such funds.)
But let’s be real: The idea of Musk, whose pro-Trump super PAC has raised millions of dollars, leading any entity focused on efficiency is unsettling considering how inefficiently and chaotically he seems to run his companies. The thought of him leading an agency focused on government efficiency is downright horrifying.
Tesla announced more than a million vehicle recalls over defective parts this year alone, reached a settlement with one Black employee over racial discrimination claims, and faces a class-action lawsuit from thousands of other Black employees who say the company knowingly fostered a workplace in which Jim Crow-style racism is commonplace. That trial will begin next year. Tesla, for the record, has said it doesn’t tolerate discrimination and that it has fired employees found to have engaged in racism.
Musk’s management of his social media platform X has also been tumultuous since he took it over in 2022, a period that's seen a rise in hate speech on the site and a raft of technical issues with the platform as he issued mass firings. And animal testing conducted by his brain-chip company Neuralink has produced some truly gruesome results. None of this inspires confidence that Musk has any clue how to run a government effectively, as Trump wants us to believe.
What it seems to show, though, is that Trump is so desperate to win in November, and so shameless in his efforts to curry favor with the rich donors who could help him do so, that he’s willing to sell the U.S. government for parts to any big spender who backs him.