What began as perhaps a slow dance between the Republican presidential candidate and his top Silicon Valley backer now appears to be seriously hotting up, with talk of a possible role for Elon Musk on a Trump commission to combat “government inefficiency.”
For the past few months, Donald Trump has apparently been toying with the idea, should he win the presidency in November, of bringing together top business leaders to consult on whether to ax potentially thousands of government programs, according to the Washington Post.
In response to the report’s speculations that Musk would likely find himself top of that list, the Tesla CEO posted on X, formerly Twitter: “I can’t wait. There is a lot of waste and needless regulation in government that needs to go.”
It’s not the first time the pair have floated the idea. In an interview with Reuters on Aug. 20, Trump told reporters he “certainly would” consider the possibility of granting Musk a job in his government. Musk then replied with a post in which he said “I am willing to serve,” featuring an AI-generated snap of himself standing in front of a podium marked “Department of Government Efficiency.”
The particular bent of Musk’s prospective role in Trump’s administration was further shored up during a two-hour call on X, when Musk told Trump “I think it would be great to just have a government efficiency commission,” adding that he’d be “happy to help out.”
Trump has previously sought to pour cold water on speculation this would see Musk assume a role in the Cabinet, given the backlash from voices pointing out a risk of serious conflicts of interest should Musk wield formal power over any areas of government that affect his wide-ranging business operations.
Many of Musk’s interests have indeed faced regulatory action in recent years. Notable examples include a decision by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to force a recall of more than two million Tesla vehicles over Autopilot function concerns, with an ongoing Securities and Exchange Commission probe into the tech tycoon’s financing of his 2022 purchase of Twitter.
