Republican nominee Donald Trump promised Thursday that if he's elected, he'll create a government efficiency commission to root out fraud in the federal government — and confirmed that tech billionaire Elon Musk, who suggested the idea, will lead it.
"Elon, because he's not very busy, has agreed to head that task force," Trump said during an extensive policy address to members of the Economic Club of New York. "If he has the time, he'll be a good one to do it, but he's agreed to do it."
Musk, Trump added, has "given me his complete and total endorsement."
"Smart guy," he said. "He knows what he's doing."
The commission will be tasked with "conducting a complete financial and performance audit of the entire federal government and making recommendations for drastic reforms," a project that is much needed, Trump said.
"We can't go on the way we are now," he continued. "In 2022, fraud and improper payments alone cost taxpayers an estimated hundreds of billions of dollars."
The commission will act quickly to "develop an action plan to totally eliminate fraud and improper payments within six months," which will "save trillions of dollars, trillions," Trump added.
"It's massive for the same service that you have right now," he said. "Trillions of dollars are wasted and gone and nobody knows where it went."
Musk made the initial suggestion that Trump form a commission on government spending during their recent conversation on X, his social media company, and said he'd be "happy to help out" on the effort.
Thursday, he posted on X that he looks forward to serving the country and that "no pay, no title, no recognition is needed."
However, The Wall Street Journal pointed out Thursday that many of Musk's companies, including Tesla and SpaceX are regulated by federal agencies, which could create conflicts of interest if he's involved in a commission to cut back on government spending.
NASA relies on SpaceX to take astronauts to the space station, while the Pentagon uses the company to launch satellites.
Tesla's sales, meanwhile, are subsidized by federal tax credits and grants.
Other federal agencies regulate Musk's companies including X, regulated by the Federal Trade Commission, and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration regulates Neuralink, a brain implant startup.