Donald Trump says he will task Elon Musk with conducting an audit of the entire federal government

Former President Donald Trump said that if re-elected, he would create a government efficiency task force — and that Elon Musk has already agreed to lead it. During a speech in New York on Thursday, Trump said the new efficiency commission would conduct a “full financial and efficiency audit of the entire federal government” and make recommendations for “drastic reforms.”

Musk’s companies are getting government spending, with data showing Tesla received nearly 13 percent of the electric vehicle charging awards made under President Joe Biden’s infrastructure bill, according to PoliticalMeanwhile, SpaceX has received billions of dollars in federal funding since its inception.

Trump says the commission was created “at the request” of the billionaire Tesla and SpaceX CEO, who previously expressed interest in the role during an interview with Trump on X. Last month, Musk also posted what appears to be an AI-generated image of himself at a podium labeled “Department of Government Efficiency.”

“I look forward to serving America if the opportunity arises,” Musk said on X after Trump’s speech. “No salary, no title, no recognition needed.”

During an interview last month, the former president called Musk the “ultimate downsizer,” referring to the thousands of workers he laid off at Tesla earlier this year, as well as Twitter’s mass job cuts that wiped out about half of the company’s workforce.