Musk is worth an estimated $270 billion and has been floated as the possible head of a “government efficiency” commission under Trump. In an interview with Fox News’ Sean Hannity on Tuesday night, Trump praised Musk as “a great cost cutter.”
“He’ll cut costs without anybody even knowing it,” Trump claimed. “Nobody’s going to know. Nobody’s going to feel it. He will cut costs, and he feels he can save $2 trillion. If he does that, our budget is more than balanced.”
Neither Musk nor Trump have detailed which programs would face cuts, but during his term as president Trump pushed for cuts to health care, food assistance, and other programs that help low- and moderate-income families.
Trump’s last federal budget proposal suggested cuts to popular programs like Social Security and Medicare.
By contrast, under the Biden-Harris administration health care coverage has been expanded and legislation has lowered the costs of prescription drugs for many—despite opposition from Republicans in Congress.
Tesla CEO Musk is pushing for cuts that could affect the vast majority of Americans who don’t have the kind of wealth he enjoys at the same time he is spending millions to elect Trump. America PAC is operating what Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner called an “illegal lottery,” handing out millions of dollars to registered voters in swing states. The scheme has come under scrutiny and Musk and the PAC have been sued by the DA’s office in Pennsylvania court.
If Trump wins the election and Musk accepts a role in the administration, he could get billions in tax breaks. An analysis published by the progressive outlet The Lever determined that if Musk divested in his positions from several of the companies he has an ownership stake in to work with Trump, he could defer the capital gains taxes from that transaction.
Musk and other überwealthy individuals like him already received massive tax cuts under the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act that Trump signed into law. The legislation also cut taxes for large corporations but did not spur the economic growth that Trump had long touted it would.
Musk’s zeal to cut government spending is also curious since he has been the beneficiary of massive government spending throughout the course of his career. His company SpaceX rakes in hundreds of millions from NASA, which is completely financed by taxpayers.
Musk has also admitted that assessments predicting the U.S. economy could be severely hurt by Trump’s economic proposals are “about right.”
Trump backs economic policies that would preserve tax cuts for those at Musk’s level of wealth, while his opponent Vice President Kamala Harris has proposed a different path. The Democratic nominee supports cutting taxes for middle-income earners but taxing billionaires to fund social services and health care.
Other billionaires who stand to benefit from Trump’s tax policies have also taken actions supportive of his candidacy. The Los Angeles Times and The Washington Post, which both endorsed President Joe Biden over Trump in the 2020 election, recently announced they would not endorse a candidate this year. Both publications are owned by billionaires.
“It’s billionaires in Donald Trump’s club,” Harris told a radio interviewer who asked her about the newspaper’s decisions. “That’s who’s in his club. That’s who he hangs out with. That’s who he cares about.”
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