The former president’s son praised Musk in a post on Tuesday, saying he “can’t imagine a better person” to lead a “government efficiency committee” that’d cut federal jobs, programs, and overall spending.
That prospective committee would seek to “eliminate the likely trillions of dollars of waste we have in our bloated bureaucracy,” the younger Trump wrote.
Don Jr.’s glowing endorsement wasn’t totally out of left field. The idea of Musk joining a federal committee was first floated by the billionaire himself during his two-hour livestream with Donald Trump on Monday night.
During that session, which had its start pushed back 45 minutes by tech issues, Trump commended Musk for axing 80 percent of Twitter’s staff after he purchased the social network in Oct. 2022. He also praised the tech mogul for his history of cutting loose workers who go on strike, notably at Tesla’s Gigafactory 2 in Buffalo last winter.
“You’re the greatest cutter,” Trump said.
Musk, 53, made sure his eagerness to join a potential government committee was heard by the former president. He twice said he’d be “happy to help out” should Trump return to the White House in January.
Trump and Musk have cozied up to each other in recent months, with the tech billionaire—who’s worth $222.6 billion, making him the richest man on earth—recently revealing he’s donated to a Republican Super PAC. Just two years ago, he was urging Trump to bow out of politics completely.
The former president has also eased up his rhetoric on Musk, replacing his previous criticisms—like calling Musk a “bulls--t artist” in 2022—with glowing praise. During a separate live stream with the controversial streamer Adin Ross this month, Trump toyed with a Tesla Cybertruck’s screen and shouted out Musk, saying, “Elon, you’re great.”
Trump also started using Musk’s X again this week for the first time since he was booted from the platform after the the 2021 Capitol riot, when the platform was still called Twitter. Musk rescinded the ban when he took over, but Trump had still limited his daily rants, gripes, and name-calling to his own struggling social media network, Truth Social.
While Truth Social shares have plummeted since it went public this year, X has undergone struggles of its own—issues many have attributed to the job cuts and questionable decision making made by Musk. X was reportedly worth just $12.5 billion in January, which is 72 percent less than the price Musk paid for the platform.
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