Elon Musk claimed he can eliminate at least $2 trillion from the federal budget, laying out his vision for substantial government spending cuts if Donald Trump wins the presidency.
“Your money is being wasted,” Musk said Sunday at a rally for Trump in New York’s Madison Square Garden. “We’re going to get the government off your back and out of your pocket book.”
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Trump has said he would ask Musk, the world’s richest person and a major donor to the Republican nominee’s campaign, to head up an effort to cut government spending, nicknamed the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, a reference to a cryptocurrency Musk has embraced.
Critics have said this position would represent a conflict of interest for Musk. The companies he runs, including Tesla Inc. and SpaceX, have billions of dollars worth of federal contracts and have benefited from federal spending, including electric vehicle tax credits and infrastructure investments.
The $2 trillion target represents nearly a third of existing spending. The federal government spent $6.75 trillion in fiscal year 2024, according to the Treasury Department.
Cantor Fitzgerald LP’s Howard Lutnick asked Musk on stage how much he could “rip out of” the budget under President Joe Biden and Trump’s rival, Vice President Kamala Harris. Musk responded, “Well, I think we can do at least $2 trillion, yeah.”
Trump on the campaign trail has talked about reducing the federal debt, but has not detailed specific programs he would curb. Instead, the Republican nominee has promised a long list of tax cuts aimed at key groups of voters, reductions that economists have warned would balloon the deficit.
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Musk has spent at least $132 million to elect Trump and other Republicans in 2024, federal filings show. That level of giving has vaulted him into the upper echelon of political donors, making Musk one of the most prolific contributors of the entire 2024 cycle.
The contributions demonstrate how Musk, who has personally bristled at government regulations, is expanding his political influence network to include a potential future president and members of Congress.
Musk is playing an unprecedented role in the 2024 campaign for a political donor. In addition to his donations, he’s appeared on stage with Trump and held his own campaign rallies without the former president.
New Tax Cut
Trump on Sunday added to his long list of tax proposals, unveiling a credit for caregivers who take care of family members.
The Republican nominee didn’t provide details or say how he would pay for it. His litany of tax proposals already includes something for almost every American family: tipped workers, hourly employees, senior citizens and higher-income residents of Democratic-led states whose tax breaks he took away while president.
“They add so much to our country and are never spoken of, ever, ever, ever, but they’re going to be spoken of now,” Trump said of family caregivers at the packed arena that has a 20,000 person capacity.
Harris has proposed expanding Medicare to cover home care services, an olive branch to seniors and the so-called sandwich generation juggling caring for elders and children. She’s also proposed to expand tax credits for parents and boost deductions for startup businesses, offset by increasing levies on corporations and wealthy households.
The former president also vowed to carry out an aggressive campaign of deregulation, renew expiring tax cuts, lower the corporate tax rate to 15% from 21%, and offer fresh tax reductions and benefits to bolster domestic manufacturing. He has said he would raise fresh revenue from across-the-board tariffs, which he aims to impose on imports from US allies and adversaries alike. Economists have warned tariffs won’t offset the price tag of his tax cut ideas and could increase costs on US households.
In an interview with Bloomberg News Editor-in-Chief John Micklethwait earlier this month, Trump said, without evidence, that the totality of his economic platform would outpace the cost to taxpayers. Some investors are betting Trump’s policies will leave the US saddled with more debt and higher inflation and interest rates.
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