Elon Musk, government efficiency expert? That is one really bad idea.
September 9, 2024 at 4:22 p.m. EDT
The Washington Post
Donald Trump wants to empower Elon Musk to cut waste from the federal government. What could possibly go wrong?
Most first-blush criticism of Trump’s typically slapdash proposal, aired in an economic policy speech last week in New York, has focused on potential conflicts of interest if Musk were to head a commission focused on eliminating inefficiencies in Washington. That’s because the certainty of conflicts, not merely their possibility, are many.
NASA is the largest customer for Musk’s rocket-ship company, SpaceX. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration regulates an often contentious and dismissive Tesla, Musk’s electric-vehicle company. The Federal Trade Commission keeps watch over Twitter, which Musk bought and renamed X. The Food and Drug Administration plays a critical role in deciding whether Musk’s start-up Neuralink can implant computer chips in the brains of paralyzed humans. (Note to conspiracy theorists concerned that Anthony S. Fauci and Bill Gates wanted to inject chips into people’s heads: They didn’t. Musk does.)
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