Controversial tech mogul Elon Musk plans to operate as a "garbage collector" of laws and regulations that restrict businesses as head of Donald Trump's planned government "efficiency" task force if he wins the presidency, Musk revealed in a recent interview.
Musk discussed his vision last month even before Trump announced that the Tesla CEO and SpaceX founder would head up the task force, which the former president promised would launch a "drastic" reform of the entire federal government.
Musk envisions that a key goal of the task force would be to eliminate laws and regulations restricting business, many of which were passed to protect the health and safety of consumers, and to safeguard the environment from harmful business practices.
There "has to be a garbage collection of laws and regulations," Musk said on the "Lex Fridman" podcast last month as he revealed discussions with Trump about the creation of what he called the "efficiency commission."
Musk compared mounting industry regulations he finds vexing to "being tied down by a million strings like Gulliver."
If there's no war to "clean up the accumulation of laws and regulations ... there has to be a sort of garbage collection" of the restrictions, he argued.
Elon Musk says there needs to be a garbage collection on laws and regulations because over time everything becomes illegal, and he would be willing to be on a government efficiency commission, but "You're attacking the Matrix at that point. The Matrix will fight back." pic.twitter.com/hxrNzTWubT
— Tsarathustra (@tsarnick) August 3, 2024
The Wall Street Journal pointed out last week that Musk's appointment to Trump's task force would raise major conflict-of-interest red flags because Musk and his companies could immediately profit from actions he might implement as a federal official.
There's already a clash between Musk's businesses and government investigators.
Federal investigators have been probing hundreds of Tesla crashes that occurred while the vehicles were in self-driving "autopilot" mode. U.S. prosecutors are examining whether Tesla may have committed securities or wire fraud by misleading investors and consumers about its electric vehicles' self-driving capabilities, Reuters reported in May.
As for other troubling company behavior, a court in Brazil has ordered Musk's X to be shut down because unregulated "digital militias" are spreading hate and lies on the social media platform.
Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva said last week that the world doesn't have to put up with Musk's "extreme far-right anything goes" agenda just because he's a billionaire.
Musk grumbled on the podcast that Trump and his commission would predictably be challenged by "The Matrix," apparently his term for the mythical "Deep State," as opposed to Americans who want consumer protections to remain in place.
Musk endorsed Trump for the presidency in July, and announced that he had donated a "sizable amount" of money to the America Political Action Committee to back Trump — even as he acknowledged that billionaires put a "thumb on the scale" in American elections when wielding their significant resources.
Trump said at a campaign rally later that Musk was giving him $45 million a month (which Musk has since denied), so Trump noted that he had to his major donor him happy.
Michigan officials have launched an investigation into the America PAC following reports that the tech mogul was collecting detailed information about swing-state residents who tried to register to vote through its website.
"I have discussed with Trump the idea of a government efficiency commission"
— Adrian Dittmann (@AdrianDittmann) August 2, 2024
-Elon Musk on garbage collection for rules and regulations pic.twitter.com/RjBF1mASYU
