Most presidential candidates wait until they have at least won the election before they begin measuring the Oval Office for new drapes or at least begin picking new cabinet members, but Donald Trump is clearly not "most candidates." He proved that to be true yet again during a recent interview with Fox News' Maria Bartiromo when she asked the former president how he planned to "trim the fat" in Washington. Rather than identifying areas where he might make cuts, Trump suggested that he planned to expand his cabinet by adding a new Secretary of Cost-Cutting. That person would be SpaceX and Tesla CEO Elon Musk. According to Trump, Musk is "dying to do this." This proposal opens up an entirely new set of questions as to how this new department would operate and how Musk would fit in with a presidential administration.
From Rolling Stone:
Elon Musk, the unhinged billionaire who many believe ruined Twitter, has a place in a potential future Trump Administration: secretary of cost-cutting.When Fox News host Maria Bartiromo asked former president Donald Trump about how he would trim “fat in government,” Trump said that he would defer to Musk.“What agencies would you want to shut down?” Bartiromo inquired.“Let me have you ask another person that,” Trump said. “Because I’m going to have Elon Musk — he is dying to do this. You know, he’s a great business guy, actually. You think of him for science and rockets. And every time I think he’s telling me about a new screw that was developed, he’s developed a new screw — screws are difficult — and it’s made out of titanium, and it’s so exciting. But you know what? He’s a great business guy, and he’s a great cost-cutter. You’ve seen that. And he said ‘I could cut costs without affecting anybody.’”
The first of many questions that leaps to mind is how Musk plans on fitting this new assignment in with his current obligations. Musk is a busy guy, running a massive rocket operation and one of the world's leading producers of electric vehicles. There is no doubt that Musk is a genius and can accomplish most anything he sets his mind to, but the man has a lot on his plate.
Also, this would be an official cabinet department. It is within the power of the President to create new cabinet departments, but there is a lot more involved than just the stroke of a pen. There will be deputies to be appointed and countless other staff positions to be filled. Defined duties will have to be identified. Office facilities will have to be identified and filled. It's a complicated process to say the least and no cabinet position is a one-person show.
Further, new cabinet secretaries tend to take charge of duties in new areas of expertise that are opening up. That's why there are still such a relatively limited number of them after all of these years. Wouldn't an office in charge of cutting costs do better falling under the auspices of the Secretary of the Treasury or Commerce or even OMB? This really sounds more like some sort of vanity gift to Musk than a serious effort at cutting costs. We already have people with the authority to cut spending in Washington. We simply have people running the show without the will to do so.
What happens if Musk becomes bored with the humdrum tasks associated with administering a cabinet department? There would be nothing stopping him from taking his ball and going home. Musk isn't used to working inside of a bureaucracy. He runs a one-man show at SpaceX and Tesla and his other operations. Trust me when I say that I'm approaching this question as a big fan of Elon Musk. But I can see a lot more ways for this to go wrong than right.
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