Elon Musk imagines a $2 trillion federal budget cut under Donald Trump, “Your money is being wasted…”

US elections 2024: Tech billionaire Elon Musk has claimed he could cut around $2 trillion from the US government's federal budget, according to a Bloomberg report.

At a rally for former US president and Republican candidate Donald Trump, Musk said he expects “significant cuts to government spending” if Donald Trump wins the presidency in November.

According to the report, the $2 trillion target represents almost a third of existing spending. According to the Treasury Department, the U.S. government spent $6.75 trillion in FY24.

“The government will keep you off your back”

At the rally at Madison Square Garden in New York, Musk said: “Your money is being wasted. We will get the government off your back and out of your wallet.”

When asked by Howard Lutnick of Cantor Fitzgerald LP how much Musk could “squeeze” out of the Biden administration's budget, Musk replied: “Well, I think we can make at least $2 trillion, yes.”

While Trump has not spelled out how he plans to reduce the national debt during his campaign, the issue has been a hot topic of criticism of the administration led by Joe Biden and Kamala Harris. He has also promised to “abolish” taxes and instead introduce a system of “tariffs” that all economists have warned could be “disastrous” for the economy.

Notably, Trump has stated that if re-elected, he would assign Musk the so-called “Department of Government Efficiency,” which would look for ways to cut government spending, Bloomberg reported. Interestingly, it is abbreviated “DOGE” in reference to the cryptocurrency that Musk has often touted on social media.

But critics have noted that the billionaire – actually the world's richest person – could face a massive conflict of interest in the government position because his companies Tesla and SpaceX each hold federal contracts worth billions, it said. Both the automakers and the space company have benefited from the U.S. government's electric vehicle tax credits and infrastructure investments.

According to Bloomberg, federal results show Musk has spent at least $132 million to elect Trump and other Republicans in 2024, moving himself into the party's “upper echelons.”

(With input from Bloomberg)