Elon Musk and President-elect Donald Trump attend a test flight of SpaceX's Starship megarocket in Texas on November 19, 2024 (GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA/Brandon Bell)
Eliminate subsidies to Family Planning, fire thousands of civil servants and deregulate at all costs: Elon Musk, who has become Donald Trump's right-hand man, detailed on Wednesday his “radical” project to reform the federal state.
The richest man in the world explains in a column in the Wall Street Journal how, with the blessing of the conservative Supreme Court, the president-elect will be able to slash public service numbers and spending, even if it means short -circuit Congress, holder of budgetary power.
“On November 5, voters gave Donald Trump a clear mandate for radical change, and they are entitled to it,” writes the multibillionaire in this article co-signed by businessman Vivek Ramaswamy, with whom he will lead a any new “commission on government efficiency”.
This body with an advisory role is neither a ministry nor a government agency.
“We do things differently. We are entrepreneurs, not politicians,” they write, adding: “We will cut costs.”
– Declaration of Independence –
The two signatories recall that their role must end on July 4, 2026, the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence.
The boss of Tesla, SpaceX and X, himself the beneficiary of large federal contracts, played an extremely important role in Donald Trump's campaign. He seems inseparable from the 78-year-old Republican since the latter's resounding victory in the presidential election.
His new role, even advisory, raises the question of possible conflicts of interest, since Elon Musk could make recommendations concerning his own sectors of activity.
To base his project in law, the entrepreneur invokes two recent decisions of the American Supreme Court, to which Donald Trump had given a lasting majority of conservative judges during his first term (2017-2021).
In June 2022, the Court significantly reduced the powers of the federal state, ruling that the Environmental Protection Agency could not issue general rules to regulate emissions from coal-fired power plants, because it does not was not authorized by Congress.
In June 2024, it had further reduced the powers of federal agencies, by returning to the “Chevron doctrine”, a 40-year-old case law which served as a legal basis for regulations on water, medicines or financial markets.
The decisions of the highest court “suggest that a host of existing federal regulations” are not legally founded and that they can be “immediately suspended” by presidential decree, writes Elon Musk.
– “Existential threat” –
This will “stimulate the economy”, promises the multi-billionaire, who develops in this forum an ultra-liberal vision of the balance of power between public power and the private sector.
According to him, the “encysted and ever-growing bureaucracy is an existential threat” to America.
Elon Musk plans “massive staff reductions in the federal bureaucracy”, ensuring that sacked civil servants will be “supported in their transition to the private sector” or will benefit from “decent” departure conditions.
He suggests returning to the principle of teleworking, which “would lead to a welcome wave of voluntary departures”, or relocating federal agencies outside Washington, which would make them less attractive.
The businessman puts forward the figure of “500 billion dollars” in spending which could be eliminated very quickly by the Republican president by cutting subsidies to public broadcasting or to “progressive” organizations such as Planned Parenthood. .
During the campaign, the Tesla boss assured that he could reduce federal public spending by $2,000 billion. That would represent a 30% drop from the fiscal year 2024 total.
