Trump says Elon Musk has agreed to join his potential administration

Former President Donald Trump said that Tesla TSLA and SpaceX Elon Musk has agreed to lead a new government commission in his potential administration — as long as he has time.

“I will create a government efficiency commission charged with conducting a full financial and performance audit of the entire federal government and recommending drastic reforms,” ​​the Republican presidential candidate told the New York Economic Club on Thursday.

“Elon, because he’s not very busy, agreed to lead the task force,” Trump added. “It would be interesting, if he has time, he would be good to do it. But he agreed to do it.”

Such a commission was publicly presented by Musk last month, when the richest individual in the world interviewed Trump on his social media platform, X. Musk has frequently followed federal spending and the growing federal debt, which Trump has expanded with 8.4 trillion dollars during his first term in office. His successor, President Joe Biden, added $4.3 trillion to the debt in the first three years and five months of his presidency.

Musk supported naming the commission the Department for Government Efficiency, with its acronym – DOGE, being a reference to your favorite meme-based cryptocurrency. Earlier Thursday, after The Wall Street Journal reported that Trump would adopt his proposal, Musk said he looked forward to serving “if the opportunity arises.”

“No payment, no title, no recognition needed” Musk wrote on X.

But such a job—regardless of any “recognition” or title Musk might receive—would be fraught with conflicts of interest. Taking such a position could see Musk put his shares into a blind or divestiture trust, which would likely lower Tesla’s stock price.

In addition to his electric vehicle company and aerospace company, Musk runs the artificial intelligence startup xAIturning on the brain chip Neuralinkand tunneling firm The Boring Company. His nonprofit, the Foundation, is too accepting requests for a private school in Texas and also helped establish a pro-Trump political action super committee over the summer.

His affairs are subject to regulation by federal agencies, which would complicate any role he might take in their scrutiny. SpaceX, for example, is regulated by the Federal Aviation Administration; it also counts NASA and the Pentagon as some of its most important clients. Tesla is subsidized through both grants and federal tax credits. Both companies came into conflict with Environmental Protection Agencywhich earlier this year found that SpaceX broke federal rules.

In the past, Trump has proposed that Musk consult as an unofficial adviser on AI or other issues. Bloomberg News in May reported that Musk has advised Trump on cryptocurrency policy and could be given a job advising Trump on the issue.

Musk in 2017 resigned from his seat on Trump’s White House advisory councils after the then-president pulled out of the Paris climate accord, calling the move “not good for America or the world.” In an interview with Trump earlier this month, Musk said climate change was not an issue requiring immediate attention and returned to his earlier, harsher comments about the oil and gas industry.