by Sharon Rondeau
(Sep. 10, 2024) — On September 5, 2024 Republican presidential nominee and 45th President Donald J. Trump spoke at the Economic Club of New York, which bills itself as non-partisan and “dedicated to the discussion of today’s most important social, economic and political questions” to tout his plan for ushering in an economic boom if he is re-elected in November.
Later today Frank Siller, CEO of the Tunnel to Towers Foundation (T2T) launched in the wake of the September 11, 2001 attacks, will address the group; on Thursday, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross under Trump will speak; and on October 1, former Obama senior adviser Valerie Jarrett will be the featured guest.
During his address Thursday, Trump declared he was “there to lay out my plan to rescue our country from this nightmare, to bring back to its citizens the American dream, bigger, better and stronger than ever before…”
“My plan will rapidly defeat inflation, quickly bring down prices and reignite explosive economic growth,” he said, which would include his goal of “energy abundance, energy independence, and even energy dominance…”
At that point of the speech, a Trump campaign advertisement clip posted on Trump’s TruthSocial includes Trump’s conversations with American workers and a visit to a vehicle manufacturer.
“I will create a government efficiency commission, and Elon, because he’s not very busy, has agreed to head that task force,” Trump said during the speech, referring to “X” owner and entrepreneur Elon Musk.
Believed to be the wealthiest individual in the world, Musk was founder of X.com, which became Paypal; content-provider Zip2, which was acquired by Compaq Computers; and went on to launch Space Exploration Technologies Corporation (SpaceX), Tesla, The Boring Company and become co-chairman of Neuralink, which seeks to “create a generalized brain interface to restore autonomy to those with unmet medical needs today and unlock human potential tomorrow.”
The ad then features three screenshots of Musk’s comments on X. “I am willing to serve,” the first comment reads, with what appears to be an AI-generated image of him behind a lectern with “D.O.G.E.,” signifying “Department of Government Efficiency.”
Musk’s second comment was, “I look forward to serving America if the opportunity arises. No pay, no title, no recognition is needed.”
“The Department of Government Efficiency will be epic,” Musk’s third “tweet” states.
The goal of the commission, Trump said, would be to “develop an action plan to totally eliminate fraud and improper payments within six months.”
In an August 20 article, Newsweek characterized Musk’s “willing to serve” tweet as said in jest but added, “the statement indicates that Musk would be open to joining the Republican candidate should he win in November, a plausible occurrence given the CEO-heavy makeup of Trump’s previous administration.”
“Despite the joking format, many in the comments took Musk’s post in earnest, with conservative activist and co-founder of Students for Trump Ryan Fournier, writing: ‘Elon willing to serve confirmed,'” Newsweek continued. “Previous actions from both the Tesla CEO and Trump himself also indicate that Musk joining a future Trump White House is not beyond the realms of possibility.”
It could be argued Trump was serious during his address to the Economic Club of New York.
The evening of the July 13 assassination attempt on Trump in Butler, PA, Musk announced his endorsement of Trump for president.
During an in-person interview with and posted by “Autism Capital” Monday which Musk retweeted, Musk remarked, “If Trump wins…but we do have an opportunity to do kind-of a once-in-a-lifetime deregulation and reduction in the size of government. Besides the regulations, America is going bankrupt extremely quickly. Everyone seems to be whistling past the graveyard on this one. Soon we’ll only be able to make payment on interest.”
