Trump taps Musk for new commission, mulls lifting Russia sanctions

Trump spoke on Thursday at the headquarters of the prestigious Economic Club of New York, where he laid out the economic proposals of his election program. Among them, he mentioned the creation of a "government efficiency commission," whose task would be "conducting a complete financial and performance audit of the entire federal government and making recommendations for drastic reforms."

The Republican candidate announced that the commission, made up of businessmen, would be led by Tesla and X platform owner Elon Musk, who had previously publicly advocated for the establishment of such a body and offered his candidacy to lead this institution. Trump assured that thanks to this, the American budget would save "trillions" of dollars.

Media commentators, including those from the "Wall Street Journal," pointed out a potential conflict of interest for Musk, whose companies Tesla and SpaceX receive substantial government subsidies and contracts.

Besides creating the commission, Trump also announced drastic deregulation, the permanent implementation of his tax cuts, making America the "crypto capital of the planet," and universal tariffs on all foreign products. The politician said these tariffs would be higher than people have heard before. Reports suggested a tariff of about 10 percent.

During his speech, Trump also addressed other campaign topics, including the promise to end the war in Ukraine before formally taking office, while blaming President Biden for provoking the Russian invasion. When asked by a club member if he plans to strengthen sanctions against Russia, Trump said he was an endorser of sanctions but advocates for lifting them as quickly as possible because ultimately it kills the dollar, and losing the dollar's reserve status is like "losing a war."

"I don’t love sanctions. I found them very useful with Iran, but I didn’t even need sanctions with Iran so much. I told China, that and Russia is in a similar position," he said.

The Republican presidential candidate also admitted he didn't know how to respond to Vladimir Putin's endorsement of his rival, Kamala Harris, expressed on Thursday.

Putin came out today. He endorsed Kamala, and I didn't know what - supposed to call him up and say, 'Thank you very much. I appreciate.' But, he endorsed Kamala. I have a feeling. I don't know exactly what to say about that. I don't know if I'm insulted or he did me a favor - he emphasised at the New York Economic Club.