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Former President Donald Trump is expected to unveil a slate of new economic plans during his remarks at the Economic Club of New York on Thursday, including the creation of a presidential commission focused on government efficiency first proposed by Elon Musk, a source familiar with his speech told CNN.
The commission would conduct “a complete financial and performance audit of the entire federal government,” Trump is expected to announce, and be tasked with finding and eliminating fraud, the source said.
Trump is also expected to outline new proposals aimed at tackling government regulations, including those aimed at energy production, and vow to withdraw unspent funds appropriated during the Biden administration. His speech will also address his recent embrace of cryptocurrency and reaffirm his plan to place sweeping tariffs on imports.
The Wall Street Journal first reported Trump’s planned announcement.
Trump and Republicans have sought to rescind funding boosts contained in recent legislation that Democrats have pushed through Congress, including the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act, which funneled about $80 billion over 10 years to the Internal Revenue Service and put in place a wide array of climate measures. Congressional Republicans have already succeeded in paring back $20 billion of the IRS funds.
Also, Trump and congressional Republicans have long pointed to combatting waste, fraud and abuse as ways to save the federal government money. But that refrain is “often an excuse to do nothing,” said Marc Goldwein, senior policy director for the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget.
Trump’s commission would have to be given a broad mandate to review the largest federal spending programs – Social Security, Medicare and defense – to be most effective, he said.
The Trump campaign, which views the economy as its top issue ahead of the November election, planned the Thursday address as an effort to contrast the former president’s economic plans with that of Vice President Kamala Harris, Trump advisers said.
Economic issues, which posed a notable weak point for President Joe Biden, remain the topic most often chosen by voters when asked what matters to their choice for president; with an average of 39% of likely voters across the six top battleground states choosing the economy as their top issue, a recent CNN poll found.