Ron Paul would join Elon Musk to cut government waste in potential 2nd Trump term

Former Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX) who ran twice for the Republican presidential nomination and once as a Libertarian said Thursday that he applauds Elon Musk’s likely involvement in a potential administration of President Donald Trump as a government efficiency commissioner and would freely offer his advice. Paul said in an interview with podcaster David Gornoski that he would welcome any opportunity to advise Musk on economic policy.

When asked if he would consider advising Musk on wasteful spending, Paul said, “Well I would ... Everybody would know what I believe and there’d be no secrets, but I wouldn't want an official position, you know, because I've sort of steered away from getting too involved in the politics of it all right now.” Paul said he views his role now as one of educating the public about the dangers of unhindered government growth.

“I always say young people that were in high school and college, when I was doing all the campaigning, [were] a receptive audience,” Paul said, noting that his audience was never composed of “the Chamber of Commerce people,” that he used to refer to in a negative way because they are “the ones that have been lobbying in Congress for more money for the cities.”

But he cautioned that if Musk becomes an economic advisor to Trump on cutting the size of government, he will have to act with prudence and caution.

“You know, a position is easy to have and to hold. But the truth is, you know, what if I did get in this position and all I had to do is sign a piece of paper and the Federal Reserve was eliminated, or you cut the budget by $2 trillion well, what the consequence would be is total chaos and probably civil war and all that,” Paul said.

Nonetheless, Paul said what is required is for people to understand why current government spending is too high “and people are going to have to know why, after this thing falls apart, I think we have an opportunity. You know, the cultural Marxists do it on purpose: the more chaos, the better.”

Paul said he remains “a reluctant optimist” after decades of political involvement “and there are a lot of people out there, a lot of young people that seem to be very receptive to what we've been talking about."