Photo: Yuki Iwamura/Bloomberg/Getty Images
This afternoon, Donald Trump gave a speech at the Economic Club of New York, which was purportedly going to reveal his big policy agenda for the country’s finances. He was going to take a page from Elon Musk, as well as make a push for more oil drilling. But he reverted to a long, droning, low-energy speech where he appeared bored and tired. It was a bomb of a speech a day after Kamala Harris unveiled a major tax-policy proposal and a pledge to support 25 million new small businesses.
A political speech about economics is always a hard sell, but this was for an audience that would be into it. John Paulson, a hedge-fund manager and major Trump supporter, was among the major finance and legal executives in attendance. But at the ECNY, Trump looked gaunt and spoke as if he were going through the motions. “We delivered an economic miracle that Kamala and Joe turned into an economic disaster” was among his zingers, which did not deviate much from his single-note drone. His lack of dynamism, coupled with the monotony of his topic, made his weaving style of speech especially difficult to follow. It would challenge even the most ardent fans of La Monte Young.
If you listened, though, there was some news here. Musk — who did a glitchy, podcast-style interview with Trump where he bragged about firing employees — has apparently agreed to head a commission that would root out what Trump calls government fraud and abuse. Government waste, particularly in the form of fraudulent spending, is in fact a major problem in the budget, with the Government Accountability Office estimating that it reaches more than $500 billion a year. (Trump’s plan is similar to the GAO’s Biden-era approach for rooting it out.) The Musk-led commission, if it ever happens, would supposedly save “trillions” of dollars over an unspecified period.
Trump also pledged to cut ten regulations for every one that passes — a five-fold increase from a 2016 pledge. He also cycled through a few promises that he’s made in the past, such as cutting taxes for Social Security benefits and corporate research and development, increasing oil drilling in the U.S., and, maybe, locking up Harris. Hard to tell if he was actually serious about that last one or if he was just trying to get his audience to wake up.