Musk eyed for govt post

Republican White House candidate Donald Trump unveiled a plan yesterday to install tech billionaire Elon Musk at the head of a government efficiency commission to eliminate "trillions" of dollars in wasteful spending.

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The Tesla and SpaceX CEO has emerged as a major voice in US politics, but is accused of turning the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, now X, into a megaphone for right-wing conspiracy theories since acquiring it in 2022.

Trump told business executives at a speech in New York that Musk the world's richest man, according to Forbes - would oversee a "complete financial and performance audit of the entire federal government" in a second Trump administration.

"As the first order of business, this commission will develop an action plan to totally eliminate fraud and improper payments within six months. This will save trillions of dollars," he said.

Trump is in a knife-edge election race against Democratic Vice-President Kamala Harris, who has been setting out her own economic vision in the run-up to a high-stakes televised presidential debate on Tuesday.