Boris Johnson: We should take Elon Musk plan to slash US spending ‘seriously’

Donald Trump likely to hire Tesla billionaire to slash state spending if he wins US election

Elon Musk’s plan to slash American state spending by around $2 trillion (£1.54 trillion) should be taken “seriously”, Boris Johnson has said.
Donald Trump has said he would hire the tech billionaire to lead an efficiency task force if he wins Tuesday’s US presidential election.
At a Trump rally in Madison Square Garden last week, Mr Musk told activists “all government spending is taxation” as he promised a bonfire of government waste.
“You think we can rip off this wasted $6.5 trillion Biden budget? Well, I think we can do at least $2 trillion – yeah, yes, two trillion,” Mr Musk said.
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In an interview with CNN on Sunday night, Mr Johnson – who has backed Mr Trump to return to the White House – said there was merit to the saving proposals.
The former prime minister said: “I gather that Elon Musk is going to come in and cut two trillion off government spending.
“So if that’s the agenda, then I think that needs to be looked at seriously. Because I do think there is a case that [in] Western democracies like the UK, perhaps like the US as well, that the state has got too big.”
Mr Johnson had a good relationship with Mr Trump and backed his re-election campaign in January, claiming the “global wokerati” was “trembling violently” at the thought of his return.
According to his former communications director, Mr Johnson feared Britain had been left infantilised by the pandemic response and left in a “permanent state of doublethink”.
Guto Harri told a hearing of the Covid inquiry last year that the former prime minister believed the British state had become “too big, too fat and too expensive”.
During his time in Downing Street, Mr Johnson unveiled a series of tax rises that took the tax burden to what was a record high at the time.
He and Rishi Sunak, his then chancellor, argued that tax rises including an increase in National Insurance were needed in the wake of Covid, the energy crisis and war in Ukraine.
Elsewhere in his CNN interview, Mr Johnson said he “worries a great deal” about the outcome of Russia’s war in Ukraine.
“I do worry a great deal about what will happen in Ukraine and I think it’s the single most important issue that we face in our generation, in the early part of the 21st century.
“And this is the deciding conflict, in my view. It will set the pattern for what happens to decades to come.”
Insisting that current support from the West for Ukraine was not enough “even if Kamala wins”, Mr Johnson also downplayed fears about Mr Trump pulling support for Kyiv.
“Clearly a lot of people worry about that… But I have to speak as I found and when I was foreign secretary, when I had to deal with Donald Trump I have to tell you on a lot of the key issues he was very, very solid,” he said.
“When it came to Iran, when it came to Syria and indeed when it came to Russia and Ukraine, he gave Ukraine those anti-tank missiles when frankly the previous Democrat administration – when you look at how it responded to Ukraine’s invasion – did virtually nothing.”
Mr Johnson added he did not believe he could be “useful” to British politics at the moment after his full-throated declaration of support for new Tory leader Kemi Badenoch.
“I think I was useful in 2019 because we couldn’t get Brexit done. I can’t see at the moment how I can really do anything similar,” he said.
“But I want to be, of course I want to be supportive of my party and of course I’m going to do that.”
Mr Johnson said on Saturday that Mrs Badenoch, who served as his equalities minister until her resignation over the Chris Pincher affair, will bring the Tories “much-needed zing and zap”.