Florida, United States

Elon Musk, the eccentric billionaire who purchased Twitter (now renamed as X) for $44 million because he was bored — according to a biography on Musk by Walter Isaacson — has a place in the Donald Trump administration, if the Republican wins.

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Elon Musk 'dying to do this'

In an interview with Fox News host Maria Bartiromo, the former US president said that Musk was "dying to do this".

When asked about which agencies he would shut down to trim the "fat in government," Trump said, "Let me have you ask another person that".

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"Because I’m going to have Elon Musk — he is dying to do this. You know, he's a great business guy, actually," he added.

"You think of him for science and rockets. And every time I think he's telling me about a new screw that was developed, he's developed a new screw — screws are difficult — and it's made out of titanium, and it's so exciting." 

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"But you know what? He's a great business guy, and he's a great cost-cutter. You've seen that. And he said 'I could cut costs without affecting anybody'," he added.

However, Trump said that Musk would not be in his cabinet, "He doesn't want to be in the cabinet. He just wants to be in charge of cost-cutting."

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The Republican presidential candidate said that he'll make a new post for the SpaceX CEO, "We'll have a new position: secretary of cost-cutting, OK? Elon wants to do that, and we have incredible people. He's running a big business. You know, he can't just say, 'Oh, I think I'll go into the cabinet.' You know, other people can. He can't. But Elon's a little bit different in that sense."

Musk's Twitter disaster

In 2022, Musk decided that he was the "fire-breathing dragon" Twitter needed. After buying the social media platform for $44 million, he fired 80 per cent of its staff and lost a huge amount of ad revenue. 

It has been widely reported that advertisers were wary of their brands appearing next to harmful content that might not have been removed under Musk's leadership.

(With inputs from agencies)