Nikki McCann Ramirez
Rolling Stone
Tue, October 29, 2024
Economists have repeatedly warned that a second Trump administration would be a boon to the ultra wealthy and a backslide for everyone else. As the 2024 campaign season enters its final days, the former president’s most prominent billionaire backer is in agreement, and he wants regular Americans to just suck it up.
On Tuesday, Elon Musk — the billionaire owner of X (formerly Twitter) and Tesla — agreed in a social media post that Donald Trump’s return to office would likely crash the economy.
“If Trump succeeds in forcing through mass deportations, combined with Elon hacking away at the government, firing people and reducing the deficit – there will be an initial severe overreaction in the economy,” user @FischerKing64 wrote on X. “Markets will tumble. But when the storm passes and everyone realizes we are on sounder footing, there will be a rapid recovery to a healthier, sustainable economy,” he added.
“Sounds about right,” Musk replied.
The billionaire has been heavily campaigning for Trump in the final weeks of the campaign, including by hosting a potentially illegal cash-for-signatures scheme and million-dollar raffle for registered voters in key swing states. The former president has, in turn, vowed that Musk will be appointed as the head of a “government efficiency commission” under his administration, and be tasked with slashing wasteful spending.
On Friday, Musk explained how he felt such an appointment would play out during a virtual town hall hosted on X.
“We have to reduce spending to live within our means,” Musk said, that will “involve some temporary hardship, but it will ensure long-term prosperity.”
It’s unlikely that the world’s richest man will feel any sort of material economic hardship as he takes scissors to the federal budget. If Musk’s own corporate record cutting costs is anything to go by, the results could be disastrous. Musk’s two-year tenure as the owner of the platform formerly known as Twitter resulted in a drastic shrinking of the company’s workforce, as well as an estimated 80 percent reduction in the company’s value and sharp decline in revenue.
When not railing about immigration, the Trump campaign has made economic wellness a central talking point of its electoral message, promising explosive growth and endless prosperity to prospective voters. Economists say the former president’s actual proposals will do the opposite.
In June, a coalition of Nobel Prize-winning economists warned that Trump will “reignite” inflation and “have a negative impact on the U.S.’s economic standing in the world and a destabilizing effect on the U.S.’s domestic economy.”
Other macroeconomic experts have warned that Trump’s proposal to implement broad-based tariffs on all imported goods would not only raise the prices of common goods for Americans, but send shockwaves throughout global markets.
Musk, who benefits from extensive government subsidies and federal contracts to fund and produce his technological projects, has opposed Vice President Kamala Harris’ proposal to implement more stringent tax burdens on billionaires. Under Trump, Musk would not only be granted a tax boon, but a position in the federal government where his decisions would — by his own admission — steamroll Americans desperate for economic stability.
Tue, October 29, 2024
Economists have repeatedly warned that a second Trump administration would be a boon to the ultra wealthy and a backslide for everyone else. As the 2024 campaign season enters its final days, the former president’s most prominent billionaire backer is in agreement, and he wants regular Americans to just suck it up.
On Tuesday, Elon Musk — the billionaire owner of X (formerly Twitter) and Tesla — agreed in a social media post that Donald Trump’s return to office would likely crash the economy.
“If Trump succeeds in forcing through mass deportations, combined with Elon hacking away at the government, firing people and reducing the deficit – there will be an initial severe overreaction in the economy,” user @FischerKing64 wrote on X. “Markets will tumble. But when the storm passes and everyone realizes we are on sounder footing, there will be a rapid recovery to a healthier, sustainable economy,” he added.
“Sounds about right,” Musk replied.
The billionaire has been heavily campaigning for Trump in the final weeks of the campaign, including by hosting a potentially illegal cash-for-signatures scheme and million-dollar raffle for registered voters in key swing states. The former president has, in turn, vowed that Musk will be appointed as the head of a “government efficiency commission” under his administration, and be tasked with slashing wasteful spending.
On Friday, Musk explained how he felt such an appointment would play out during a virtual town hall hosted on X.
“We have to reduce spending to live within our means,” Musk said, that will “involve some temporary hardship, but it will ensure long-term prosperity.”
It’s unlikely that the world’s richest man will feel any sort of material economic hardship as he takes scissors to the federal budget. If Musk’s own corporate record cutting costs is anything to go by, the results could be disastrous. Musk’s two-year tenure as the owner of the platform formerly known as Twitter resulted in a drastic shrinking of the company’s workforce, as well as an estimated 80 percent reduction in the company’s value and sharp decline in revenue.
When not railing about immigration, the Trump campaign has made economic wellness a central talking point of its electoral message, promising explosive growth and endless prosperity to prospective voters. Economists say the former president’s actual proposals will do the opposite.
In June, a coalition of Nobel Prize-winning economists warned that Trump will “reignite” inflation and “have a negative impact on the U.S.’s economic standing in the world and a destabilizing effect on the U.S.’s domestic economy.”
Other macroeconomic experts have warned that Trump’s proposal to implement broad-based tariffs on all imported goods would not only raise the prices of common goods for Americans, but send shockwaves throughout global markets.
Musk, who benefits from extensive government subsidies and federal contracts to fund and produce his technological projects, has opposed Vice President Kamala Harris’ proposal to implement more stringent tax burdens on billionaires. Under Trump, Musk would not only be granted a tax boon, but a position in the federal government where his decisions would — by his own admission — steamroll Americans desperate for economic stability.
Rolling Stone
Elon Musk agrees: Trump’s economic plans will lead to ‘hardship’ and cause markets to ‘tumble’
Alex Woodward
Tue, October 29, 2024
The world’s wealthiest man appears to believe that a Donald Trump presidency must crash the economy in order to benefit Americans.
Elon Musk agreed on Tuesday that proposed drastic cuts to the federal government, coupled with Trump’s sweeping deportations, will likely cause global markets to “tumble.”
Last week, Musk said during a virtual town hall that Americans will experience a “temporary hardship” for “long-term prosperity.”
“We have to reduce spending to live within our means,” said Musk, who has pitched himself as the director of a new “Office of Government Efficiency” under a second Trump administration.
He claimed on Friday that he would “balance the budget immediately,” adding that “a lot of people who are taking advantage of government are going to be upset about that” and that he will “probably need a lot of security, but it’s got to be done.”
“And if it’s not done, we’ll just go bankrupt,” he said.
His political action committee has similarly stated that “America is in the fast lane to bankruptcy.” There is no evidence that the United States will become “bankrupt.”
On Tuesday, Musk agreed with a social media post on his X platform that Trump’s proposals will have a “severe” economic impact.
“If Trump succeeds in forcing through mass deportations, combined with Elon hacking away at the government, firing people and reducing the deficit — there will be an initial severe overreaction in the economy,” @FischerKing64 wrote on X. “This economy propped up with debt (generating asset bubbles) and artificially suppressed wages (as a result of illegal immigration). Markets will tumble. But when the storm passes and everyone realizes we are on sounder footing, there will be a rapid recovery to a healthier, sustainable economy.”
“Sounds about right,” Musk replied.
Donald Trump’s ally Elon Musk said he would cut the US budget by one-third during his remarks at Madison Squae Garden on Octobr 27 (REUTERS)
Trump and Musk have proposed an Office of Government Efficiency that would perform “a complete financial and performance audit of the entire federal government” with “recommendations for drastic reforms,” the former president said last month.
Before introducing Melania Trump at the former president’s rally in Madison Square Garden on Sunday, Musk said he could eliminate “at least $2 trillion” from the federal budget — roughly one-third of existing spending.
“Your money is being wasted,” he said. “We’re going to get the government off your back and out of your pocket book.”
Musk is one of the most prolific spenders when it comes to elections, funneling at least $132 million into campaigns to get Trump and Republicans elected this year, according to federal campaign finance documents.
The Tesla CEO and X owner was sued by Philadelphia’s district attorney for a potentially illegal scheme to randomly award $1 million every day to voters in swing states who signed his PAC’s petition. The Department of Justice issued a warning to his PAC last week.
He’s not alone among Trump’s wealthy and influential allies promoting the idea of economic collapse as a necessary byproduct of Trump policy.
Last week, Cantor Fitzgerald CEO Howard Lutnick, a co-chair of Trump’s 2025 transition team, agreed that Trump’s proposed tariffs on imports would raise the price on consumer goods, despite Republicans arguing that President Joe Biden’s administration and Vice President Kamala Harris have failed to lower everyday costs for Americans.
“Correct: If I raise the tariff on just this particular idiosyncratic product, yes, right, it will be more expensive,” he said on CNBC’s Squawk Box.
Musk wants to run an ‘Office of Government Efficiency’ under Trump’s potential administration (AFP via Getty Images)
Trump’s running mate JD Vance also suggested that those higher costs would be offset by higher wages, of which there is no guarantee.
“Anything that you lose on the tariff from the perspective of the consumer, you gain in higher wages, so you’re ultimately much better off,” he told NBC’s Meet the Press this summer.
Trump has proposed a 20 percent tariff on all imported goods, including 60 percent tariffs on goods imported from China, a 100 percent tariff on goods from countries that have shifted away from trading with the dollar, and a 2,000 percent tariff on vehicles built in Mexico.
He has also floated an improbable idea to potentially eliminate all federal taxes and rely solely on tariffs to support the nation’s multi-trillion dollar annual budget.
Elon Musk Says Trump Will Bring 'Temporary Hardship' For Americans
Arthur Delaney, Jonathan Nicholson
Updated Tue, October 29, 2024
Former President Donald Trump’s biggest financial backer and top campaign surrogate, Tesla CEO Elon Musk, says he and Trump plan to inflict “temporary hardship” on American citizens if the Republican nominee wins the White House in November.
Trump has said Musk would lead a commission on how to reduce government spending, and Musk has said he would identify trillions in cuts.
“We have to reduce spending to live within our means. That necessarily involves some temporary hardship, but it will ensure long-term prosperity,” Musk said last week during a “Telephone Town Hall” hosted on his social media website.
Musk, the tech billionaire who has spent more than $130 million backing Trump and regularly spreads racist conspiracy theories about immigration and voting, acknowledged that steep cuts would trigger political opposition, but said Trump would support the idea of everyone “taking a haircut,” an informal financial term for when an asset loses value.
“President Trump is supportive that everyone’s taking a haircut here because America’s got to live within its means, and we can’t be a wastrel,” Musk said.
On Tuesday, Musk offered a similar sentiment. On X, the website formally known as Twitter until Musk bought it, a user wrote Trump’s plan for mass deportations, “combined with Elon hacking away at the government, firing people and reducing the deficit” could cause a “severe overreaction in the economy,” with markets tumbling, followed by “a rapid recovery to a healthier, sustainable economy.”
“Sounds about right,” Musk replied.
Economists in both parties say removing millions of people from the country abruptly and imposing tariffs would quickly lead to price spikes and reignite inflation. When coupled with Trump’s plans to further cut taxes on the wealthy and corporations, his economic policy would in effect raise taxes on lower- and middle-income Americans to pay for high-income tax cuts.
Any tax changes or spending cuts, however, would need to be OK’d by Congress, and cuts of the magnitude Musk has suggested would be unlikely to win approval from lawmakers.
Presidential campaigns usually don’t tell voters their candidate’s policies will increase material hardship. Trump himself typically describes the prospect of him serving another term in the White House as something that will bring unparalleled prosperity to the American people.
“We will end inflation. We will stop the invasion of criminals coming into our country and we will bring back the American dream,” Trump said at a Monday rally in Atlanta, Georgia. “Our country will be better and bolder and richer and safer and stronger than ever before. This election is a choice between whether we will have four more years of incompetence and failure, or whether or not we will begin the four greatest years of the history of our country.”
Spokespeople for the Trump campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Trump has said he would appoint Musk to a “government efficiency” commission that would identify wasteful spending. Musk suggested Sunday he could easily slash more than $2 trillion from the federal government’s annual $6 trillion in spending.
Trump has in the past often derided fellow Republicans for being too focused on balancing the budget — and especially for suggesting cuts to Social Security and Medicare, two of the biggest and most popular government programs. Musk’s budget-trimming plans would impose on Congress a politically impossible choice: Cut them, or make much sharper cuts to other programs in order to leave them alone.
“I will never do anything that will jeopardize or hurt Social Security or Medicare,” Trump insisted in an interview with right-wing news site Breitbart in March. “We’ll have to do it elsewhere. But we’re not going to do anything to hurt them.”
(Trump repeatedly proposed cuts to Social Security’s disability insurance programs when he was in office.)
Musk did not say where he would start cutting if Trump wins and he were put in charge of government efficiency, but he sounded confident the task would not be difficult.
“The reality is there is so much government waste, it’s kind of like being in a room full of targets. You can’t miss. You fire in any direction, you’re going to hit a target,” he said.
Musk also compared government finances to those of individuals, a framing the overwhelming proportion of economists reject. Countries, unlike individuals, are not meant to have finite lifespans. The global economy does not rest on currency issued by private individuals but is reliant on the U.S. dollar as a commonly accepted means of trade, a status that has given the U.S. economy unique advantages.
“If you’re an individual and you’re racking up crazy debt, well obviously the thing to do is reduce some spending and you’ve got to start paying down that debt. The same is true of a country. So that’s what I’d like to do,” Musk said, adding if it were possible he’d like to balance the budget “immediately.”
“Obviously, a lot of people who are taking advantage of the government are going to be upset about that. I’m probably going to need a lot of security. But it’s got to be done.”
Arthur Delaney, Jonathan Nicholson
Updated Tue, October 29, 2024
Former President Donald Trump’s biggest financial backer and top campaign surrogate, Tesla CEO Elon Musk, says he and Trump plan to inflict “temporary hardship” on American citizens if the Republican nominee wins the White House in November.
Trump has said Musk would lead a commission on how to reduce government spending, and Musk has said he would identify trillions in cuts.
“We have to reduce spending to live within our means. That necessarily involves some temporary hardship, but it will ensure long-term prosperity,” Musk said last week during a “Telephone Town Hall” hosted on his social media website.
Musk, the tech billionaire who has spent more than $130 million backing Trump and regularly spreads racist conspiracy theories about immigration and voting, acknowledged that steep cuts would trigger political opposition, but said Trump would support the idea of everyone “taking a haircut,” an informal financial term for when an asset loses value.
“President Trump is supportive that everyone’s taking a haircut here because America’s got to live within its means, and we can’t be a wastrel,” Musk said.
On Tuesday, Musk offered a similar sentiment. On X, the website formally known as Twitter until Musk bought it, a user wrote Trump’s plan for mass deportations, “combined with Elon hacking away at the government, firing people and reducing the deficit” could cause a “severe overreaction in the economy,” with markets tumbling, followed by “a rapid recovery to a healthier, sustainable economy.”
“Sounds about right,” Musk replied.
Economists in both parties say removing millions of people from the country abruptly and imposing tariffs would quickly lead to price spikes and reignite inflation. When coupled with Trump’s plans to further cut taxes on the wealthy and corporations, his economic policy would in effect raise taxes on lower- and middle-income Americans to pay for high-income tax cuts.
Any tax changes or spending cuts, however, would need to be OK’d by Congress, and cuts of the magnitude Musk has suggested would be unlikely to win approval from lawmakers.
Presidential campaigns usually don’t tell voters their candidate’s policies will increase material hardship. Trump himself typically describes the prospect of him serving another term in the White House as something that will bring unparalleled prosperity to the American people.
“We will end inflation. We will stop the invasion of criminals coming into our country and we will bring back the American dream,” Trump said at a Monday rally in Atlanta, Georgia. “Our country will be better and bolder and richer and safer and stronger than ever before. This election is a choice between whether we will have four more years of incompetence and failure, or whether or not we will begin the four greatest years of the history of our country.”
Spokespeople for the Trump campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Trump has said he would appoint Musk to a “government efficiency” commission that would identify wasteful spending. Musk suggested Sunday he could easily slash more than $2 trillion from the federal government’s annual $6 trillion in spending.
Trump has in the past often derided fellow Republicans for being too focused on balancing the budget — and especially for suggesting cuts to Social Security and Medicare, two of the biggest and most popular government programs. Musk’s budget-trimming plans would impose on Congress a politically impossible choice: Cut them, or make much sharper cuts to other programs in order to leave them alone.
“I will never do anything that will jeopardize or hurt Social Security or Medicare,” Trump insisted in an interview with right-wing news site Breitbart in March. “We’ll have to do it elsewhere. But we’re not going to do anything to hurt them.”
(Trump repeatedly proposed cuts to Social Security’s disability insurance programs when he was in office.)
Musk did not say where he would start cutting if Trump wins and he were put in charge of government efficiency, but he sounded confident the task would not be difficult.
“The reality is there is so much government waste, it’s kind of like being in a room full of targets. You can’t miss. You fire in any direction, you’re going to hit a target,” he said.
Musk also compared government finances to those of individuals, a framing the overwhelming proportion of economists reject. Countries, unlike individuals, are not meant to have finite lifespans. The global economy does not rest on currency issued by private individuals but is reliant on the U.S. dollar as a commonly accepted means of trade, a status that has given the U.S. economy unique advantages.
“If you’re an individual and you’re racking up crazy debt, well obviously the thing to do is reduce some spending and you’ve got to start paying down that debt. The same is true of a country. So that’s what I’d like to do,” Musk said, adding if it were possible he’d like to balance the budget “immediately.”
“Obviously, a lot of people who are taking advantage of the government are going to be upset about that. I’m probably going to need a lot of security. But it’s got to be done.”
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