Elon Musk continues to say that Trump will destroy the economy

Top economists and assorted financial experts have sounded the alarm that Donald Trump’s plans for a second presidential administration would the federal deficit increases trillions of dollars worsening inflationand ultimately send the US economy screaming into a recession (if not a recession depression). Oddly enough, Trump’s top campaign operative, Elon Musk, seems to agree that the candidate’s policies could hurt the economy.

For the second time in a week, Musk oddly suggested that Trump would bring economic “hardship” to America, a claim that would be funny if it didn’t seem so likely. The first instance came during a “Town Hall” hosted on tech billionaire X’s website, during which Musk said cryptically: “We need to cut expenses to live within our means. And that necessarily involves some temporary hardship, but it will ensure long-term prosperity.” Musk, who was talking about reducing the national debt when he made the comments, did not elaborate on what he was referring to.

If that spooked some voters, Musk did little to assuage their fears when the tech billionaire appeared to restate a vision of future adversity for Americans on Monday. Musk did so by replying to a right-wing account on X, whose guy wrote a screed about a future economic “crash”:

If Trump succeeds in forcing mass deportations, combined with Elon hacking the government, as crazy as it sounds, firing people and cutting the deficit – there will be an initial severe overreaction in the economy – this debt-backed economy (creating asset bubbles) and artificially suppressed wages (as a result of illegal immigration). Markets will crash. But when the storm passes and everyone realizes that we are on sounder footing, there will be a rapid return to a healthier and more sustainable economy. History could be made in the next two years.

Musk replied, “Sounds good.”

a lot of economists warned that Trump’s plans could spell disaster for the US economy. His plans to deport millions of illegal immigrants, give huge tax cuts to the wealthiest Americans, weaken the US dollarand establish global tariffsall were cited as terrible ideas that could increase the federal deficit, fuel inflation, and cause chaos. Trump’s advisers have floated plans — such as massive cuts in federal spending and the firing of tens of thousands of government workers — that would surely spur more chaos. That said, it’s downright bizarre to see Musk — a key Trump ally — admit this in the midst of one of the tightest presidential races in modern history.

Why would Musk do this? It seems notable that one of Musk’s heroes is the current president of Argentina, Javier Milei, who has been credited with taking a “saw” to the nation’s government. Milei, an avowed “free market,” “anti-woke” libertarian, took office in December 2023 and instituted what he calls an “austerity” budget.characterized by economic “shock treatment”. This strategy involved deeply cutting government spending on welfare programs, devaluing the peso, and cutting thousands of government jobs, all in hopes of a vague libertarian glow in the near or distant future.

The parallels between Milei’s government and the plans championed by Trump’s allies are worth considering. While the US and Argentina are two very different countries, the ideology that has animated Mila’s transformation of his government and the ideology that fuels many of Trump’s advisers is essentially the same. ProPublica recently revealed goals championed by powerful adviser Trump and right libertarianRussell Vought, said to be a key figure in Project 2025, the anti-government effort promulgated by the Heritage Foundation. Vought similarly said he wants to drastically reorganize the federal government and put career civil servants “in trauma.” Musk, himself, has advocated for a “Government Efficiency” task force, the type of which would “audit” public agencies to look for inefficiencies. Like Milea’s strategy, Trump’s advisers see a leaner and leaner bureaucracy as the key to long-term national wealth.

That said, Argentina under Miley doesn’t seem to see a lot of riches. In the first six months of his presidency, the nation’s poverty rates rose by 10 percent, and last year the inflation rate soared to 211 percent, the highest in 32 years. Rates of homelessness and job loss they were seen to grow. Many Argentines they were literally “nailing” dumpsters to surviveReuters reported in March. Inflation in the country now slow downbut only after I went up to the highest rate in the world. When Milei took office last December, his commentlike Musk’s, it was: “We know that in the short term it’s going to get worse.” Mission accomplished, I guess.

For whatever reason, Trump’s supporters consider him a competent and successful businessman and to have fond memories of the economy under his presidency. Despite these widely held beliefs, plenty of credible economic data suggests that Trump has in fact inherited a strong economy (as it was in a period of sustained recovery since the 2008 financial crisis) from the outgoing Obama administration and that Trump’s policies actually served to undermine that strong economyit doesn’t help.

Ironically, Trump’s economic plans seem designed to hurt his base — a situation his voters clearly don’t understand. For example, Trump has claimed he wants to the end of Social Security taxes. Voters at a recent rally applauded for this proposalapparently because they don’t like taxes. Yet Social Security continues to do it exist due to taxes. Trump’s suggestion is the equivalent of a bank telling a small business it will cut its line of credit; the business would falter and die. Ending taxes on SS would starve eventually too bankrupted the program within a few yearsleading to tens of millions of Americans being thrown into poverty. Instead, Harris did announced plans to save the program by raising taxes on the top 1% of Americans.

The bottom line of all this is that if Trump were to win the presidency, and if he tried to push through many of his team’s right-wing economic proposals, he would obviously need the approval of Congress to pass them. It is unlikely that he will receive such an approval. That said, the very fact that such harmful policies are being launched is scary enough.