UPDATE (Oct. 30, 2024, 9:36 a.m.) This post has been updated to include Elon Musk's post to X on Tuesday confirming he believes the economy will crash if Donald Trump is elected and imposes his plan.
Elon Musk has a new message for Americans about what to expect from a potential second Donald Trump presidency: suffering.
As Rolling Stone reports, Musk, who Trump has vowed will oversee the “efficiency” of government agencies if he’s elected president, said during a virtual town hall on Friday that Americans will need to endure “temporary hardship” if Trump wins.
As Rolling Stone reported:
Elon Musk, the world’s richest man, said that if Donald Trump wins and gives him a role in government, Americans will suffer “hardship” as a result of efforts to address the national debt. He made the comments Friday in a virtual town hall on his website, X. When asked about “tackling the nation’s debt,” he mentioned changing the tax code, and then went on to say there would be some financial difficulty imposed on some Americans. “Most importantly, we have to reduce spending to live within our means,” he said, adding that these efforts will “involve some temporary hardship, but it will ensure long-term prosperity.”
How long will that hardship last? As long as Musk claims is necessary, it seems. And he went on to suggest his plans could garner some fierce backlash. According to Rolling Stone:
Later on, Musk said that he would “balance the budget immediately,” adding: “Obviously, a lot of people who are taking advantage of government are going to be upset about that. I’ll probably need a lot of security, but it’s got to be done. And if it’s not done, we’ll just go bankrupt.”
There's no evidence whatsoever the United States is at risk of "going bankrupt." But aside from that, it's eerie that he's already deeply paranoid about steep austerity he hasn’t even been allowed to implement. If a plan is so extreme that the thought of it has its uber-rich creator plotting ways to insulate himself from public unrest, we can expect it to be incredibly unpopular. The whole, you-must-suffer-for-your-country thing certainly smacks of authoritarian propaganda. And I think we can all rest assured Musk — a billionaire many times over, who has already benefited greatly from government investment — won’t be enduring any true hardship if his plan is ever implemented.
Speaking at Trump’s New York City rally over the weekend, Musk said he thinks he’d be able to cut about 30% of the federal budget.
Musk on Tuesday confirmed his belief that the economy will suffer if Trump is elected and implements his policy plans. In response to an X user who posted there will be “an initial severe overreaction in the economy” and “markets will tumble,” Musk tweeted Tuesday: “Sounds about right.”
For the record, this plan would match cuts implemented by Argentina's far-right, pro-Trump president, Javier Milei, who has developed a cult following in today’s GOP. And if that’s Musk’s model, Americans have a lot to fear.
Those policies have helped skyrocket Argentina’s poverty rate to over 50% in the first six months of Milei's presidency. The hardship Musk is predicting sounds quite hard, indeed. Between Trump repeatedly praising the Gilded Age and Musk priming everyday Americans for "hardship" if MAGA retakes the White House, it seems quite obvious that a vote for Trump is a vote for extreme wealth inequality and all the suffering that comes with it.