Musk says Trump’s victory would lead to “hardships” for some Americans

Elon Muskthe richest man in the world, said that if Donald Trump wins and gives him a role in the government, Americans will suffer “hardships” as a result of the 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 national debt,” he mentioned changing the tax code, then said it would create financial hardship for some Americans: “The most important thing is we have to reduce spending to stay within our means to live’. he said, adding that these efforts “will entail some temporary hardships, but it will ensure long-term prosperity.”

Later, Musk said he would “balance the budget immediately,” adding: “Obviously, a lot of people who abuse the government are going to be angry about that. I probably need a lot of security, but it has to be done. And if it doesn’t happen, we’ll just go bankrupt.”

Trump has said that Musk would head a “government efficiency committee” to organize a “full financial and performance audit of the entire federal government” and make “recommendations for drastic reforms.”

JD Vance, Trump’s running mate has proposed which Musk could focus on Social security for potential savings. Vance said last month of the billionaire’s potential role: “How are we going to fix all the broken inefficiencies?” He continued, “And the complicated thing about this, man, is it’s going to look very different in, say, the Department of Defense versus Social Security.”

Musk endorsed Trump in mid-July. He has donated nearly $119 million to his pro-Trump Super PAC, America PAC, since early July before publicly endorsing the former president. According to federal election data, the group has spent $123 million to boost Trump in the presidential race, including $102 million since Vice President Kamala Harris took over the Democratic ticket.

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To save money, Trump’s campaign has essentially outsourced its get-out-the-vote program to Musk’s America PAC. If Rolling stone has reported, some Republicans are close to Trump have warned the former president that they are concerned about the effectiveness of the group’s efforts.

Republicans have long sowed fear about the national debt during Democratic presidencies — and seemed less concerned about it during Republican administrations. “People who claim to be deeply concerned about debt are all too often hypocrites – the level of their hypocrisy often reaches the surreal,” wrote New York Times columnist Paul Krugman.

The tax law that Trump signed in 2017, which lowered tax rates for corporations and the wealthy, has contributed greatly to the national budget deficit. Trump has personally bragged on cutting taxes for the nation’s “highest” earners, promising to maintain those tax cuts while proposing a further reduction in the corporate tax rate.

Musk is a major government contractor and beneficiary of federal spending. His company SpaceX has several federal contracts, including $1.8 billion contract with an intelligence agency to establish a global surveillance network with satellites. The company also works with NASA to get astronauts to and from the International Space Station.

Speaking about the national debt on Friday, Tesla’s CEO and debt. And the same goes for a country. So that’s what I’d like to do.”

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Musk, of course, borrowed $13 billion to buy Twitter in 2022, before rebranding the social media platform as X. The wall Street news called this “The worst buyout for banks since the financial crisis.”

On Saturday at an America PAC town hall in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, Musk talked more about potential spending. “People sometimes ask: where would you start with government efficiency? And it’s like being in a room where the whole room is a target, so you can shoot in any direction without missing,” he said.

He added: “It can’t be, you know, we’ll cut a little bit here and there. That’s not going to work there. There needs to be some pretty radical cost savings.”

At another point during the town hall, Musk again “joked” about someone killing Harris, the vice president.

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Calling Harris a “puppet,” Musk said, “I made a joke that was slightly misinterpreted, which was, ‘Nobody even bothers to try to kill Kamala.’ That’s pointless. Why? They just get another doll. No one even cares about it. No one even tried to kill (Joe) Biden.”

It was at least the fourth time that Musk has publicly wondered why no one is trying to assassinate the President or Vice President of the United States.