Elon Musk agrees that Trump’s victory would cause an economic crash

Economists have repeatedly warned that a second Trump administration would be a new administration a boon to the ultra-rich, and a setback for everyone else. As the 2024 campaign season enters its final days, the former president’s most prominent billionaire agrees and wants ordinary 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 Donald Trump‘s return to office would likely crash the economy.

“If Trump succeeds in mass deportations, combined with Elon’s hacking of the government, firing people and reducing the budget deficit – there will initially be a severe overreaction in the economy,” user @FischerKing64 wrote on X. “The markets will plummet. But when the storm passes and everyone realizes that we are on sounder footing, there will be a rapid recovery to a healthier, sustainable economy,” he added.

“Sounds good,” Musk replied.

The billionaire has campaigned heavily for Trump in the final weeks of the campaign, including organizing a potentially illegal cash-for-signature scheme and a multimillion-dollar lottery for registered voters in key swing states. The former president, in turn, has promised that Musk will be appointed head of a “government efficiency commission” under his administration and will be tasked with cutting wasteful spending.

On Friday, Musk explained how he thought such an appointment would take place during a virtual town hall on

“We need to reduce spending to stay within our means,” Musk said. That will “bring temporary hardship, but it will guarantee long-term prosperity.”

It’s unlikely that the world’s richest man will experience any material economic hardship if he takes a scissors-toting approach to the federal budget. If Musk’s own record corporate savings are anything to go by, the results could be disastrous. Musk’s two-year tenure as owner of the platform formerly known as Twitter resulted in a drastic reduction in the company’s workforce. 80 percent reduction in company value and a sharp decline in sales.

When Trump’s campaign isn’t ranting about immigration, he has made economic well-being a central talking point in his electoral message, promising explosive growth and endless prosperity to future voters. Economists say the former president’s actual proposals will do the opposite.

In June, a coalition of Nobel Prize-winning economists gathered warned that Trump will “fuel” inflation and “have a negative impact on the US economic position in the world and a destabilizing effect on the US domestic economy.”

Other macroeconomic experts have warned that the former president’s proposal to impose broad tariffs on all imported goods would not only raise the prices of common goods for Americans, but also shock waves in global markets.

Musk, who benefits from extensive government subsidies and federal contracts to finance and produce his technology projects, has opposed Vice President Kamala Harris’ proposal to impose stricter tax burdens on billionaires. Under Trump, Musk would get not only a tax break but also a position in the federal government where his decisions would — he says — catch Americans desperate for economic stability off guard.