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Date: October 29, 2024 at 18:16:32
From: mitra, [DNS_Address]
Subject: Musk Says Trump Will Bring 'Temporary Hardship' For Americans |
URL: https://www.huffpost.com/entry/elon-musk-donald-trump-hardship_n_67211471e4b04165810ad447 |
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Politics
Donald Trump
2024 elections
elon musk
Elon Musk Says Trump Will Bring 'Temporary Hardship'
For Americans
The statements from Trump's biggest backer are
stunningly contrary to the former president's sunnier
description of American life under a second Trump
presidency.
By
Arthur Delaney
and
Jonathan Nicholson
Oct 29, 2024, 03:18 PM EDT
Updated 3 hours ago
1.5K COMMENTS
00:24
00:58
And I'm going to talk about his running mate.
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.”
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[443454] [443458] [443486] [443457] |
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443454 |
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Date: October 29, 2024 at 19:07:31
From: Redhart, [DNS_Address]
Subject: Re: Musk Says Trump Will Bring 'Temporary Hardship' For Americans |
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He's going to gut the economy and send blue collar
workers back to the tenement cities of the early 20th
century when the depression hit.
All of you who receive social security and medicare will
be shit out of luck. Disabled children, disabled
veterans, likewise.
He will turn us into the 3rd world country he's warned
the other side will do.
There's your economic plan, OT.
There's your four horsemen.
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Responses:
[443458] [443486] [443457] |
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443458 |
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Date: October 29, 2024 at 23:50:12
From: ao, [DNS_Address]
Subject: Re: Musk Says Trump Will Bring 'Temporary Hardship' For Americans |
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"the early 20th century when the depression hit"
I imagine the Depression is the kind of thing Elon thinks of as "temporary"
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Responses:
[443486] |
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443486 |
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Date: October 30, 2024 at 10:53:55
From: Redhart, [DNS_Address]
Subject: Re: Musk Says Trump Will Bring 'Temporary Hardship' For Americans |
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yes, the "temporary hardship" for the rich, while the
middle and poor classes legitimately suffer or even die.
But in the end, people like Elon and Trump will be
better off. The rest of us?
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443457 |
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Date: October 29, 2024 at 21:51:54
From: mitra, [DNS_Address]
Subject: Re: Musk Says Trump Will Bring 'Temporary Hardship' For Americans |
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Yes, see child labor law post.
These people are really despicable.
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