Tesla CEO Elon Musk, former President Donald Trump’s biggest financial backer and top surrogate in the campaign, said he and Trump plan to cause “temporary distress” to American citizens if the Republican candidate wins the White House in November.

Trump said Musk would lead a commission on how to reduce government spending, and Musk said he would make trillions in cuts.

“To live within our means, we must reduce expenses. This certainly brings some temporary challenges, but it will ensure long-term prosperity,” Musk said at a meeting last week. “Phone Town Hall” was featured on the social media site.

Musk, the tech billionaire who has spent more than $130 million supporting Trump and regularly spreads racist conspiracy theories about immigration and voting, acknowledged steep cuts would trigger political opposition but said he would support Trump’s idea of ​​everyone getting a “haircut.” An informal financial term used when an asset loses value.

“President Trump here supports everyone getting a haircut because America has to live within its means and we can’t be wasteful,” Musk said.

On Tuesday, Musk expressed a similar view. A user on website X, which was officially known as Twitter until Musk bought it wrote Trump’s mass deportation plan, “combined with Elon hacking the government, firing people, and reducing the deficit,” could cause a “serious overreaction in the economy,” disrupting markets, followed by a “rapid recovery to a healthier, sustainable economy.” . .”

“Sounds about right,” Musk said. replied.

Economists in both parties say that suddenly removing millions of people from the country and imposing tariffs would quickly lead to a rise in prices and reignite inflation. Combined with Trump’s plans to further cut taxes on the wealthy and corporations, his economic policy will actually increase taxes on low- and middle-income Americans to offset high-income tax cuts.

But any tax changes or spending cuts must be approved by Congress, and cuts of the magnitude Musk is proposing are unlikely to win lawmakers’ approval.

Presidential campaigns generally do not tell voters that their candidate’s policies will increase financial hardship. Trump himself often describes the prospect of serving another term in the White House as something that would 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 rally in Atlanta, Georgia, on Monday. “Our country will be better, braver, richer, safer and stronger than ever before. This election “It is a choice between whether we will spend another four years of incompetence and failure, or whether we will begin the four greatest years in our country’s history.”

Spokespeople for the Trump campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Trump has He said he would appoint Musk to the “government efficiency” commission This determines wasteful expenditure. Musk suggested Sunday that he could easily cut more than $2 trillion from the federal government’s $6 trillion in annual spending.

Trump has often mocked his friends in the past Republicans Because they are too focused on balancing the budget and specifically proposing cuts to Social Security and Medicare, two of the largest and most popular government programs. Musk’s budget-cutting plans would impose a politically impossible choice on Congress: Cut them or leave them alone by making sharper cuts to other programs.

“I will never do anything that would jeopardize or harm Social Security or Medicare,” Trump insisted in an interview with the right-wing news site Breitbart in March. “We’ll have to do it somewhere else. But we won’t do anything to hurt them.”

(Trump repeatedly proposed cuts to Social Security disability insurance programs while in office.)

Musk didn’t say where he would start cutting if Trump wins and is held accountable for government efficiency, but he seemed confident the task wouldn’t be difficult.

“The truth is there is so much government waste it is like being in a room full of targets. You can’t miss it. “Whichever direction you shoot, you will hit the target,” he said.

Musk also compared government finances to individuals’ finances; This is a framework that the vast majority of economists reject. Unlike individuals, countries do not have limited lifespans. The global economy does not rely on privately minted currency but is dependent on the US dollar as a widely accepted medium of trade; this is a status that provides unique advantages to the U.S. economy.

“If you are an individual and you are racking up crazy debt, of course the thing to do is to reduce some of the expenses and start paying off that debt. The same goes for a country. “I’d like to do that, too,” Musk said, adding that he would like to balance the budget “immediately” if it were possible.

“Obviously, a lot of people who are taking advantage of the government are going to be upset about this. I’ll probably need a lot of security. But it needs to be done.”