“What Musk plans can only be achieved by huge budget cuts. He announced 2 trillion dollars, which is 2 thousand billion. This is incomprehensible to us as a figure, and it can only be done if healthcare, social protection, and veteran benefits are cut. Congress will not approve this, it is too large an amount. However, despite this, some of it will pass. If I were a public sector employee, if I were a union leader, I would not be indifferent,” said CEVES economist Lazar Ivanović, guesting on the show Puls Srbije, dedicated to the potential role of eccentric figures like Elon Musk in a future Trump cabinet.
Ivanović said that Musk is known for not being averse to laying off a large number of workers. “As soon as he took over Twitter in 2022, he laid off 75% of the workers. That's almost the entire company. At Tesla, almost 10% of the workers were laid off at the beginning of the year. This speaks to his views. He sees himself as a so-called libertarian – he believes in a small role for the state, in the dominant role of the market,” said Ivanović, emphasizing that Musk's commission is, for now, a completely informal matter, because it has not been approved by Congress, does not have a prescribed budget, etc. “But, as we have seen, in the Trump administration, that is not particularly important. What is important is whom he trusts, with whom he talks. Elon Musk is actually one of the more prominent people there,” said Ivanović.
Watch the full show here.
