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Elon Musk is the richest person on the planet right now. That’s probably part of why he’s fine with former President Donald Trump’s economic plans causing, in his words, “temporary hardship” in the pursuit of a healthier economy years down the road.

Early on Tuesday morning, Musk replied with “sounds about right” to a post on his social media site X predicting that a Trump presidency would cause a “severe overreaction” in the economy and crash the stock market. The post pointed to Trump’s promises to deport about 11 million undocumented immigrants, Musk’s hypothetical job recommending ways to slash government spending, and mass layoffs in the federal government.

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“But when the storm passes and everyone realizes we are on sounder footing, there will be a rapid recovery to a healthier, sustainable economy,” the X user added. “History could be made in the coming two years.”

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https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1851138625679081732

According to most analyses published by economists, the Republican presidential candidate’s proposals would be overwhelmingly negative for the U.S. They would hasten Social Security’s insolvency, increase unemployment, raise inflation, lower GDP, massively add to the federal debt, and boost tax rates for the vast majority of Americans.

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Trump has promised mass deportations of undocumented immigrations to extend his 2017 tax cuts and slash taxes for many specific groups of Americans, ranging from waiters and police officers to Americans living abroad and caregivers.

His proposed offset for those efforts is massive tariffs on foreign imports, although that would likely just pass the buck along to lower-income Americans who spend a larger percentage of their income on goods like food and clothing. His tariff ideas have ranged everywhere from a 10% to 20% duty on all imports — with greater tariffs on Chinese imports — to as much as 2,000% on some specific products and a 100% tariff on countries that “leave” the U.S. dollar.

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Read more: Donald Trump and the trouble with tariffs

In the event that the economy buckles under the weight of Trump’s plans, Musk wouldn’t suffer. His wealth may take a bit of a dive, given that much of it comes from his ownership of Tesla (TSLA+0.81%) stock, but he’d be fine overall.

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His net worth is $269.3 billion, more than $50 billion greater than the second-wealthiest person alive, Oracle’s (ORCL+1.31%) Larry Ellison, according to Forbes. As of 2022, the average net worth in the U.S. was $1.063 million, while the median was $192,000, according to Investopedia.

During a town hall last week, Musk said that cutting government spending would be relatively easy due to how much the federal government wastes, calling for a simplified tax code and funding cuts without exceptions.

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“We have to reduce spending to live within our means,” Musk said. “And that necessarily involves some temporary hardship, but it will ensure long-term prosperity.”