Billionaire investor Mark Cuban predicted the United States economy would be in a “far worse situation than 2008” if President Trump’s tariffs stay in place and Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) continues to make steep cuts to the federal budget.
“If the new tariffs stay in place for multiple years, and are enforced and inflationary, and DOGE continues to cut and fire, we will be in a far worse situation than 2008,” Cuban wrote Saturday in a post on Bluesky.
Cuban, who backed former Vice President Kamala Harris's 2024 White House bid, made the statement in response to a user's question on what the "worst-case outcome" would be if Trump did not make any deals to reduce countries' individual tariff rates, which Trump announced last Wednesday as part of his sweeping package of global tariffs.
“Would we face a recession comparable to 2008? Worse? As bad as the 2020 pandemic recession? Worse?” the user asked, prompting Cuban’s initial warning.
Trump announced a baseline 10 percent tariff rate for all countries, with higher reciprocal tariff rates for individual countries, including many of the U.S.’s largest trade partners.
The Trump administration has sent mixed signals on whether the president's tariffs are the opening gambit of trade negotiation.
Trump officials have said more than 50 countries have tried to get in touch with the president in the wake of his tariff announcement last week.
Trump said Monday he was not considering pausing the tariffs, despite mounting economic concerns and three days of sliding stock market value.
Earlier in the day, Trump threatened to impose a 50 percent tariff on imports from China, a massive escalation of a potential trade war between the world’s two largest economies.
